Peak - Where is the photographer standing

annelisec
oldernewer
Peak - Where is the photographer standing

From a Facebook post

Date picture taken
1890s
Shows place(s)
Luginsland - 1880s [????-????]
Charter House - IL 1218 [1885-1958]
Peak Side / Bishop's Lodge (1st generation) - 25 & 26 Lugard Rd [1889-c.1941]
St. Andrew's / Inverugie - 1890s [????-????]
Peak Tram bridge over Barker Road [1888- ]
Tramway Managers House or Tramway Station House [1893-????]
Mount Austin Hotel [1891-1897]
Mountain View - RBL 60 [????- ]

Comments

This looks very much like it was taken from, or very near, where we lived in 1955 in a lovely old block of flats called "Mountain Court" which was located on Mountain View, up from Plantation Road and Peak School.  I could easily walk to school with my books in a rattan basket.  Underneath the flats were rooms where the gardener hung out and I made a clubhouse to play in with my friends.  Entertainment and play was based on imagination and was magic.  You accessed Mountain View on a very steep road from the main road.  Great for a hill start but my mother stalled the car there constantly!  The ruins you can see in the foreground were apparently from the war and we used to play with our dinky toys down there.  Mountain Court was pulled down a few years later and a new block of flats replaced, still with great views of the harbour.  We moved back into the new building in 1960 after staying in Estoril Court, Garden Road for a couple of years.

Mount Austin in the distance, so I think the road crawling up the hillside towards the camera must be Plantation Road. That would put the photographer high on the north-east side of Mount Gough, near Fung Shui or The Cliffs perhaps.

I think the same pic has been posted already at https://gwulo.com/media/31387, but that’s very dark making it difficult to be certain.

Agree with gw that it is the same photo. Although the photo is very dark, there are many features that are identical.

Looking West To The Peak, by Herostratus

 Herostratus' photo was dated to 1894 with the Bishop's Lodge visible. I think that you can also see the Peak Tram Bridge over Plantation Road. 

Cronest (Farm Lot 67) was an early 19th-century colonial residence situated on the ridge of Mount Gough in Victoria Peak, Hong Kong. Established around 1877, it was originally used as a summer bungalow by prominent early resident Dr. Manson before the area's development.

Historical Context & Evolution of the Site

  • Origins: In 1877, colonial land on the Peak was divided into Farm Lots (FL). Cronest was designated as FL 67. 
  • Prominent Resident: Dr. Patrick Manson, a pioneering Scottish physician known for his research on tropical diseases (including malaria) and his instrumental role in founding the Hong Kong College of Medicine, used Cronest as an early residence.
  • Later Redevelopment: The original Cronest structures were later consolidated and redeveloped. The plot became part of the broader RBL 60 (Rural Building Lot), making way for a prominent estate known as Mountain View.

Mountain View had already replaced Cronest by the time this photo was taken in about 1894, but I don't think it can be seen in the photo because it sat on top of the Mount Gough ridgeline which is out of sight on the left.