Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Notes from Phil:
Actually, perhaps the Gwulo guys and gals can help me out - I'm looking for an old photo which includes 218 Nathan Road (almost directly opposite the Shamrock) right next door to Tak Shing Street. Have no idea if such a photo exists but I guess any shot of the general area may include the building, it looks as though the two photos from the top of the Shamrock aren't quite close enough though.
It's the Four Seas Building now, but in a previous life it was a tenement where Bruce Lee lived from 1941 onwards.
On the 1920 Map this site is shown as occupying Kowloon Inland Lot 419.
In the 1938 Street Index (see printed page 259 / image 475 in the viewer) it has the addresses 216-228 Nathan Road.
Photos that show this Place
1933
1935
1940s
Comments
218 Nathan Rd
In the text above I mentioned it being the current Fourseas building - actually this is incorrect because the Fourseas is on the south side of Tak Shing St. The location is where the Prudential building is (north of Tak Shing St).
!950s Hong Kong
I've just read a terrific memoir "Golden Boy-Memoirs of a Hong Kong Childhood" by Martin Booth. It's Booth's recollections as a British boy of seven who goes to live in HK for three years with his overbearing, bigoted father and kindly mom who, like Martin, falls in love with HK and 'goes native' (his father's term). He lives in Kowloon and in the same general area as Bruce Lee; Bruce would have been twelve at this time, and I was imagining that they must have passed in the street many times. Just a twist of fate and they could've been friends. Anyway, this is a book that brings the HK of the 1950s to life, and of course it lets your mind's eye see the young Bruce Lee. If you're a Lee fan and/or a HK fan, I give this book top marks. I plan to return to HK next year for at least another three months so I can introduce it to friends, and I'll re-read Golden Boy before the trip.