Cheung Chau Assembly Hall [c.1924-????]

Submitted by hkspace_wl on
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed
(Year is approximate.)

Built : c. 1922/1923, with donation by Sir Paul Chater
Opened : 1924

According to Carl Smith's record [1], the Assembly Hall was at Cheung Chau Inland Lot 45. In the maps of Cheung Chau 1938 or present day, lot 45 seems missing. 
CCIL 44 & 46 still exist today. 

Could you help to suggest or locate its approximate location ? 
By the way, its whole roof had caved in and all seats damaged, as newspapers of 1938.  I just put a random placeholder on the Cheung Chau map above.

(update June 7)

Two more clues about the location I could find.

  As W. J. Hinton's description in 1929, [2]  

    Of the foreign buildings the most conspicuous are the Meeting Hall of the European residents situated in the midst of their rather scattered bungalows,
    and in the village, the red brick Police Station and the new School.

  From Hongkong Telegraph (1938), [3] we read :

    The Hall was built about 15 years ago ... It stands high on one of the island hills overlooking the reservation.

Does it offer some hints to confine its location to an area further southward ?

(update 28 Jul 2025)

one more hint from the papers :

     ... a letter to the Forestry Department thanking it for planting trees along the paths leading to the Assembly Hall. [4]


location of the pin is updated onto Fa Peng area to reflect findings to-date. It may be further fine tuned with new evidence and your inputs.


Please feel free to inform.

 

 

notes
1. grs.gov.hk catalogue
2. Cheung Chow - Long Island by W. J. Hinton  on Journal of Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch (1977). First published 1929.
  Mr Hinton had been Professor of Economics and thrice as Dean of the Faculty of Arts in HKU until 1929.
  The day before, I was given 'the' location by perplexity.ai and referred to a gwulo page [link]. From the reader's mentioned, read in the Journal of 1977 and found another article instead. The location is actually some AI hallucination  :D 
3. Hongkong Telegraph, 1938-10-1            
4. Hongkong Telegraph, 1925-8-5

Photos that show this Place

1924 Cheung Chau Assembly Hall
1924
Cheung Chau Assembly Hall, with interios (1924)
1924

Comments

Good Day Folk!

Based on my past residency on the island of Cheung Chau in the 1950s  through the early 70s, lot 45 is most likely a spot not far from the top of the Fa Ping area or its nearby ridge shared with Lot 47. From this height, it gives a very complete view, covering most of the European bungalows all around, most of those by Nam Tam Wan, some on the Peak road west. 

Any ship and ferry coming to or leaving Cheung Chau's main harbor should be within sight of this spot.

The Red Bricked Police Station, as I suspect that it was not yet on the high ground next to the Tung Wan beach. It was near the Electric Power House, quite close to the  village's business district or near the starting location of Peak Road. After some years, there was a horrific ambush at the police station, so they had got to build a very big and military-styled building situated in the center of a huge empty field  with high metallic wired fence around the perimeter, as it is seen even today, after some major expansions.  The design would hold up for stronger defense against any ambush from bandits.

 

The foreign School was a thing which has been in my speculation. Cheung Chau was not yet a part of the British ruling colony even though foreign missionaries had already visited and set up some church mission points there, under the Chinese jurisdiction of the Ching Dynasty up to 1898. And there was no School Road, it was a grassy hillside, as shown in some photos.

But the map in the 194os has The Penial Church addressed as No. 1  School Road. It implies a set-up of an educational corridor has indeed been developed. There is a school site I want to investigate regarding its origin. If someone could check on the first educator who operated this address: 12-c School Road (area : 8000sq ft) in the 1920s, 30s, up to the 40s. In 1958, my dad rented this site to operate the Ching Tak kindergarten.  Before the early 50s, it was named Sum-Sum (heart-heart in meaning) Kindergarten. But I don't have any clue about what happened before that.

Its construction is quite unique and has a higher level of design than the other schools in the island village. The major classroom is just as roomy as a church assembly. Its back wall has a square hole designed solely for movie projection from the other classroom. The front yard is very big. Its backyard is on a lower terrace, overseeing a Boundary Stone, which is the one in Tai Choi Yuen.  It seemed to be a property that tended to accommodate foreign children, not to mention that the London Mission had already secured an adjacent land deal, prior to church planting. 

I still keep a photo from the early 1950s which shows the playground  (Sum Sum Kindergarten) under the Twin Red Coral Trees was actually partially planted with lawn and a dozen rabbits were kept as pets by the school kids there. The picture shows that I was a toddler with the rabbit house in my background.

more clues?

