1950s View north along Nathan Road

There were lots of interesting comments to last week's photo. Here's another Kowloon photo, which I hope will also spark a few stories.

Where: We're looking north along Nathan Road. The crossroads in the foreground is the junction with Jordan Road.

The photographer has chosen a high vantage point for this photo, the roof of the Shamrock Hotel [1]. It was a popular place to take views over Kowloon like this one.

Who: We can see a mix of people at the crossroads:

Down in the bottom-left corner there's a policeman directing traffic from a small stand in the middle of the junction. He is exposed to the weather, but later photos of this area show him sheltered by one of the police pagodas [2].

The biggest group of people is out of sight, the passengers heading south on the buses to Tsim Sha Tsui, or to cross the harbour on the Star Ferry. There are also several soldiers in the photo, heading south in their ambulance.

What: The sign on the far side of the crossroads is for the Evergreen store. We've heard a couple of memories of this store on previous posts, from Vanessa:

Probably doesn't count as a department store but there was evergreen - once on the corner of austin/nathan later moved to jordan, they imported plastics from the states (!) and is where one of my friend's parents met back in the 50s.

And Richard:

We lived just around the corner at Cox's Path. The Evergreen Company (visible on the corner) was a great old shop full of all sort of stuff. I remember there being a large submarine model in a as you walked in which was totally incongruous as the shop seemed to sell mainly material and haberdashery.

Across from the Evergreen store, on the western side of Nathan Road, is this building:

It's very different from the other buildings in the area, set back from the road and more ornate. The top of the building shows a date, which I think is 1917. If that's right it was built when this area was still not very densely built-up, and was probably a family residence.

Looking further north, there's a cluster of larger buildings:

In the bottom-right corner is a building with large columns, the Kowloon Magistracy. In the centre there's the Kowloon Methodist Church, with it's large tower. Left again there's an interesting, older two-storey building up on the hillside. Does anyone know what it was?

When: The Shamrock Hotel opened in January 1952, so we're looking at a date after that.

Then over to the right of the magistracy are these huts:

Looking at later maps, I think that's the site where they'll build the Queen Elizabeth Hospital [3]. That opened in 1963, and since there's no sign of building in this photo, I'll guess this photo was taken in the late 1950s. [Update 26 Jun 2023: The comments below suggest the photo was taken earlier, in the years 1951-54.]

Another possible clue for the date are the six-storey buildings on the hillside above the huts. I can see them marked on maps, but without any name. Does anyone recognise what they were and when they were built?

If you have any other memories of this part of town, please let us know in the comments below.

Regards,

David 

References:

1. Shamrock Hotel
2. Police pagodas
3. Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Reference: NA001