Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed
(Day & Month are approximate.)
Date closed / demolished
(Day, Month, & Year are approximate.)
The building is mentioned as completed in item 40 of the PWD Annual Report for 1929:
Telephone Exchange and Staff Quarters, on K.I.L. 754 Nathan Road.
KIL 754 is shown on the 1920 map of Kowloon.
Photos that show this Place
1930s
1958
Comments
The 1956 map shows that HK
The 1956 map shows that HK Telephone were still using the site then, though from the caption it looks as though in 1956 it was home to their catering department.
Re: Kowloon Telephone Exchange
In 1959, a replacement telephone exchange was being planned for the one at Waterloo Road (installed in 1930). See here
The 1962 Hong Kong Annual Report mentions that the new exchange to replace the existing Waterloo Road Exchange was under construction.
Re: Kowloon Telephone Exchange
Thanks Moddsey, I guess that new exchange is the one down the cul-de-sac across on the southeast corner of the Waterloo / Nathan Road junctions. I think in the days of electromechanical exchanges the exchange was at the hub of a great number of telephone cables, so if you moved it you wouldn't want to move it far to avoid having to reroute all those cables.
According to Centanet the current building on this site was occupied in July 1969, so I'll add a guess of 1967 for the year the exchange was demolished. The current buiilding is named 'Bell House' - probably a connection with its past via Mr Alexander Graham Bell.