Cheers

Tung

 

CCIL 44, 46, 47 on map, by hkspace_wl

Thank you Tung for the kind sharing and info. Extracted a map section for the said area. 

CCIL 47 is 12A Fa Peng Road according to current Land Registry Lot/Address cross reference table for New Territories. 
It is near the Fa Peng Knoll 花屏山莊 currently (on middle right of above map snippet; click and [zoom], [+]). 

So if we infer with the contour line of 50 and 'near the ridge of Fa Peng Road' :
    CCIL 45 may well be some high land between CCIL 46 and CCIL 47 (e.g. in the middle of map).  
    It may be refined to an area encircled by the contour 50 and slightly northward ? 
    (the lot nos 44 to 47 also look more evenly distributed that way)

One more guess as a novice, with this Cheung Chau photo c.1924 (link), does it consider a high land for the few buildings residing on top on the right side ? 
                                                                         (just near the right side junction/crease of this stitched photo; press [zoom] to view) 

                                                                           any comments ?
  

The new school Hinton mentioned in 1929 may be the Anglo-Chinese School with red brick building as the admin report, at 5B School Road. Today it is the Cheung Chau Government Secondary School.

May add my ten cents for the other points you shared in a separate post later. Thanks again.


sources
- HK map services 2.0, with 'Multiple Lot Search'
- Gov't Administrative Reports 1928, p.531 etc
    file : https://ccgss.edu.hk/sites/default/files/ccghis.pdf  Readers may use google translate for this school history text in Chinese, using copy-and-paste.

other reference : David's walk through Cheung Chau's history in 2015 (link)

Hello folk

The year 1924 view is made up of 3 pictures at different angles. The background on the left shows the hills and ridges of the Fa Ping region. The Assembly Hall could be somewhere over there, but it seems not to be in this picture because it hasn't been built yet. Therefore, it is impossible to pinpoint the exact location without further clues.

There seems to be a new police station building on top of a hill. It has both the Tung Wan beach and the village harbor in sight, for security against any sea bandit attack.

The middle picture is where the hillside of School Road can be identified. Nothing new except on site of 5B School Rd. It is one of the earliest foreign houses. It could be the school noted by Hinton. It turns out to be the island's Post Office as I knew it from the 1950s, next to the site of Government School, which was still an empty site. 5B School Rd's building seems to be barely visible above the village houses. 

The 5B School Rd site seems to be just too small for a school and not even constructed with red bricks in appearance. So, more clues are required.

The roads on the hills at that time were mostly traditional walkways, muddy paths and stony slab-paved steep paths and trails, even in the European Reservation. There is a very early photo, probably before School Rd. was built, which seems to be taken on a trail along this grassy hillside. I like to show it once I get it later.

Most of the roads were upgraded to vehicle user quality in the early 1960s, but only the firefighting department, the police and the Navy patrol personnel have motor vehicles to use them quite once a while.  

Many foreign bungalows can be characterized by their trees and plants around them. That can provide some clues related to or reflecting their property ownership or time in history.

Cheung Chau has long been a busy tiny hub for some foreign travelers! 

Cheers

Tung

 

 

 

Hi Tung,

About the school site in 1920s you are interested in ... (link)

On the Admin Reports, there is only one 'non-local' school which was subsidized by government on CC. Recorded as early as 1920, possibly through 1926. (*)

       Cheung Chau L.M.S. Girls School 
          pupils on roll 48 (42 girls) as for 1926

May it be on that site originally, whereas later a property seems more for foreign children ? That school is related to London Missionary Society though.
By 1936, only one other protestant missions listed on the Directory : South China Peniel Holiness Mission (SCPHM), on Cheungchow.
That is related to the Peniel Church you quoted, I think. The CC one founded on 1 School Road, nearby.

My two cents.


Best regards.

 

sources (*)
Government Administrative Reports, 1920 (up to 1926); the rest of the schools being all with Chinese names

 

Hi folk,

Thank you for the new information, I realize that Cheung Chau L. M. S. Girls School in the 1920s could have been the same site as Ching Tak Kindergarten or today's Yan Chak Yuen.  The address is 12 c School Rd., on which

 

But as a rule in the 1950s Hong Kong, all kindergarten schools are privately funded. So I think the kindergarten at 12c School Rd. was definitely a private school.

I might have more clues to share later about LMS Girl School and other sites around No.1 School Road.

As for the red-brick school, it could also be in the same area. Any more clues?

Cheers

Tung  

 

Hi folk,

In the 1950s, there was a school named Cheung Chau Girls School which was in quite a different location. It was near the Cheung Chau Baptist Church area. It was one of the few private schools operated by local Christians on CC island, obviously having LMS support. But it was for the local girls only. However, as the school later became government-subsidized, it also accepted boys too, without any change of the School name.

