The photo shows flat A of Minerva House and the actual address is #28 Lyttelton Road. In addition to its unique shape, there are other special features of this apartment building that I would like to share with Gwulo readers.
Minerva House and the apartment building next to it called Carol Mansion are the 2 unique apartment buildings seldom seen on Hong Kong Island. Both were built “at” the cliff. Each apartment building has four flats. Flats A and B have only 7 stories because they are on the upper side of the cliff while flats C and D have 13 stories as they are located on the lower side of the cliff. All 4 flats are connected structurally to form one building. Access to both Carol Mansion and Minerva House can be from Lyttelton Road or from Babington Road. There is a little public garden (for use by residents of Minerva House) in the space between Carol Mansion and Minerva House at the Lyttelton Road level. This garden is also connected to Babington Road through a stairway down the cliffside. Used to be open to the public but this garden has been gated probably to prevent residents from other apartment buildings nearby to use as short cut to the market at Centre Street or the bus stop at Bonham Road.
In the late fifties, Hong Kong started to build 12-story high residential apartment buildings. To be on the conservative side, horizontal concrete struts were added between Carol Mansion and Minerva House to increase the structural integrity of both buildings which were considered quite “tall” at that time. You can see these concrete struts on the left side of the photo. Another unique feature typical of the residential high rise built in the late fifties is that only every other floor has access to the elevator. The exact reason is unknown to me. I lived in Minerva House 6th floor C flat in the early sixties for about 4 years.
Lyttelton Road used to be called Lower Richmond Road, as that area was originally developed by Richmond Estate Company at the turn of the century with a number of big European-style mansions built. But by the mid-fifties, most of these mansions were demolished. When Minerva House was built in the late fifties, the biggest mansion, called Parkview (later renamed Basilea Terrace), located just across Lyttelton Road from the Minerva House was already flattened but nothing was built on it yet. Another landmark nearby is West End Park. The park is divided into two halves by Lyttelton Road. The lower half of the park spans from the intersection between Bonham Road and Park Road to Lyttelton Road. The upper half of the park spans from Lyttelton Road to Robinson Road. The upper half of the park was rebuilt in 1963-64 allowing car traffic between Lyttelton Road and Robinson Road.
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Other unique features of Minerva House
The photo shows flat A of Minerva House and the actual address is #28 Lyttelton Road. In addition to its unique shape, there are other special features of this apartment building that I would like to share with Gwulo readers.
Minerva House and the apartment building next to it called Carol Mansion are the 2 unique apartment buildings seldom seen on Hong Kong Island. Both were built “at” the cliff. Each apartment building has four flats. Flats A and B have only 7 stories because they are on the upper side of the cliff while flats C and D have 13 stories as they are located on the lower side of the cliff. All 4 flats are connected structurally to form one building. Access to both Carol Mansion and Minerva House can be from Lyttelton Road or from Babington Road. There is a little public garden (for use by residents of Minerva House) in the space between Carol Mansion and Minerva House at the Lyttelton Road level. This garden is also connected to Babington Road through a stairway down the cliffside. Used to be open to the public but this garden has been gated probably to prevent residents from other apartment buildings nearby to use as short cut to the market at Centre Street or the bus stop at Bonham Road.
In the late fifties, Hong Kong started to build 12-story high residential apartment buildings. To be on the conservative side, horizontal concrete struts were added between Carol Mansion and Minerva House to increase the structural integrity of both buildings which were considered quite “tall” at that time. You can see these concrete struts on the left side of the photo. Another unique feature typical of the residential high rise built in the late fifties is that only every other floor has access to the elevator. The exact reason is unknown to me. I lived in Minerva House 6th floor C flat in the early sixties for about 4 years.
Lyttelton Road used to be called Lower Richmond Road, as that area was originally developed by Richmond Estate Company at the turn of the century with a number of big European-style mansions built. But by the mid-fifties, most of these mansions were demolished. When Minerva House was built in the late fifties, the biggest mansion, called Parkview (later renamed Basilea Terrace), located just across Lyttelton Road from the Minerva House was already flattened but nothing was built on it yet. Another landmark nearby is West End Park. The park is divided into two halves by Lyttelton Road. The lower half of the park spans from the intersection between Bonham Road and Park Road to Lyttelton Road. The upper half of the park spans from Lyttelton Road to Robinson Road. The upper half of the park was rebuilt in 1963-64 allowing car traffic between Lyttelton Road and Robinson Road.