Luk Hoi Tung Hotel [????-????]

Submitted by David on Sun, 03/23/2014 - 21:52
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists

This hotel was one of the places used to hold internees before they were moved to Stanley Camp in Jan 1942.

The position is approximate, based on this address from the 1948 Telephone Directory:

Luk Hoi Tung Hotel, gr. floor, 147/150 Connaught Rd. C. 23876 „ 1st floor 20083

However it may have moved, so I'm not 100% sure the marker shows the location of the hotel in 1941/2.

Moddsey found another clue:

R. MacKenzie, then CIP in 1964 in this issue of the Police Magazine recounts

" I was put up into a 'palatial place' called the Luk Hoi Tong with about 150 of my fellow officers. The two-storey Luk Hoi Tong was situated near to Connaught Road Central and the Sincere Company premises. I shared a room with four others, two to a bed, no exercise and never ending supplies of half-cooked chicken feet and a cacophony of sound from the rats running across the wire mesh above our beds.

On 22 January 1942, we left this 'hotel' and were marched to Sam Kok Ma Tau (Triangular Pier) where we all boarded an enormous junk and were towed by a launch via Green Island and Aberdeen to Stanley."

If anyone can confirm its location in 1941/2, please let us know.

Regards, David

Tags

Photos that show this Place

Luk Hoi Tong Hotel (Business card).jpg
1950s
An envelope of Luk Hoi Tung Hotel (with a postal chop dated 30 January 19X3).jpg
1950s

Comments

From http://battleforhongkong.blogspot.com/2013/ :

"In early January [1941] most of the British, American and Dutch civilians were herded into cheap and squalid hotels in the Western District close to the waterfront. Many of these had been used as brothels. The internees were crowded into small cubicles, often sharing with complete strangers and with no segregation between men and women. Harold and his police colleagues were taken on 6th January 1942 from the Gloucester Hotel to the Luk Hoi Tung Hotel. Police Officer George Wright-Nooth in his book entitled "Prisoner of the Turnip Heads" describes the place of their initial incarceration:

"The Luk Hoi Tong was a seedy, fourth-rate establishment near the waterfront catering for travelling traders or seamen. It was one of many similar hotels in the area which were the hangouts of pimps and prostitutes. About 250 of us were packed into its forty-odd rooms (meant for two each). Once everybody had been pushed in, the iron grill door at its dingy entrance was slammed shut and locked. A solitary sentry sat on a stool outside.

Food, together with extreme boredom coupled with lack of exercise, was our main pre-occupation. Two meals a day of a bowl of rice with a few chicken's feet or three or four lumps of rotten meat was all we got. In the coming months, we were to look back on the size of these meals with hungry relish.""

I'm wondering if the hotel was owned by the Luk Hoi Tong (LHT Tower and the former Queen's Theatre on the same site, Luk Kwok Hotel, Nathan Hotel, Dragon Inn) that still exists today. Many of their properties date from the '20s and '30s.

I have found some information about Luk Hoi Tung Hotel and The Luk Hoi Tong Co. Ltd. as follows:
 
First of all, let's talk about the location of Luk Hoi Tung Hotel and its nearby branch. The former was situated at No. 150 Connaught Road Central whereas the branch at No. 287 Des Voeux Road Central. However, according to the photo shown at this link on Gwulo.com, the location should now be No. 144 Connaught Road Central, so I believe the hotel possibly stretched across from No. 144 to No. 150. Both the hotel and its branch were very close to each other. At least, they were on the same plot of land between the junction of Connaught Road Central and Cleverly Street and the junction of Des Voeux Road Central and Cleverly Street. The namecard also shows a 5-digit telephone number for each hotel followed by the telephone number for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor. That means both the hotel and its branch were a 4-storey building. I have also read from other sources (a report about a homicide case) that there was a small house on the roof which was used as staff quarters.
 
