IDJ has sent an extract from a book by Martin Barnett published in 1984 about the history of tramways in Hong Kong. HF: Chevalier R Pescio was an Italian with an exotic name and an alluring proposal. Namely to build a tramway between Victoria and Aberdeen. He repeatedly tried to obtain government interest in this scheme between 1906 and 1910 […]
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HF: By 1918 (some records say 1916), the original Hong Kong Ice Company joined Dairy Farm and became known as the Dairy Farm, Ice and Cold Storage Company Limited, following the merging of the food sections of Lane Crawford and Dairy Farm. Hugh Farmer: Employees details will be added as information comes in. Andrews, Charles Frederick Assistant, residing at 74 […]
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Great China Match Factory in Peng Chau in 1956 (Land Use Survey, HKU Libraries collection Courtesy: York Lo) Two men were admitted to Queen Mary Hospital after being brought over from Ping Chau Island by launch yesterday afternoon. One of them is not likely to live. They were victims of an explosion at the laboratory at the Great China Match […]
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Carles Brasó Broggi includes a brief mention of this company in his article, Shanghai Spinners: Pioneers of Hong Kong’s industrialization, 1947-1955, linked below. “… a small company, Lee Tai Textile Company Limited (联泰纱厂有限公司) also started to operate in August 1948 with 5,000 spindles in Shatin. The company was founded by T. C. Ying (Ying Dingcheng) a Shanghai spinner from the […]
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Louis Heermann was an assistant in the shop of Charles Weiss from the year 1854. After the shop was closed upon the death of Henry Vaucher, Mr. Heermann opened his own shop on Queen’s Road in February 1858 (Friend of China 1 Feb 1858)… Not long after opening his own store, Mr. Heermann left Hong Kong. (Adapted from source 1) Thanks […]
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IDJ: While many people in HK will recall Taikoo Dockyard and Hong Kong & Whampoa Dockyard or the Hong Kong United Dockyards as they were later known, few will be aware of Bailey’s Shipyard or the Cosmopoliton Dockyards which were quite substantial operations. The following account of W.S. Bailey & Co., often called Bailey’s Shipyard, is from Twentieth Century Impressions […]
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“The exact year in which the flight of grantite steps at the southern end of Duddell Street in Central was constructed is not known, but a series of maps of Hong Kong from the period indicate that they came into existence between 1875 and 1889. According to the records of the Hong Kong and China Gas Co., the four gas […]
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The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) headquarters building, in Central, Hong Kong, took seven years to complete from concept to construction and has become not only the icon for the region’s largest bank but the city of Hong Kong itself. It’s the fourth HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong.(1) The new building was designed by the British architect Norman Foster and […]
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Nicholas Kitto has sent in a PDF file of the book: Corporate Behaviour and Political Risk: Dutch Companies in China 1903-1941 by Frans-Paul van der Putten. This was freely downloadable from the Leiden University website. Unfortunately the images are absent. HF: The book covers in some detail a variety of Dutch concerns in China. Namely:- Chapter 2 Banking: Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (NHM) […]
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“This well-known firm of engineers and shipbuilders was founded in 1897 by Mr. W.S. Bailey, who began business as a consulting engineer and importer of steam pumps and engineers’ requisites. In 1900 Mr. Bailey was joined in partnership by Mr. E. O. Murphy, and the present works [1905] at Kowloon Bay were established…”(1) Chinese Navy Gunboat Kien Yu Forced […]
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