What: The big building in the foreground is the HKFC's (Hong Kong Football Club) old stadium. Does anyone know which years the stadium opened, and later was demolished?
Where: The photographer is standing to the east of the HKFC. The angle puts him above the stadium, but not so high that he was on top of <!--break-->Leighton Hill. He was probably in an upper floor of one of the government quarters along Wong Nai Chung Road.
Who: There's no-one to be seen in this photo, but this area is connected with a couple of the wartime diaries we've seen.
The curved building on the left of the photo stood on the corner of Queen's Road East and Morrison Hill Road [1].
Barbara Anslow lived there in 1941, with her mother and sister. She left it in December 1941 to take up her wartime duties, not realising she wouldn't see it again until 1945. Her diary entry for 9th September 1945 [2] describes what she found:
Went to No. 19 Gap Road, our prewar flat. Stairs in very bad state, no wood on them. No door on our flat, the floors completely bare - and empty. the only recognizable thing was a dead plant lying on verandah, minus pot.
Some of next door's front windows were dangling into our verandah, a bomb must have caught that flat.
In the bedrooms there were odds and ends of broken glass; a few books in Chinese writing, and 2 lampshades one of which we think was ours. No woodwork of any kind - no partition no cupboard door no lavatory, but the bath was there; the remains of the lav. cistern was lying in our bedroom (Mabel's and mine). Many bricks lying in bathroom.
At the outbreak of war in 1941, Barbara was working in the ARP Heqdquarters building nearby. I guess it might be one of these buildings visible to the right of the stadium:
This area is also linked to R E Jones' diary [3]. When he and his family returned to Hong Kong in the 1940s, they lived in government quarters along Wong Nai Chong road.
When: This tall new building is looking just about finished:
Here's how this section of road looks today according to Google Streetview:
The 'new' building is the one in the middle. It's still standing, and Google says it is called Wing Cheung Mansion. Over on Centamap, they shows its occupation date as October 1963. Given that the building is nearly finished in the photo, I'll date the photo to mid-1963.
If you have any memories of this area, I'm interested to hear them. Please could you et us know in the comments below?
Regards, David
References:
- Curved building on corner of Queen's Road East and Morisson Hill Road.
- Barbara Anslow's diary for 9th September, 1945.
- R E Jones' diary.