York Lo: Shanghainese Builders in Hong Kong (Part Five) – Ngo Kee and Sung Foo Kee/Lidell Ngo Kee and Sung Foo Kee (now Sun Fook Kong) are two other leading construction firms which trace their roots back to pre-war Shanghai. Owned and managed respectively by the Loo and the Sung families for over half a century, the two firms were […]
» Read more
Maureen Fan left a comment below Carles Brasó Broggi’s article Shanghai Spinners: Pioneers of Hong Kong’s Industrialisation. This reads in part: Thank you for your informative article. My grandfather Robert Fan Wenzhao (1893-1979) was the architect who designed the HK Spinners factory at Cheung Sha Wan, including the workers dormitories, a dining hall, a recreation area, basketball and volleyball courts and […]
» Read more
York Lo: Shanghainese Builders in HK (Part Seven) – John Lok, Yao Kee, Paul Lee, TK Shen, Wide Project and Wai Kee In the first six articles in this series, all the Shanghainese builders profiled were firms that were established in pre-war Shanghai and moved to HK before or after 1949. This article will profile seven Shanghainese builders who were […]
» Read more
Double click to magnify twice. Thanks to Carles Brasó Broggi for this image of South Sea Textile Mills which comes from an undated Annual Report from the 1960s. The text reads “Covering an area of about 18 acres, the premises of The South Sea Textiles Mills are situated in the New Territories of the Kowloon Peninsula, about 9½ miles from the island […]
» Read more
James Chan: Dragages Hong Kong, is a very familiar company name on signs at major construction projects around Hong Kong. It’s parent company is Bouygues Construction The company was founded in Vietnam in 1902 as Société Française Industrielle D’Extreme-Orient. It undertook its first project, the dredging and maintenance of a 2,000 kilometre canal system in the Mekong Delta. In 1910 […]
» Read more
Nathan Laurent, who lives in Queensland, Australia, has an interest in industrial history. HF: Nathan contacted me “to see if your researchers know anything about a metal manufacturing business that used the name Kwok Hing. My father has a metal working lathe of this brand made in Hong Kong which seems to be from the 1950s.” Below is a picture taken […]
» Read more
York Lo: K. Jamson(占臣) – the global journey of a HK shoe and luggage company over the past nine decades Jamson store on the left on Johnston Road in Wanchai in 1955. Earlier in the group, we covered several famous localshoe companies from the 1950s and 1960s such as Po Shing, Sanda, Crane and Yau Sun. Founded in 1930, K. […]
» Read more
Tymon Mellor: In November 1937, the Whampoa docks at Hung Hom were connected to the KCR by a 1.090ft siding down Baker Street. The line would provide access to the new 100T tower crane that was to be completed in 1938. As reported in the KCR 1937 Report for the year; “The crane is located alongside water which is deep […]
» Read more
York Lo: Ng Wah (伍華, 1874-1950) – Leading Contractor, Developer of Pedder Building and Philanthropist Left: Ng Wah (HKBCA); Center: Pedder Building in Central; Right: Article about the induction of Ng Wah as head of Po Leung Kuk in 1934 (HK Daily Press, 1934-4-11) Ng Wah and his Projects A native of Toishan in Guangdong province but born in Hong […]
» Read more
York Lo: Lee On and Ying Kee – manufacturers of safes and steel furniture Local manufacturing of safes has existed since the early 1900s and within this specialized industry, Lee On and Ying Kee were two of the oldest and largest players (which also manufacture steel furniture in addition to safes) and both happen to be founded by Cantonese industrialists […]
» Read more