Connaught Road Houses between the Central Fire Station and the Harbour Office.

Introduction

Recently houses between the General Post Office and the Central Fire Station were of special interest on Gwulo. There are more similar houses further to the west between the Central Fire Station and the Harbour Office on Connaught Road Central that appear on many photos, simply because they were at the waterfront for some 80 years. On many photos from the 1950s and 1960s coloured advertising signs can be seen on top of the buildings, probably illuminated at night. The reason for spending money for these adverts was the fact that the vehicular ferry pier was in front of the Central Fire Station, and the signs were clearly visible when approaching Central from Kowloon.

As mentioned above, the houses appear on many photos we see on Gwulo and other publisher’s media, these photos were mainly taken by tourists. One main spot to take photos of this area was the outer end of the Central Vehicular Ferry Pier or the ferry itself, therefore most photos cover the houses between Jubilee Street and Wing Wo Street only. Houses between Wing Wo Street and the Harbour Office were mostly outside of these photos. Therefore they will be covered separately by some rare photos showing this area.

That’s the reason why this post has two parts.

Note: To create a timeline for these houses is pretty hard work because some of the new buildings which were constructed in the late 1960s and the 1970s were demolished themselves and replaced after 2000.

 

Part 1 Central Fire Station to Wing Wo Street

To get an impression about the buildings here is a map together with a photo from around 1930. This is the earliest photo I found covering the whole section.

 

The map is from 1960, on HKMS 2.0 there is also one from 1922. There is only a slight difference (houses near Sincere Department Store) to the one from 1922, but the advantage of the younger one is the fact that numbers of houses are given which really helps a lot.

It is interesting to note that originally (see the 1905 map on Gwulo) only a very few lots were designated, actually 6 (Marine Lots nos. 18, 53, 54, 55, 56 and 63A). This did not reflect the high number of buildings (a total of 58 houses), these had to share the lots. It’s not known to me when this situation changed, but today we find 33 lots on GeoInfoMap and only 13 buildings in this area! So opposite to the situation in the first half of the 20th century when the houses had to share one lot, today one building is situated on several different lots.

This is the moment to start looking closer at the houses. It is quite reasonable not to look at every single house but to create groups of houses. The grouping of houses is somewhat arbitrarily but not completely at random. It is used for the creation of places on Gwulo. The details about the buildings and many photos can be found there. The places created on Gwulo are:

 

47-50 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1975]
51-59 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1979]  
60-61A Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1975]
62-73 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1977]
74-83 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1978]
84-85 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1933]
86-89 Connaught Road Central  [c.1905-c.1914] (since c. 1915 Sincere Department Store [1915-1968])

 

On Gwulo we see many photos (mostly colour Photos) from the 1950s and 1960s where these building show a “modern” face. Didn’t find a photo similar to the one from 1930, so a “panorama” had to be created from two photos from 1959/60. These two were taken with different directions, so the houses in the centre are too large, and the right angle on the photo doesn’t really exist, but that’s the best what I could do with Photoshop.

 

More or less no change in 30 years (or almost 60 years since they were built). Of course, the advertising signs on the roof tops weren’t there in the old days.

 

Going ahead one decade we are in 1970.

 

The photo is annotated (and stretched a bit) to show the different houses, the old ones and the new ones (only the latter have links to their places on Gwulo). In detail the following houses and buildings are shown:

1. 47-50 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1975]
2. 51-59 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1979]  (nos. 54-56 replaced)
3. Connaught Building [c.1966-c.2008] (or Crocodile House 2)
4. 60-61A Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1975]
5. 62-73 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1977] (nos. 64-65 replaced)
6. Building with an “A” on top [c.1966-c.1981]
7. China Insurance Group Building [1967- ]
8. 74-83 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1978] (nos. 74-77 demolished)
9. Nan Fung Tower [1973- ] (partly built)
10. The Sun Department Store / Dah Sing Department Store [c.1930-1973]
11. 189, Des Voeux Road Central [c.1958-c.1993]

So during the 1960s five (and a half) new buildings were constructed, and only two of these (China Insurance Group Building and Nan Fung Tower still stand today).

 

Another decade ahead, here’s the situation in August 1980.

 

In this year, all houses from the early 20th century have been demolished, but not all possible areas have been rebuilt. The following 11 buildings are on this photo (only the new ones have links to their places on Gwulo):

1. Southland Building 1st gen [c.1978-2011]
2.  Connaught Building [c.1966-c.2008] (or Crocodile House 2)
3.  Ananda Tower [1978-2008]
4.  New York House [1980- ]
5.  Fortune House [1976- ]
6.  Building with an “A” on top [c.1966-c.1981]
7.  China Insurance Group Building [1967- ]
8.  Beautiful Group Tower [1972- ]
9.  Nan Fung Tower [1973-
10.  Sun House [1977- ]
11.  189, Des Voeux Road Central [c.1958-c.1993]

From the 11 buildings on the photo 6 were constructed between 1970 and 1980, and 5 in the decade before. It wouldn’t be Hong Kong if all of these buildings would still exist today, but there are 6 (New York House, Fortune House, China Insurance Group Building, Beautiful Group Tower, Nan Fung Tower, Sun House) out of 11.

