Lower Castle Terrace (??) [????- ]

Submitted by Special Autonomous on Thu, 06/04/2015 - 09:45
Current condition
Unknown

Guessing this was roughly the site of Lower Castle Terrace, assuming that it's somewhere near "The Castle" as previously mentioned on this forum.

Mariano Ponce, one of the main figures of the Philippines independence movement, lived at 2 Lower Castle Terrace around the turn of the century. The famous painter Juan Luna died at the address in 1899. A couple of other Filipino medical men were based there too, presumably as guests of Ponce.

A document from the 1930s lists a "Castle Terrace" on Caine Road, which may or may not be connected. Unfortunately the 1889 and 1901 maps do not seem to list the terrace, although some of the smaller streets are hard to decipher even on the copies in the Central Library's Map Room.

Taking other info from this forum on board, there was a good deal of redevelopment in that area around the time (e.g. Woodland Terrace), but it's unclear when Lower Castle Terrace ceased to be, or if it was simply renamed. Also, was the "terrace" a small road or just the name of a house? Would greatly appreciate any additional info on the location.

Photos that show this Place

1908
1925

Comments

It seems likely it was around here. There's still a Castle Lane and a Castle Villa in this area, though I can't find any map showing exactly where it was.

The addresses I've seen are 2 / 4 / 8 Castle terrace, so I'd guess it was a terrace of connected houses.

Here's a view of the area:

1920s Caine Road
1920s Caine Road, by eternal1966e

 

IL 503 stands for Inland lot 503: it was how the government categorized the different parcels of land it sold off around Hong Kong. There are other abbreviations eg ML is Marine lot

Section A is when the lot was further sub divided into different parcels of land