Unidentified Picture

Thu, 05/11/2017 - 15:48

My friend found an old picture which stated taken in around 1855, but none of us could identify where and what it was. From the hill at background, we only know it was near the Man Mo Temple in Hollywood Road but at upper level. Can any folk identify it?

 

Regards, Michael

Date picture taken
1855

Comments

This picture was published in Picturing Hong Kong 1855-1910, p28 (online here), however the date is a little ambitious, Albumen Silver Prints only became common from 1855 and it is unlikely that they reached Hong Kong immediately. While not 100% confirmed I believe that the picture was taken in 1860 by Felice Beato in the vicinity of theatre lane. The building on the left is the back of the Royal engineers office  with the buildings on the right are possibly Bowra & Co or a another firm's godowns. The building on the far right under construction is Crosby's/Lane Crawford Store. The building is under construction in this picture, labeled I.   

Apologies, I missed your original response. I have a few photos of the area: the easiest way to confirm the location is the spacing of the windows on the building on the right hand side of the picture. 

In the high resolution photo of the Beato picture below, the scaffolding arrangement exactly matches up with the scaffolding in your picture. 

Panorama of Hong Kong from Government House, showing the Fleet for North China Expedition
Panorama of Hong Kong from Government House, showing the Fleet for North China Expedition, by Felice Beato

While it is possible that Beato took your picture, there were a couple of other photographers in Hong Kong at the same time so the authorship cannot be confirmed. However the date: early 1860, can be confirmed because of the scaffolding for the verandah construction