Where: No doubt about the location, as the original postcard has "Pottinger Street" written at the bottom.
Off in the distance at the bottom of the hill, there's a person whose legs are hidden. They're shown in the centre of this crop.
They are walking down steps, which puts them at the junction of Pottinger Street with Queen's Road Central (QRC). The steps are easier to see in this photo, taken in the opposite direction looking from QRC up Pottinger Street.
(The steps have been rebuilt at some point since these photos were taken, which is why today's steps are steeper.)
Moving back towards the camera, the next street we can see is Stanley Street.
Which means the photographer was standing on or near to Wellington Street.
When: The postcard was bought in 1935, so it won't be any more recent than that.
(Once again, if you can read French and there is anything interesting in the written notes, please could you let us know in the comments below?)
I can also see the Central Fire Station in the distance on the left, so the photo won't be older than 1926. Probably a scene from the early 1930s.
Who: The junction of Pottinger Street and QRC had a medical flavour when this photo was taken. The building on the far side of QRC has several signs with eyes drawn on them, and I can see the words OPTICIANS and LENSES in the English text. Page 28 of The Comacrib Directory of China for 1925 has the Chinese Optical Co., Ltd at 67 Queen's Road Central, which matches this location, so I think that's the company we're looking at. Yes, now we know the company's name, I can see that's what the English words say on the ground floor wall.
Diagonally across the junction, there's a sign for Harry Fong, a dentist. He's also listed in the same directory on page 44, with his clinic on the 1st Floor of 74, QRC. That's the site where The Pottinger Hotel stands today.
What: Bundles of firewood in carriers line the left side of Pottinger Street.
We saw firewood being unloaded at the seafront in a recent photo. Here it's being carried up to mid-levels, though I'm not sure if it is destined for a store, or being delivered to the final customers.
I took a look in the report on Imports and Exports for 1935 to see if I could find out more about how much firewood was used. It lists three items imported under the heading "Fuels". The largest figure is for Bituminous Coal @ $7,600,000, though that includes coal imported for industrial use. Next comes Firewood @ $1,600,000, and finally Charcoal @ $515,000.
Over on the right side of the street are two more items destined for a fiery end.
They are a car and a house, made from paper to be burnt as offerings to ancestors. You may have noticed similar items for sale on the streets of Hong Kong over the last few days. This is the time of year for the Chung Yeung Festival, a time to clean ancestors' graves and make offerings to them.
Finally, above the line of firewood there's this curious advertisement. If you can read the characters, please can you leave a comment to let us know what they are selling?
Gwulo photo ID: BF003
Further reading:
- Pottinger Street: some interesting facts about it, and more photos of the area around the QRC steps
- Firewood, and the men who carried it
- And of course, there are lots more photos and stories in the Gwulo books