Blackhead Point, Signal Hill, TST – FJB Schwarzkopf and Blackhead & Co connection

HF: Blackhead Point (黑頭山, lit. “black head hill”), also known as Tai Pau Mai (大包米), Tsim Sha Tsui Point or Signal Hill ( 訊號山), was a cape before land reclamation in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It remains as a small hill almost hidden away behind Chungking Mansions.

The industrial connection? Blackhead Point was named after a German businessman in Hong Kong, Friedrich Johan Bertold Schwarzkopf, (also recorded as Berthold Friedrich Johann Schwarzkopf), who became a British citizen and anglicised his name to Blackhead.

And Blackhead founded the company Blackhead and Company which started a Soap Factory in Shau Kei Wan.

Tsim Sha Tsui peninsula 1845 shpeing what would become Blackhead Point bottom right

Tsim Sha Tsui peninsula
1845 showing what would become Blackhead Point bottom right

Tsim Sha Tsui Bay 1870 showing Blackhead Point

Tsim Sha Tsui Bay 1870
showing Blackhead Point

Blackhead Signal Hill TSR

Courtesy: hko.gov.hk

This article was first posted on 17th April 2015.

Sources:

  1. Signs of a Colonial Era, A Yanne and G Heller, HKU Press, 2009
  2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackhead_Point

See:

  1. http://gwulo.com/node/11082 – Signal Hill Battery/Blackhead Fort??

Related Indhhk articles:

  1. F Blackhead & Company, c1908 article
  2. F. Blackhead & Co.’s Soap and Soda Factory – Shau Kei Wan 1896
  3. The German Speaking Community in Hong Kong 1846-1918 – Part One
  4. The German Speaking Community in Hong Kong 1846-1918 – Part Two
  5. El Oriente Cigars – brief Spanish/German translation needed

 

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