St Stephens College 07

Sun, 05/22/2016 - 21:47

Looking East across Western Street. The Building on the left is Balls Court. The building in the centre is possibly an extention to the school. In the foreground is a Roman Catholic Chapel on the current site of Kings College. Upper right of the picture is Craigellachie

Date picture taken
1910s

Comments

From SCMP (1909-12-21), p. 10:

Yesterday afternoon His Excellency the Governor opened the new wing of St. Stephen's College, Bonham, Road... The building forms a splendid addition to the whole college, and is at the west of the original block, with an entrance in Western Street. One of the most noticeable additions is perhaps the large lecture room... Masters' rooms have been included... Messrs. Denison, Ram and Gibbs are the architects. A very pleasing feature about the addition is that it has been erected by subscriptions from parents and guardians of children attending the college, and the donations exceed $30,000.

I find it very interesting that the style of this new wing was exceedingly similar to that of St. John's Hall right opposite to HKU Main Building, completed in 1912 and designed by the same Messrs. Denison, Ram and Gibbs. Similar features included the two towers at the corners of the southern facade, as well as the rhombus-shaped window frame. See here for a view of St. John's Hall.

A similar rhombus-shaped window frame can also be found in the Helena May (though the rhombus there was circled to form the shape of a coin). See here. The Helena May was also designed by Messrs. Denison, Ram and Gibbs, and completed in 1916.

Hi - is it possible to use this photo for a pamphlet I'm writing to celebrate the 70th anniversary of St Stephen's Chapel?  Thanks!!