Eventually, the school moved to a new site on Peak Rd. West in Fairy Well area.

Back at 12c School Rd., the kindergarten was known to have some students who were from mixed-race families. Could that be so-called a Foreign School? 

Moreover, I was told, at 12 School Rd., the address seemed to be a building for a bible school at one time in the early 1940s, prior to being a regular residence. That bible school later moved away from the island.

LMS did have a supportive role in its mission plan in the area, I think.

Best Wishes

Tung

PS : 12 School Rd. and 12c School Rd. are two different addresses. 

 

As I understand, the Assembly Hall was built on a hill in the then European reservation on Cheung Chau. The exact location is not clear but known to have been on Cheung Chau Inland Lot No. 45.

Notes compiled previously. Further information:

  1. An Assembly Hall is to be erected. A site has been granted by the Government at a nominal rent. Source: 1922 Report of the New Territories.

2. The contract for the erection of the Cheung Chow (sic) Assembly Hall has been let to Chun          Hung of Cheung Chow, at $6,300. Work will begin this week. Source: HK Daily Press 12                  November 1923.

3. Permanent residents met on the site of the contemplated Assembly Hall which was expected     to be completed in time for next summer and take the place of the Palmleaf Hall that has             been put up each year for Church services and social gatherings. Source: China Mail 13                 November 1923.

4. Good progress made with the Assembly Hall. Most of the roof is finished, including the                belfry. Source: China Mail 8 May 1924.

5. The Assembly Hall was opened by Lady Severn on 19 July 1924. It was built on a hill with              pathways that radiate to all parts of the island. Source: HK Telegraph & China Mail 21 July            1924.

6. Group photo taken outside the Assembly Hall after the opening by Lady Severn. Source:                China Mail 23 July 1924

7. The Assembly Hall was a single-storey structure. A description of the Hall is given in the              China Mail 24 July 1924.

 

 

 

In the late 1950s on the Fa Ping peninsula, only one European house remained to be a total ruin as the result of past Japanese occupation.  The roof had been completely blown off, so were parts of the surrounding walls. It looked like the destruction was done by grenades and dynamite explosions.

We kids sometimes go there playing games like hide-and-seek. The wall overlooking the cliff is quite well-preserved with window frames quite intact. It is a bungalow built of granite that has a rectangular house plan. As for the interior, it was quite empty in design. I would not disagree if it was the remainder of the Assembly Hall in our recent search. Here, high on top of this wonderful spot with ocean in view, plus sea breezes and cooling winds, one would question when the ruin will get a total new replacement. 

The location seems to be matching up with today's Fa Peng Knoll, just next to IL 26.

During the years attending the English College near the junction of Fa Ping Rd. and Bosco Rd., sometimes my PE class teacher would force us to run uphill on Fa Ping Rd., passing the ruined house, turning north to the Salvation Army Orphanage House, and running downhill back to the school field.

This ruined structure seemed to be there even in the early 1960s. At the time many new construction projects began to spring up in the Fa Ping and Nam Tam Wan areas, including the Caritas Retreat Camp and the Bosco Catholic school for priesthood.

I can still sketch a picture or two in brief from memory of it.

Regards

Tung

 

Moddsey, thanks for your detailed notes. Tung, thank you for sharing the first-hand anecdotes. Looks like our findings and recollections in the last 24 hours complement each other's.  👏

I come across few photos of the hall on a later newspaper by full-text search, samples below. Some arch is seen at the doorway of the building in another photo.

Would defer my notes about the two schools (e.g. the red brick building) to a later post.

 

Cheung Chau Assembly Hall, with interior (1924) , by hkspace_wl

 

From page 9 of China Mail 1938-10-01:

CHEUNG CHAU ASSEMBLY HALL ROOF CAVES IN

The residents of Cheung Chau Island were startled by a loud crash which occurred at 6:30 a.m. to-day.

On investigating the cause it was discovered that the whole roof of the Assembly Hall had caved in and every seat was broken and flattened out. What would have happened to the congregation at church if this had occurred tomorrow morning during the usual Service is too appalling. The whole roof was repaired only last year after the severe typhoon which visited the colony.

WHITE ANTS

The Assembly Hall was built and donated by Sir Paul Chater about 16 years ago to the trustees of the Cheung Chau Residents’ Association. The supposition is that the wooden beams supporting the roof were eaten and decayed by white ants and sheared off at the two ends.

I think the Assembly Hall should show up in photos of Cheung Chau from 1920s/30s. Perhaps the building on the left above the two larger buildings in the left foreground ?

