Naming of Warren Street, Tai Hang

Submitted by lolau on Wed, 09/07/2011 - 15:34

Anybody know the naming of Warren Street? Would it refer to Capt Willian Lewis Warren who became the personal secretaary to the HK Governor in Sept 1901?

My information from my Warren cousins who were brought up in Hong Kong till 1938 is that the road was named after our grandfather's tile-making factory of C.E.Warren & Co. to which it led. It is still a very tiny road, but boasts the best public lavatory that I found in Hong Kong - perhaps pure chance, but very appropriate, as his company specialised in sanitary ware and bathrooms. I don't know why such a grand facility has been placed in this run down area.

Just because the tile factory at today's Warren Street? How about the purchase of two pieces of land in which one of these was for the extention of factory? Was it also located at Warren St.?

Because most of the roads around Tai Hang and Jardine's Lookout were named from those civil servants who worked in Public Works Dept especially the Director of PW. Of course I know C.E. Warren worked in PWD for a short period.

Very many thanks Moddsey for this esoteric detail of the difference between streets and roads, when it came to naming. Certainly Warren Street is such a modest street, it might not have been too much of a compliment to have one's name chosen for that particular one. I was about to reply to Lolau, whose knowledge of HK geography and land purchase is certainly more profound than mine. My information came from my older cousin, who left HK aged 12, but routinely visited the Warren factory with his father, Leslie Warren, who had taken the business over when C.E. Warren died in 1923. He drew me a diagram of the road and the factory. The factory wasn’t in the road, apparently, but led to the factory. My cousin made a unique visit to HK in 1997 when he feared that the British names would be changed to Chinese names, in order to photograph Warren Street and also the site of his previous home at 20 Broadwood Road. I don’t see that he and his sister would have had any means of knowing about Warren Street, if they had not been able to remember it in connection with their father’s and grandfather’s factory before they left in 1938. Their own father died in 1943 and we did not begin to pool our scant knowledge until 1992 after the death of my father, who had refused to discuss his past. We were brought up in different continents and did not have the opportunity to meet until I went to Canada a couple of years ago. If there is any record of the dating of street names, that would certainly be useful. Lolau, may I ask what your particular interest in Warren Street or in Captain William Warren is?

I'm writing in my blog on the history/interesting things of a particular street in HK, of course including naming of streets & when they were constructed. Although some existings books in HK are on this topic especially the Chinese ones. But there must be something missing. So I am trying to find out more.

Don't apologize, Lolau. I wish I spoke Cantonese as my father and uncles did. English is not necessarily going to stay the language of the future. The Chinese sources are invaluable. Any contributions that you feel like making would, I'm sure, be enriching. Thank you for asking the question about Warren Street.