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
1963 HK 17 Cricket Club.jpg
1963
See more photos of this place

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

PhilK writes:

From Adrian Fu's The Fu Tak Iam Story.

September 3rd 1954 - Fu Tak Iam wins the auction for the site with a bid of $3.63M

November 1957 - Bureau of Public Works approved plan for a 32-storey commercial building on the old Oriental Building site. This plan was earlier challenged by Swire and Eastern Telegraph (later C&W). The latter objected on the basis of the construction would damage their radio equipment. Swire claimed the original Oriental Building had encroached onto one of their plots by 3ft. The plot was occupied by a small 3-storey red brick building. Swire demanded the restoration of the original plot boundary. Fu ended up purchasing the Swire plot and incorporating it into the new site plans approved in 1957.

Date unspecified but probably late 1957/early 1958: The Japanese contractor for the foundation works discovered a layer of soft clay beneath the rock layer - a geotechnical issue that delayed the project for a further 8 years.

1965 - foundation work restarted by Gammon who used 220 foot piles to reach below the clay layer. Piling work took 15 months to complete.

December 1973* - Furama Hotel officially opened under joint operation of the Fu family and Miramar Hotel Group
 
* see comments on the hotel's place page (https://gwulo.com/Furama-Hotel-Hong-Kong) for further description of opening dates.