Shortly before the fire in the grandstands. [28 Nov 2024 update: I originally assumed that this was a photo taken early on the day of the the disastrous fire at the Happy Valley Racecourse on 26 Feb 1918, showing the matshed stands that were later destroyed in that fire. But, as noted in the comments below, this photo was taken at least a day before that. Now I'm not confident this photo was even taken in 1918 - hopefully other evidence will become available to confirm which year it was taken.]
Source: This image came from Flickr, see https://flickr.com/photo.gne?id=5043969910
Date picture taken
unknown
Gallery
Comments
an attempt to set a limit on "shortly"
Just curious about how shortly "shortly" can be. The following two independent methods point to the same result: "shortly" should be at least 1 day before the Fire on Feb 26.
[1] In HK, shadows on the ground turn clockwise most of the time, and become longer after 13:00 every day.
Fig. 1 compares the photo of the Fire on Feb 26 (Fig. 1a)(note 1), with the photo taken “shortly before” (Fig. 1b).
The chimney shadow on the building on Morrison Hill (“the Building”) shows that the “shortly before” photo was taken at a time (not date) later than the photo of the Fire, i.e. it could only be taken on Feb 25 or before.
[2] Shadows in the photo can be simulated with information including the camera position and the roof dimensions of the Building.
For the “shortly before” photo, the camera position was in the NNW of the Grand Stand (Fig. 2), at about 500 metres (horizontal distance) away from the Building. So the elevation of the Building from the camera would be about 7.0 deg to 7.5 deg.
Other photos and maps [note 2] set the constraints on the width and length of the roof of the Building (Fig. 3). The most probable dimensions of the roof are 28.14 (W), 9.47 (L), 2.06 (H), in arbitrary unit.
As verification of the simulation, the results are compared with the photo of the Fire [note 1], showing it was taken at about 15:10, matching the descriptions of newspapers (e.g. HK Daily Press).
For the “shortly before” photo, the sim shows that it was taken 17:00 on Feb 25 or before. This in turn sets the limit of “shortly” to be at least 22 hours before the fire at 15:00 on Feb 26.
The earlier we we push the date of the photo, the later the time would be. i.e. at about 16:00 on Feb 25 (1 day before the Fire); or at slightly past 17:00 on Jan 29 (4 weeks before the Fire).
Details at: https://youtu.be/Xe5c1W4ap7o?si=lNC9wXs6pfeWnG_S
Note 1: https://gwulo.com/media/18882. Higher res version at “Old Hong Kong 1860-30 June 1997”, text by Wiltshire T., FormAsia Books Ltd, 2002.
Note 2: photo by Afong L. (also in https://gwulo.com/media/23400), and “1901” hkmaps
re: an attempt to set a limit on "shortly"
Thank you for your investigation, showing this photo can't have been taken on the day of the fire. I've updated the title and text at the top of the page.