kam tin princess, sweet garden.

Andrew Suddaby
Mon, 03/04/2019 - 19:44
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kam tin princess, sweet garden.

Jim described this photogaprh as being taken from the Sweet Garden restaurant, probably the building on the extreme left, which is clearly a restaurant.  Can anyone read the sign?  Next to it is the Happy Home Store that Jim thinks was owned by a lady called Princess.  (Andrew S)

I have just flipped the image and the sign immediately below  the 'San Nuguel On Tap' notice definitely reads 'Sweet Garden Bar'

Date picture taken
1960s
Author(s)
Jim Mcfarlane
Gallery
Macfarlane, Jim (1960-61)
Shows place(s)
Sweet Garden Restaurant [c.1955-????]

Comments

Thank you terewong.

The aerial view fits well with several of my friends' descriptions of the Sweet Garden Restaurant and the Happy Home Store being fairly close to the Walled village, and the bend in the road matches quite nicely with that on Jim Macfarlane's photograph.  I agree with you that the tall gable end of the building, which is apparently just beyond the Happy Home Store, on Jim's photograph also matches well with the one on the aerial photograph.

I hadn't realised that there was another walled and moated village almost opposite the one that we all visited!  Were they owned by rival clans?

Regards Andrew

Thank you terewong. Would it have been normal for there to be so many individual clan(?) walled villages so close together?  In England, villages would normally be much more widely separated. Regards, Andrew

Bill Connell's photograph, below, shows how close to the Kam Tin walled village the  Happy Home Store and the Sweet Garden Restaurant were.  I'll adjust the pin on the map. Andrew

Kam Tin.
Kam Tin., by Bill Connell

The building to the far left of the photo was a restaurant, not an ancestral hall. Yet it no longer beared an English name as "Sweet Garden Restaurant" as shown in the 1955 photo of the same location. Instead it had a Chinese name: "珍(?)香園餐..." Maybe the owner changed it to a Chinese name (the meaning is very similar to the English one) or there was a new owner and thus a new restaurant. In fact, the entrance area had been completely changed.

It was an ancestral hall and later its outer part change into a commercial purpose as shops because it close to the walled village, Kat Hing Wai, which attracts lots of tourists during 50s to 80s also the army stationed at Shek Kong, Hog Kong.

I think you are right, the Chinese name might be 珍香園

Thank you terewong and Stanislaus for clarifying things.  I hadn't realised that the different walled villages were actually owned by different 'sub families' within the Tang clan.  Was Kam Tin unique in having so many walled villages or did Yuen Long also have several?

After much checking of the different photgraphs showing the Sweet Garden Restaurant building I think that I finally inserted the pin in the correct place on the map.  If not, please let me know and I'll move it.

Best wishes, Andrew

 

Thank you, terewong. I cannot find any information through Google. Is there more resources I can look at to learn about this ancestor of the Tang clan and the hall named after him? Also, is there any photograph before the hall was converted to shops? Thank you.

Thanks Moddsey,

As I only visited Kam Tin specifically to see the walled village once or maybe twice in 1958, I never went to the Sweet Garden restaurant or the shop next to it.  Both were well patronised by the R.A.F's 367 Signals Unit personnel, who were billeted at R.A.F. Sek Kong while working at Kong Wei.  Jim McFarlane's gallery and perhaps others in the 367 Gallery show them and also a Cafe de Paris which was I believe fairly close to the Sweet Garden Restaurant.  Kam Tin was not a big place.  All the photographs from the 1950s show that stretch of the Main Road had quite a pronounced bend in it which, now that the road has been straightened, made pinpointing the site difficult.  However, Google Earth Street view shows that a modern building now occupies the whole of the site of those traditional buildings.  I wonder if they too bear the number 210.  Wow, San Mig on tap!  I only ever knew it as a bottled beer.  Andrew

Thanks Moddsey,  This is the same building as on Jim Mcfarlane's photograph in the 367 Gallery, but taken from the opposite dfirection.  The area of ground being cleared and swept is the same spot as in the centre of Jim's photograph. By 1960, when Jim took the photograph, it looks as though it might have been developed as a garden(?), which could be where the Sweet Garden restaurant was in his day.

kam tin princess, sweet garden.
kam tin princess, sweet garden., by Jim Mcfarlane

On the other hand he has a photograph taken in the gateway to the Cafe de Paris (Kam Tin)  which shows a pillar beside the gateway that used to appear on an earlier edition of Google Earth Street View. That site has once again been redeveloped as you will see on an up to date Google Earth Street View.  I suspect that there were several cafes, bars and restaurants in that short stretch of road and, confusingly, they could have changed their names.

cafe de paris
cafe de paris, by Jim Mcfarlane

Regards, Andrew

We moved to a village near Kam Tin a few years ago. Whilst walking through the town one day not long afterwards, I was intrigued to see a sign opposite to Kat Hing Wai pointing to “Shing Mun Sui Tong San Chuen” - Shing Mun Reservoir New Town.

It didn’t take the detective skills of Sherlock Holmes to deduce that this village was originally comprised of people who had been displaced when the Jubilee, (now Shing Mun), Reservoir was constructed in the 1920s/30s. I always thought that those people were rehoused in the Sheung Shui / Fanling areas. Many were, (according to an information board placed at the northern end of the reservoir), but some, obviously, were relocated to Kam Tin.

My enquiries revealed that the newcomers lived in harmony with the Kam Tin residents, although apparently there was a language gap as the newcomers spoke a completely different dialect!

Thank you for the interesting observation.  I guess that even the small children who were displaced will by now be old people, but perhaps they might have memories of living in that remote valley.  Maybe, if contactable, they could supply Gwulo with some interesting memories.

Thank you Paulo.   An aerial photograph in the excellent book, 'Hong Kong in Old Times'  (aerial photos taken in 1964) shows that the pond on the North side of the road to the North East of the Kam Tin walled village had been filled in by then, so I wonder whether this image might be earlier than 1963.  The R.A.F. is unlikely to have taken aerial photographs in two consecutive years.  If your date is correct it suggests that the book includes photographs from several years rather than the stated, 1964.  Any thoughts?

The building with its two gable ended roofs, clearly visible on the North side of the bend near the Eastern edge of the photograph, was the Happy Home stores and the Sweet Garden restaurant (see photos earlier in this thread). The Kam Tin Theatre had yet to be built on the vacant lot to the west of them - maybe even where the pond had been?  There are only two vehicles on the road but the one on the extreme East intrigues me.  It is the shape and size of a bus and with its white roof it reminds me very much of the R.A.F. buses that were sometimes used to carry personnel on off-duty trips.  Andrew

Complements the main photo submitted by Andrew. Commercial slide, early 1960s.

On the Kam Tin Road showing the Sweet Garden Restaurant and Shing Kee Restaurant at the rear. Nice spot to stop by for a San Miguel on tap.  

1960s Kam Tin Road
1960s Kam Tin Road, by moddsey

 

Thanks Moddsey for another good photograph that shows even more of the building.  The red car on the left looks very much like an MGB sports car and the small one on the right is probably a Fiat 500,  both of which were current throughout the 1960s.  Regards,  Andrew