1910s Junction of Carnarvon Rd and Humphreys Avenue.

Mon, 09/22/2014 - 21:19

Showing No. 4 Carnarvon Villas in the middle. As mentioned below, Carnarvon Road comes in diagonally from the left near Hanoi Road and continues across towards centre right. The avenue on the right with the trees is Humphreys Avenue.

Date picture taken
1915
Shows street(s)

Comments

Carnarvon Road runs in from the right of the photo, past the ladies and child, and diagonally up and away to the left.

Humphreys Ave leads off into the distance, on the right of the ladies as we look at it.

The dirt track in the foreground will later become Hart Avenue.

The picture of Humphrey Avenue is great. Am I right in thinking that this was a typical "housing estate" of the time with the area rapidly developing. The houses seem to be large and might have been copied from any middle class area of small town in the UK.

Would I also be right in thinking that roads like this would have been "developed" by the entrepreneurs of the time. Built for letting and selling. And profit!

Sean

Kowloon Inland Lot 412 was bought by Humphrey's Estate & Finance Co in late 1890s and completed in early 1900s, according to the forum below. Unclear whether it was owned by John David Humphreys who bought and expanded AS Watson, or WG Humphreys, who was a merchant in HK at that time

http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=7992329&extra&authorid=1078968&page=12
 

Thanks for that information. I'd bet Mr Humphreys sold what he could and let the rest. There must have been a shortage of good housing in Kowloon at that time as the postcard shows it as in the countryside though you might not guess that from the position of IL412.

No way of finding out who lived on the avenue I suppose?

Thanks again.

Sean