1930s Bungalows on Cheung Chau, by moddsey

Hello folk,

A picture worth a thousand words!

What I mean is the critical clues from one of the two photos (both dated July 1924), which appeared in the newspaper, showing on the left its front entrance and the porch, and the photo on the right is the interior of the Assembly Hall. The photo on the left has more very useful information.

My earlier description of the ruined European House seems to be no match for the shape and height of the Assembly Hall which appeared in the old newspaper, so frankly to say that my speculation is not possible. Never mind if it was nearby or not.

The good news, nevertheless, comes directly from the picture. The picture on the left has the critical clues. There were three people standing beside the hall near the rear. Their due north  background indicated a part of European House #5, which is the one close to the highest hilltop on the Fa Ping Peninsula. 

So the only candidate would be European House #12, most likely the lot I L 45. That perfectly satisfies the clues given, so far so good. The location is a hub which had pathways leading to different hills on the European Reservation pathways.

Another 1930s photo submitted by moddsey on 07/23/2025.

Carefully reviewing the geographic layout of the European Houses, one would have difficulty sorting out the outlines of the hills, the ridges and the hidden vales and valleys. As a local islander, I remember fairly well about that.

For this picture, the photographer was standing in the vicinity of today's Xavier House on Peak Rd. West, capturing the view of his north=east direction. The foreground shows houses that seemed to be House#28 and #28A, in the Fairy Well area. Further on the right is the headland  of Nam Tam Wan area. The pathway of Peak Rd. is clearly visible, and so is the bending to the west.

Beyond this would be the Fa Ping area, which had the largest number of European houses. The tallest hilltop, which was House#5, which, I think, was the image that appeared over the three people mentioned.

House#12 was not entirely visible due to a visual obstruction by a bigger bungalow on the top of  Fa Ping Rd., but the roof of house #12 is actually barely visible. It seemed to be right between the house beyond and the bigger one in front.

I think the unique bell tower lookalike on the rooftop is a very important feature, as visible evidence. This seems to be conformable with other photos. Another aerial photo of the year 1938 did reveal the same, through the shadow projected by the bell tower lookalike on its rooftop. This lot, IL 45 if that was the case, seemed to have two houses. One was house #12 and the Assembly Hall, a later addition.

As we know by now, the collapse of the roof did happen in the same year too!

Regards

Tung

 

Hi Tung,

Based on your hints, e.g. House #5 and #12, my try to estimate the present day location as below. Here, mainly use the notations and resources already cited on gwulo.  

   1938 map    : CCIL 1A, House #12, House #11, nearly forms an equilateral triangle (link 1a)
   1924 aerial : three such buildings may be observed similarly also (link 2; can maximize to above level 15)  

My guess is --

   1938 map   : next to number '12', about north-east direction ? (link 1b)  ** just take the top-side of map is north, as convention
   today's map : next to CCIL 29, about north-east direction ? (link 3)

                                                                or, more south-west ?  (if I mistake mostly, please correct me) 

To specify the location of the hall more clearly, the letters A, B, C, D are put on below photo as reference points for this neighbourhood. 
You may pinpoint and describe the approx. location by reference to them. It is just a cropped image from link 2.
Any clues from 'another aerial photo of 1938' and other info you have ?

Ideas from other ongoing readers are most welcome.

wl

note : Land Registry online enquiry is quite a handy tool (link); may input 'CCIL xx' directly
      

aerial close-up of the Fa Peng area (1924), by hkspace_wl

 

Hello hk...

 

 Assembly Hall is C or a second house in its proximity, between A and D.

Could it be possible for the lot I L 45 being created to harbor the house of Assembly Hall.

Tung

Hello hk...wl,

Here is the summary:

  1.  

From the two July 1925 newspaper photos, the size, the entrance by the porch side, at least one bell tower lookalike on top of the roof's ridge line. It showed the size of the hall's interior. The image visually blocked the view of two other houses up and behind, the Salvation Orphanage and its neighbor as marked as A. The hall existed roughly in a north-south direction, consistent with the pathway along the west wall of the hall which was fairly in line of sight to house#5

B was not visible from here because it was some place down the roll off of the cliff.

2.

From the 1930s photo, sites A, C and D were in the line of sight with most of the whole roof of the hall, site C, being hard to identify. There seemed to be lookalike bell towers or simply a chimney on the roof. 

3.

From the November 25, 1924, aerial photo, we can check if house #12 was the only building on this I L xx, before the existence of the Assembly House.

4.

The ruined house from my memory remains to be a mystery as more clues are needed.