Luk Hoi Tong Hotel (Business card).jpg
Luk Hoi Tong Hotel (Business card).jpg, by Jimmy K. C. Ho
 
Map of Sheung Wan 2021.jpg
Map of Sheung Wan 2021.jpg, by Centamap
 
A stitched photo showing the junction between Des Voeux Road Central and Cleverly Street (circa 1950).jpg
A stitched photo showing the junction between Des Voeux Road Central and Cleverly Street (circa 1950).jpg, by Jimmy K. C. Ho

While a signboard for Luk Hoi Tung Restaurant can be clearly seen on the left side of the photo, no signboard for the Luk Hoi Tung Branch is visible.

 
I have also found two photos on this webpage which show respectively the front and the back of an official envelope of Luk Hoi Tung Hotel.
 
An envelope of Luk Hoi Tung Hotel (with a postal chop dated 30 January 19X3).jpg
An envelope of Luk Hoi Tung Hotel (with a postal chop dated 30 January 19X3).jpg, by Jimmy K. C. Ho

This letter was addressed to the city of Taishan (formerly Toishan) in South China. The front shows a stamp with (presumably) the head of King George V (and not Queen Elizabeth II anyway) and the date chop is 30 January 1953 or 1943. It is not very clear to tell the exact year. Near the bottom-left of the envelope, the address "No. 150 Connaught Road Central" of the hotel was shown.

 

An envelope of The Luk Hoi Tong Company Limited (Back side).jpg
An envelope of The Luk Hoi Tong Company Limited (Back side).jpg, by Jimmy K. C. Ho
 
The back of the envelope shows all the subsidiaries and associated companies of The Luk Hoi Tong Company Limited (from right to left) as follows:
  • Luk Hoi Tung Life Insurance
    (No. 297 Des Voeux Road Central, Sheung Wan)
  • Luk Hoi Tung Hotel
    (No. 150 Connaught Road Central, Sheung Wan)
  • Luk Hoi Tung Branch
    (No. 144 Connaught Road Central, Sheung Wan)
  • Luk Hoi Tung Restaurant
    (No. 295 Des Voeux Road Central, Sheung Wan)
  • Luk Hoi Tung Pharmacy
    (No. 372 Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon)
  • Nathan Hotel
    (No. 374 Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon)
  • Luk Kwok Restaurant
    (No. 67 Gloucester Road, Wanchai)
  • Queen's Theatre
    (No. 31 Queen's Road Central)
  • The Dragon Inn
    (Castle Peak District, 19 Milestone, New Territories)
    The original Dragon Inn was established in 1939 and dismantled in 1989. I also notice that there is now a seafood restaurant of the same name which is located at No. 19 Castle Peak Road, Castle Peak Bay, Tuen Mun.

Please note that there is an inconsistency between the address of the Luk Hoi Tung Branch on the business card and that on the back of the envelope. The former is No. 287 Des Voeux Road Central and the latter is No. 144 Connaught Road Central. I do not know whether there were more than one branch or the branch had been relocated at some point in time or this was purely an editing error.

Please also note that the company names and addresses above are solely my own translation and they may be different from the official names used by the group or by the government. If any reader has found any official name which is different from my translation, please kindly let me know and I will correct them accordingly. 

 

Thanks, Jimmy. It would be good to see those envelopes. How to add photos in general: https://gwulo.com/node/6046 and specifically how to add them in a post: https://gwulo.com/node/1929

This appears to confirm that today's Luk Hoi Tong owned the 1940s Luk Hoi Tung Hotel, as several of the businesses listed still exist at the same address. I assume the "Lung" in "Yung Lung Villa" is "dragon", so would be the Dragon Inn.

The remaining question is if the internees were held at the Luk Hoi Tung Hotel at 150 Connaught, or the Luk Hoi Tung Branch at 144, assuming the Branch was also a hotel.

For reference. Had previously seen a 1930s name card or calling card of the Lok Hoi Tung Hotel at 150 Connought (sic) Road C with two four digit telephone numbers: 1995 & 3876.

(I note that "Prisoner of the Turnip Heads" mentions: About 250 of us were packed into its 40 odd rooms (meant for two each) which opened onto narrow verandahs along each of the two floors.

Looking at old photos of the waterfront, the hotel was very likely in a four-storey building. The descriptions given by Mackenzie and Wright-Nooth appear to suggest  the hotel itself may have comprised two  floors of the building.)