1920s Hong Kong city scenes and the 1926 rainstorm

Submitted by David on

This week’s video takes us 100 years back in time, courtesy of William Tibbs's photo album from the 1920s.

(If the video isn’t shown below, please click here to watch it on Youtube.)

Thank you to Cindy Putman for kindly sharing this photo album with us.

More old Hong Kong photos & stories:

Topics mentioned in the video:

00:00 Introduction to Lance Corporal William Tibbs and the RASC (Royal Army Service Corps)


03:00 City scenes from around Hong Kong


14:28 Damage caused by the great rainstorm of 1926

Comments

Thank you, David, for sharing these interesting photos. They are all from the 1920s, but I doubt if William Tibbs took all of them himself. Many of the photos look like commercial genre photos; e.g. the one with the barbers cleaning ears - compare Cleaning Ears | Gwulo.

Also, the rainstorm photo of Hill Road isn't likely taken by himself, we have the same photo on Gwulo already: ChineseTown1926.png | Gwulo, also the one showing the nullah above Hill Road: 1926 July 18th -19th Rainstorm 03 | Gwulo and an almost identical photo here: Damage caused by the 19th July 1926 rainstorm, at the nullah above Hill Road, Hong Kong | Historical Photographs of China.

Nevertheless, a valuable document from the 1920s.

Hi Klaus,

Glad to hear you enjoyed the photos. 

I don't see any signs of Mr Tibbs being a photographer in his album, and agree the photos were mostly commercially taken.

Nice collage. Agree with you both that the photos were mostly commercially taken.

One photo in particular that caught my attention was taken prior to 1926. The photo of Wyndham (Flower) Street) showing the film "My Dad" was screened at the Coronet in July 1924. The Coronet closed down the following year. I have the same photo.

The nullah shown is the one above Hill Road. David had assumed this and said that the building shown should belong to the university. This is correct, it is The building for the School of Tropical Medicine and School of Pathology [1919-c.1978]

Damage caused by the 19th July 1926 rainstorm, at the nullah above Hill Road, Hong Kong, by Klaus
The building for the School of Tropical Medicine and School of Pathology, by Klaus