 

As done before, another decade ahead. Here’s the view from 1993. Not all houses still visible from the harbour, the Harbour Office from around 1990 partly blocks the view onto Connaught Road. Therefore Nan Fung Tower is almost invisible.

 

In 1993, there are 15 buildings compared to 11 buildings in 1980 (only the new ones have links to their places on Gwulo). These are: 

1. Southland Building 1st gen[c.1978-2011]
2. Crocodile House 1 [1982-2008]
3. Connaught Building [c.1966-c.2008] (or Crocodile House 2)
4. Ananda Tower [1978-2008]
5. New York House [1980- ]
6. Fortune House [1976- ]
7. Chung Hing Commercial Building [1983- ]
8. CMA Building [1983- ] (replaced Building with an “A” on top [c.1966-c.1981])
9. Two Chinachem Plaza [1991- ]
10. China Insurance Group Building [1967- ]
11. Beautiful Group Tower [1972- ]
12. CTS House [c.1982- ]
13. Nan Fung Tower [1973- ]
14.  Sun House [1977- ]
15. (Li Po Chun Chambers, construction not started yet)

The situation on this photo is already close to today (2022), only 4 buildings (interestingly the first 4 ones from the left: Southland Building 1st gen., Crocodile House 1, Connaught Building (or Crocodile House 2), Ananda Tower) will vanish during the next decade. And, of course, Li Po Chun Chambers will appear in 1995.

 

Finally a photo from 2014:

 

 

It is a panorama from 2 photos I took from the Four Seasons Hotel. It ends unfortunately at Wing Wo Street. It is more a photo of the skyline and not of the buildings on Connaught Road, but it is difficult to find any photos of this area. The following buildings are on this photo:

A    (Hang Seng Bank Headquarters Building, former Central Fire Station)
B    Southland Building 2nd gen.
C    Agricultural Bank of China Building, 50 Connaught Road [2011- ]
D    New York House [1980- ]
E    Fortune House [1976- ]
F     Chung Hing Commercial Building [1983- ]
G    CMA Building [1983- ]
H    Two Chinachem Plaza [1991- ]
I     China Insurance Group Building [1967- ]
J     Beautiful Group Tower [1972- ]
K    CTS House [c.1982- ]
L     Nan Fung Tower [1973-]

As indicated above, in the last decade the following reconstruction project were:

Southland Building 1st gen. was replaced by Southland Building 2nd gen.

Crocodile House 1, Connaught Building (or Crocodile House 2), Ananda Tower) were replaced by Agricultural Bank of China Building, 50 Connaught Road.

 

Part 2 Wing Wo Street to Harbour Office

As referred before, houses between Wing Wo Street and the Harbour Office were mostly outside of photos posted and need a separate treatment.

To get an impression about the buildings here is a map from 1922 together with a photo from around 1910.

 

This photo shows houses similar to ones presented above. Again, houses were grouped and the following places were created on Gwulo:

86-89 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1914]
90-91 Connaught Road Central [c.1910-c.1929]
92-97 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1956]
 

Next photo is from around 1930 (actually cropped from the map/photo collage above) that shows the "new and extensive premises” of the Sincere Department Store (Public Works Report for 1915).

Houses on this photo are (only the new one has links to its place on Gwulo):

74-83 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1978] (have already been discussed in part 1)
84-85 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1933]
Sincere Department Store [1915-1968] (numbers 86-89 Connaught Road Central)

 

The next photo is from the mid-1930s

 

On this photo changes are visible, namely

Sincere Department Store [1915-1968] (with “the extension to Sincere Co. Building on Des Voeux Road, Central;” (PWR 1935))
(84-85 Connaught Road Central houses [c.1905-c.1933] were demolished for the extension)
The Sun Department Store / Dah Sing Department Store [c.1930-1973] (new building).
92-97 Connaught Road Central [c.1905-c.1956] (unchanged)

 

Jumping to the 1960s shows significant changes. Here’s a photo from 1960:

 

Shown on this photo are:

Sincere Department Store [1915-1968]
The Sun Department Store / Dah Sing Department Store [c.1930-1973]
189, Des Voeux Road Central [c.1958-c.1993]

 

Next is a jump to 1977:

 

Two new buildings appear:

Nan Fung Tower.[1973-] (The building with SINCERE on the front near the top)
Sun House [1977- ]
189, Des Voeux Road Central [c.1958-c.1993] (unchanged)

 

Last photo is from 2016 with the view partly obstructed by newer buildings:

 

Nan Fung Tower [1973-] (building in the dark right of Harbour Building)
Sun House [1977- ]
Li Po Chun Chambers [1995- ] (with the round structure at the top front).

 

Final remark

This post made a journey through almost 12 decades and showed the changes to houses that originally (from about 1900 to about 1965) were at the waterfront. For some 60 years practically no changes occurred. In the 1960s and 1970s, things started to develop more and more quickly. Some new houses built in the 1960s and 1970s persisted and are still there (2022), but others didn’t make it and were replaced themselves by newer (bigger) ones. As we know Hong Kong, probably not the end of any future development.