XC 2, Night View Of Kowloon

Although the title says it’s a view of Kowloon, the most prominent building is Connaught Centre (completed 1973) in Central. It’d already reached its full height when the photo was taken, but under zoom the upper floors are unlit and have an unfinished look. Also, there’s something clinging to both sides that I can’t identify. It doesn’t appear in photos of the completed building, so may have been used during construction and then removed. The nearly completed building suggests a date of 1972 or 1973.

Partial corroboration of this date range comes at the right edge of the photo – the vacant space to the right of the Furama Hotel. It would shortly be filled by Hutchison House (completed 1974) and the Bank Of America Tower (completed 1975). As there’s no sign of either in the photo, and assuming huge tower blocks such as these would take over a year to build, the photo must have been taken in 1973 at the latest.

Over in Kowloon, the Tsim Sha Tsui East Reclamation appears to be complete, but without buildings. The newly built Sheraton Hotel (completed 1973) can be seen at the bottom of Nathan Road, but its upper floors are largely in darkness. Being a popular hotel, and at night, I’d expect many of the harbour facing guest rooms to have their curtains open and lights on. Possibly the Hotel wasn’t fully open when the photo was taken.

Based on all the above, the photo was taken in 1972 or 1973.

Please see main article at https://gwulo.com/node/62741 .