It is located on King's Road. It was easily unnoticed for busy pedestrians before this row of 1962 old buildings on 983-987,[1] which were demolished for redevelopment. Now that it is the only structure left outside the site's temporary covered walkway.
status : obsolete, not in use
Age of the box may date back to the 50s while this pavement was just outside the Taikoo Sugar Refinery area, i.e. it may be 70 years old or more.
It still looks active and connected to the tram pole #335 by Oct. 2019, as the google street views (oldest one 2009, link)
Until the Jan. 2024 street view, we could see the number 14 painted on it. No other emblems or maker's name plate may be seen on it by now.
Expert readers may have more other details to share with us.
If it would survive few years forward, it may look like its lone companion Lucy Box (no. 13; still connected) further westward on King's Road, which is outside a new, novel building near Healthy Street East.
(current street view here)
One other utility box on gwulo : https://gwulo.com/media/12770
Such were named Lucy Box as most of them were made by Lucy Foundry in Oxford in the early days. They were installed to assist the electricity supply for tram networks. [2]
A photo of similar Lucy Box in Wolverhampton can be viewed here. hint : click on the photo to enlarge.
notes :
[1] example high angle photos from skywalker's blog (link); you may try to locate the Lucy Box
[2] www.blackcountryhistory.org
Comments
Looking for Lucy
Interesting subject. Perhaps a Hong Kong Tramway engineer could chime in and explain as to when these "Lucy" utility boxes started appearing along the tram route.
Lucy Boxes on Tramway System
Lucy boxes or their equivalent made by other manufacturers would have been installed along Hong Kong’s tramway network from commencement of services.
Their primary use was to isolate the power on a section of a tram or trolley bus route ( switching off the electricity running through that section.
There is good UK website here (" I Spy Lucy Boxes') which identifies locations of surviving boxes in the United Kingdom as well as a brief history of the Oxford-based Lucy & Company foundry which manufactured so many of them.
The photograph (above) of the box located on King’s Road has a cast-iron moulded decoration on the top (although it appears damaged) which is identical to the ornate castings of the original Lucy & Co. boxes made at the Eagle Foundry in Oxford.
this distance may also be historical
If I use some map app, I may estimate the distance between 987 King's Road and tram stop outside K11 : it is ~800m, which is 0.497 mile. That is, half mile really.
Interesting!
The next tram utility box outside 560 King's Road is a modern one, just 600m apart.
Lucy Box on Johnston Road
Difficult to find pre-war photos of Quarry Bay and King's Road. Have put some photos up of the Lucy Box on Johnston Road here
Lucy No. 14
I hope that ‘Lucy’ No.14 near 983 King’s Road is preserved. It appears to still be in use but the damaged section on the top now appears to have hole in it which will enable rainwater to drip inside.... definitely not a good situation for electrical switches. I suggest that this particular cast iron case is, at minimum, 70 years old and probably even pre-War, making it closer to one 100 years old . HK Tramways should get this repaired with a neat steel patch ( welded to the cast iron if this possible) and put a bilingual heritage information plaque on the concrete base. If it is replaced by a new box this old Lucy should definitely go to the Hong Kong History Museum…. or better still in a new (badly needed) Hong Kong Transport Museum.
We have only a very small railway museum up at Tai Po and this lacks enough space to accept any more large exhibits such as the now disused double-deck coaches and locomotives used on the former Kowloon Through Train ( “KTT”) from Hung Hom to Guangzhou. If we had a large transport museum, we could not only display old tram , bus and railway exhibits but also provide a storage home for vintage cars held by members of the Classic Car Club who opt to provide their cars on loan to the museum. Even some smaller old aircraft (e.g. ex-HK Flying Services) could be exhibited.This would be an additional tourist attraction for Hong Kong.