Vacant lot, 1 & 2 Connaught Road [1960-c.1971]

Submitted by David on
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed
(Day & Month are approximate.)
Date closed / demolished
(Day, Month, & Year are approximate.)

This was a curious piece of land, as it sat vacant for over 10 years. Normally construction starts as soon as the previous building is demolished, so why did this land stay empty for so long? [2025 update: See the comments below for the explanation of why this land stayed empty for so long.]

A rough timeline:

  • c.1955 - The New Oriental Building is demolished, forming the western half of this land.
  • 1960 - Butterfield & Swire's building is demolished, adding the eastern half of this land.
  • Early 1970s - Construction of the Furama Hotel begins.
Previous place(s) at this location
Butterfield & Swire's Offices [1897-1960]
2 Connaught Road / New Oriental Building [1898-c.1955]
Later place(s) at this location
Furama Hotel [1973-2001]

Photos that show this Place

Garden of Remembrance - Opening Ceremony 30 August 1962
1962
1962 Peak Tram
1962
c.1963 View over Admiralty and Central towards Stonecutters Island
1963

Comments

Thank you to Adrian Fu for this explanation of why the land stayed empty, and to John Strickland for putting us in touch:

There is a number of reasons, they are listed in chronological order below:

    - The Butterfield and Swire site is adjacent to the Cable & Wireless Building which housed electronic equipment sensitive to noise and vibration so a suitable foundation contractor had to be found. The first Japanese firm engaged couldn’t do the job so a second firm from the UK was ultimately sourced to complete the piling work.

    - After the foundation was done there was a lull of a few years due to a change of use from the original conceived office development to a hotel development. This change of use involved a resubmission of plans to various government departments for approval.

    - During the interim a syndicate of new investors under the banner of S H Ho (Hang Seng Bank) approached the Fu family to form a 50/50 JV to develop the hotel project and this provided the necessary funding for construction as conventional hotel financing didn’t quite exist in those days.

    - The hotel finally opened its doors in 1973 

That is the gist of the story as told to me because I was still in school during that era.

Kind regards,

Adrian H. C. Fu