Hong Kong - Homes on Victoria Peak

Fri, 06/05/2015 - 00:27

While looking for Richmond House pictures I found this one.

Source: This image came from Flickr, see https://flickr.com/photo.gne?id=3463687009

Date picture taken
17 May 1967
Author(s)

Comments

I have always been confused about these two houses.  Are they the two former government quarters at 8 Mount Kellett? 

There should be four houses on that site and in a picture from 1980, the houses had flat roofs.  The new houses on the site were not completed until '87.

Roger4336's 1967 photo was taken from Mount Kellett Road looking south-east. Here's a similar view taken recently from close to the entrance to King's Court, 5 Mount Kellett Road, the drive of which is in the foreground.

71, 74 & 76 Peak Road
71, 74 & 76 Peak Road, by gw

Visibility was horrible, but you can just make out Brick Hill on the right with Deep Water and Repulse Bays to its left.

The steep sided spur on the left in both photos was named Gough Hill in the early 1960's map at www.gwulo.com/atom/15993. According to the map, the two white houses on top of Gough Hill in the old photo were No.'s 74 & 76 Peak Road, whilst the single, white house just below and to their right was 71 Peak Road.

As with all Peak properties, No.'s 71, 74 & 76 Peak Road were renumbered over the years. In this mid-1950's map, No.71 was numbered 274 The Peak, whilst 74 & 76 were numbered 275 & 276 The Peak and named "Gough Hill Quarters".

1950s Map of Gough Hill
1950s Map of Gough Hill, by gw

The outline of the Quarters drawn on this map shows two larger buildings standing in line and connected by a thinner building. As the 1967 photo shows the same arrangement, it seems safe to assume that the Quarters stood from at least the mid 50's to 1967.  

Earlier, the 1924 map labels the site as "RBL 34, No. 1-3 Gough Hill, 292, 293 & 294 The Peak" (www.gwulo.com/atom/13017) and shows two unconnected buildings standing on the site, one larger than the other, i.e. a different footprint to the Quarters, suggesting that earlier buildings were demolished to make way for the Gough Hill Quarters at some time between 1924 and the mid 1950's.

Roger 4336 or David - most grateful if you would add the above to the "Places" for 71 and 74 & 76 Peak Road.

Returning to the old photo. Near the bottom left and right corners are three ornate, green, roofs. They're the pagoda and main building of Ho Tung Gardens, as seen at www.gwulo.com/atom/18581.