Boy Scouts Association building [????- ]

Submitted by Andrew Suddaby on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 22:03
Current condition
Unknown

The Boy Scouts Association had a building here.  I believe it was in 1957/8 that I first saw it but it might have been later.

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There is a bus stop near the pin called the Hong Kong Girl Guides Association Cecilia Mar Venture House. Unable to trace its history and the connection with the Boy Scouts at this juncture. 

Interesting Moddsey.  In the UK, the Scouts and Guides have largely remained separate organisations - but I don't know whether that is true in Hong  Kong. I guess that it is quite possible that both organisations used the same premises but perhaps at different times / years for storage and wet weather accommodation. My adding the pin to the map is because I recently saw on Gwulo, but cannot remember where, that the 'island' in the centre of Chaiwan Bay was used as a campsite by the Scouts and that linked nicely with the proximity of this building on the Tai Tam Road.  Best wishes,  Andrew

Hi There,

Google Maps still recognized the site as "Hong Kong Girl Guides Association Cecilia Mar Venture House", but street view dated June 2023 showed it is currently boarded up  The gate is chain locked.  The building itself seem painted over in white whith showing any sinage.

The local Scouts Associatin and Girl Guide Association are also two different entties.

T

I wonder if the Scouts transferred the use of the building to the Guides many years ago?  I almost certainly noticed and remembered the building because of my old membership of the Scouting Association in the UK - but memory can be very unreliable! Andrew 

I was a Cub/Scout in the mid-70s at Salesian School (16th Chai Wan Road), not far from this location. I remember visiting this location a couple of times for day activities.

Hi kam.fung

Thank you for the confirmation of its use.  As tngan comments, it looks as though the building is now derelict. Perhaps, when the old, associated camp site(?) on the 'island' in the centre of the Chaiwan Bay was built on, the Scouts and Guides found alternative, more rural, sites for outdoor activities, although I wonder whether there are many of those in relatively accessible places these days!

Hi

I'm pretty sure that this building was possibly the ration store on Tai Tam Road that was built by the British prior to the Battle of Hong Kong.  The War Diary of the Royal Rifles of Canada (Page 23) mentions a "ration store about 1/2 mile from Tai Tam HQ and in the direction of Lye Mun", a description that roughly fits this location.  It is the only building on this section of Tai Tam Road visible from a 1949 aerial map.

Hi Lewis,

That is a possibility but is the building rather large to have been a ration store?  Another possibility for a ration store location might be a bit closer to the Tai Tam Gap.  On the map, there are several pins around the big bend a bit nearer to the Tai Tam road junction, two yellow ones are identified as ruins, with another red pin as 'Mt Parker Battery'. Click on the red pin and there is a link to an excellent article with a rough sketch map by Philip Cracknell about a mobile battery that was positioned there until the East Brigade headquarters at Tai Tam Gap withdrew to Stanley.

Andrew