Kenlis, 195 The Peak, RBL 117 [????-c.1970]

Submitted by Admin on Thu, 10/31/2013 - 12:27
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date closed / demolished
(Day, Month, & Year are approximate.)
Later place(s) at this location
Kenlis, 34 Mount Kellett Road [1975-2014]

Photos that show this Place

View west from Taikoo
1911
1930s Buildings on the Peak
1929
1935
See more photos of this place

Comments

Patricia Penn, whose family lived in this house for many years, writes:

We never used the term 'Kenlis' in those days:  it was just '195'.    I certainly never heard of Kenlis before the War or  until relatively very recently.

It was a lovely house.   2 storey.    With the high ceilings and huge verandahs as was common (and effectively cool) in those days.    Originally had a peaked roof in the quite usual  black tiling of that era.   This roof was badly damaged in the 1937 typhoon and replaced with a much less attractive flat roof that year.     It belonged not to us but to the  Bank Line Ltd of which my father was Manager from 1934 until the early 60s - the HK branch of the London Shipping firm  Andrew Weir and Co.     (Except of course during the Japanese occupation when as a Volunteer he was in Shamshuipo and Argyle St camps).

195 was sold and 'developed' - that is to say replaced! -  on the site by the present  (if THEY haven't already torn them down and erected yet another inappropriate high rise!) TWO modern characterless buildings/houses when the Bank Line office closed in the late 60s/early 70s.   

If you come across any photos of 195 in its original form I wd love to have one - excellent view of it and the whole of Mt Mt Kellett from Mt Gough.     Before the War Mt Kellett had its original peak  - they lopped it off probably sometime in the 60s.

Permalink
Submitted by
David
on
Wed, 07/01/2015 - 21:50

Thanks, I've taken "Kenlis" out of the name for this Place, added in the estimated demolition date, and made a new Place for the recently demolished Kenlis.

Regards, David

Hi Patricia (Penn),

Here's a photo that, I think, shows your old home at 195 The Peak.

Ho Tung Garden
Ho Tung Garden, by annelisec

I think it's the white building nearest the top right corner of the photo. Grateful if you would confirm or correct the identification.

The pic was dated 1948 so shows the building with its post-1937 typhoon flat roof that you talked about above.

You mentioned earlier that you hadn't heard of the name of the building, "Kenlis", when you lived in it, but actually the name pre-dates your residency as the 1909 map at www.gwulo.com/atom/14774 labels it "Kenlis". It also gives the address as 76A The Peak. The 1912 map at www.gwulo.com/atom/13074 shows it as RBL 117, but its name is illegible. By the time the 1924 map at www.gwulo.com/atom/13017 was drawn it had been renumbered as 195 The Peak, and is named "Kenlis", as it was in the 1950's map at www.gwulo.com/atom/14175. Finally, the 1960 map at www.gwulo/atom/15993 has it as 34 Mount Kellett Road but doesn't give a name. The name must have fallen out of use during the time you lived there.

Kenlis was built on RBL 117 according to the 1912 (1) and 1924 (2) maps. RBL 117 was put up for public auction on 11 September 1903 (3). The building wasn't mentioned in the Peak Renumbering Exercise of 18th March 1904 (4), but appeared in the next Exercise on 2nd August 1907 (5), described as "New House", suggesting it was nearing completion or already complete.

Assuming construction of a substantial building such as "Kenlis" would have taken at least six months from the auction date, "Kenlis" was completed sometime between March 1904 and late-1907.

1. https://gwulo.com/media/21978 .

2. https://gwulo.com/media/13017 .

3. Government Gazette Notification 565/1903.

4. & 5. https://gwulo.com/node/34922