Regards

Tung

Hello folk

I remember......

Several years ago, I saw a photograph of a European house in Cheung Chau with a damaged roof. Now it suddenly becomes a piece of evidence or a clue to my search for the Assembly Hall on Cheung Chau's European Reservation during the 1930s.

The capture of this photo has been uploaded to Gwulo media library.

 At the link, https://gwulo.com/media/51603

Cheers

Tung

As the landscape, this location today is also north to Fa Peng Knoll Blocks 17-19. (link) (*) This is possibly the location where the Hall was built.

For reference, google street view of the south side of this Lot on 12 Fa Peng Road (Bethany Ministries Lodge) is here. One tall tree still remains on the road side.

We may try to approximate this present day location of the Hall in two different ways :

    - if I layer the 1924 aerial over the present day map (link 3) with photo editing software, could see the building at point C is at the updated pin position above 
    - gwulo readers may see similar effect by using the slider bar on top right hand of Map of all Places (can slide it down and up)
        firstly, choose the '1938 Cheung Chau' map under Maps; 
        then, zoom to the Fa Peng area of Cheung Chau as shown above;
        next, to view the outcome, pull the slider slowly downward will produce a transparency effect and you can see location of the "12" (House #) roughly
        over the area of today's Fa Peng Knoll Blocks 16-20 (*)

        (*) with some tolerance in alignment and inaccuracy between maps

That appears to fit in with all other conditions discussed above, with no conflicts.

some leads for readers to come (tba)

 . . .


 

p.s. I have put some remarks about the damaged roof photo, just double click that photo ('Possible Candidate ...') above will take you there; 
        think discussions can go on in parallel in that post as a sub-topic.
 

I was looking at the photo below. In the centre of the photo on the right of the two-storey structure on the hill is a building that appears to have a belfry. Would this be the Assembly Hall?

1920s Cheung Chau, by Tonyb1943

That's a 300% No!

It's too big and like a school. It's facing the open water, from Nam Tam Wan. It's not on high ground either.

It was a Catholic institute or Abby near the turnaround of Don Bosco Rd. Their ministry is an attribute of the Vatican. 

The Assembly Hall seemed to be used by the Protestants of different denominations only.

Tung

Sorry, I misread the one in the foreground!

The two-storey building on the hilltop near the right of the photo's center was by Peak Rd. It seemed to be the Jeffray House, quite a distance away from Fa Ping area. Not too far from it, the next house seemed to have a belfry. I don't know, but it is seemingly unlikely.

From the newspaper photo, the hall seemed to be directly south of House #5. The subject on the roof seemed to be a cover for the chimney and the installation of a lightning rod. The latter was necessary for building on higher ground, I suppose.

 

Tung

 

First, many of the photos that are used by me to explore this view of Fa Ping Highlands were taken from the yard of House #29, in the Fairy Well area. (Let me name this house as point A.) They displayed quite a lot of past European houses scattered around and identifiable throughout the Nam Tam Wan landscape. So I can easily determine various lines-of-sight towards the houses in the Fa Ping area.

Secondly, I use the aerial photo of Nov 25, 1924 to locate any possible assembly hall building. I would name that to be point B. Keep in my mind are the critical clues about the ground, the trails, clearings and the background house #5 nearby. This way, I can get a better way to locate the Assembly Hall solely based on the photos taken on the day of the Hall's opening, July 19, 1924, eliminating the photo of a house with a damaged roof. So I obtained point B.

Using the proper length of thread to link up from A to B. To my disappointment, Point B seemed to be quite invisible from point A, a view being blocked by the higher ground to its south.

Point B is the site of today's Bethany Lodge.

Tung

 

As a longtime resident of Cheung Chau for over 20 years—mostly in the Fa Peng and Nam Tam areas—I've thoroughly enjoyed the photos, discussions, and historical details shared here about the Assembly Hall.

I'm particularly curious about its origins: Why was it built in Fa Peng back in the 1920s, especially when local residents apparently had no access to it during that era?

I'm quite familiar with the marked location on Google Maps, and today there's absolutely no visible trace of any former structure there. That said, it doesn't rule out the possibility that a building once stood in that spot.

 

Dear Tung,

I guess the simple answer, which was already mentioned above, is:

The primary reason for its construction was to provide a permanent venue for church services, social gatherings, and events for European residents on the island, as the temporary Palmleaf Hall was inadequate. The government granted the site at a nominal rent, as recorded in the 1922 Report of the New Territories.

There must be many more foreigners visiting/residing on our island than I could have imagined, given that they built a hall for 200 people on a hill, which would take at least 25 to 35 minutes to walk to at that time.