58-60 Peel Street [????- ]

Submitted by hkspace_wl on
Current condition
In use

When sloping down, Peel Street intersects but also runs parallel to Elgin Street, before reaching Hollywood Road. (^)

It is said to be one of the steepest roads in Hong Kong, with a slope of 1 to 4 in one part.

 

(^) thanks to David's work posted in 2010, which I only read after. It explains all, and how the latter part of Elgin Street came about. See 2nd comment below, for a brief recap.

Photos that show this Place

roasted food tea restaurant on Peel Street
c.2006

Comments

 

It is interesting to trace the naming of Peel Street.

    ...  (+)

As it happens, even the present historian 

would naturally look for some local resident who might have 

thus been honoured... none of them belonging 

to people likely to have been so singled out. One's 

mind naturally turns then to the statesmen of the old days, 

particularly those who may have had some connexion with 

Hongkong, bearing in mind the many other instances we have 

seen of such commemoration in Hongkong's streets. We come 

thus to Sir Robert Peel, who was so prominent a Minister in 

the early forties(^), and in fact took a great interest in 

Hongkong's earliest years. It was Sir Robert's Government 

who thought of suppressing the Colony's opium trade (in 1846) 

by imposing a prohibitive tax. There remains no doubt what—

ever that Peel Street commemorates this former Prime

Minister.

                  [1] [2]

An added support may be Elgin Street in its proximity, which was so named with thought, to commemorate a person from the early years. 

Please help to correct or enrich my findings with more information you know.

(+) interesting that the author tries to imagine this name tracing scenario 20 years further  

       (1953, sic) into future, in presenting his line of thought.

(^) 1840's



sources :

[1] Old Hong Kong (1933)  (+)

[2] SCMP 1933-11-4

 

recap :

"... the section from Staunton St to Shelley St (the section we see in the photo) was called Pechili Terrace, and the last section from Shelley to Caine Road was called Elgin Terrace."

I could see subject words clearly marked in the 1924 HK map within gwulo.