Visit 1960 Hong Kong via twenty colour slides. As always, lots of clues to explore, plus a mystery with the Furama Hotel I hope you'll be able to explain.
(If the video doesn’t appear below, please click here to watch it on Youtube).
Here are links to more information about the various topics mentioned, listed by the time they appear in the video:
- 00:14 Helena May
- 00:22 St Joseph's College
- 00:29 Murray Barracks
- 00:42 1909 Panoramas
- 00:48 Harcourt Road
- 01:04 Butterfield & Swire's Offices
- 01:24 Queen's Building
- 02:09 Volume 1 of Gwulo's books
- 02:34 Elephants being unloaded
- 02:41 Canton Road Police Married Quarters
- 04:32 Li Po Chun Chambers
- 04:57 Central Market
- 05:34 Aberdeen Harbour
- 06:04 Floating Restaurants
- 07:23 Repulse Bay
- 07:28 Eucliffe
- 09:04 Hoover Theatre
- 09:10 Roxy Theatre
- 09:21 New York Theatre
- 09:50 Neon Signs
- 10:43 Daimaru
- 11:00 Craigengower Cricket Club
- 11:03 HK Football Club
- 11:15 Happy Valley Racecourse
- 11:35 Cemeteries
- 11:47 St Paul's School
- 12:00 Broadwood Road
- 12:17 Botanical Gardens
- 12:50 Traffic Pagodas
- 13:00 Peak Tram
- 13:31 Peak Cafe
- 14:17 Blurring & long exposure
- 15:05 The talk in London on 5 April 2025
Comments
Furama Hotel mystery
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.