Thanks to Jan Schultheiss, who has been uploading photos that his grandfather, P. Marks, took in the 1920s. Mr Marks worked in the Hong Kong branch of a Dutch bank, the Nederlandsch-Indische Handelsbank, but in his free time he was a keen amateur photographer.
Many of his photos show views that are new to me. So, although I've often seen this old gun near the upper entrance to the HKU campus:
... his is the first photo I've seen of the gun in its original condition, when it was installed in the Victoria Battery:
As another example, we already have photo with a distant view of this building, but this is the first close-up I've seen of Friston Cottage. It looks as though it belongs in the English countryside, but instead it stood at the western end of May Road.
He also captured a couple of the major events of the 1920s. This photo shows the fire that destroyed the North wing of the Hongkong Hotel:
And another shows the paper from the Dutch Club's barometer, where the dramatic drop in air pressure on the 18th of August records the great typhoon of 1923:
Please scroll down to see the full set of photos. You can click any photo to see a larger copy, and to read any notes and comments that have been added.
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The Gwulo book shop is open for business! The first book for sale is Patricia O'Sullivan's investigation into the histories of the Hong Kong Police Force, the Irish community in Hong Kong, and the life of working-class westerners. If you're interested in these topics, and especially in how they are interconnected, you'll enjoy this book: 
Click here for more information, and to order your copy of Policing Hong Kong, An Irish History. We ship worldwide. |
The Marks family's photos from the 1920s
![51C & D, Conduit Road, IL 2260 [????-1962]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/thumbnails/image/img_5769.jpeg?itok=P3MCKtdU)
Thanks again to Jan for showing us these fascinating photos. If you can add information to any of these photos, please click the photo and leave a comment on its page.
Do you have any photos of old Hong Kong you'd like to share? Please click here for details of how to upload them to Gwulo.com: http://gwulo.com/node/2076
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Gwulo book update: I signed off the last changes to the proofs on Tuesday, so now the printing and binding is out of my hands. I'll cross my fingers, clutch my lucky rabbit's foot, and light an extra stick of incense to hope that all goes well at the printer. New on Gwulo...
If you can leave a comment with any more information about these, it will be gratefully received.
Some of the new photos added:
Click to see all recently added photos. |