HF: I was told many years ago that Hong Kong had the most ferry routes of any city in the world. And that Sydney was second and Seattle third. If that was true back in the 1980s it may not be so in 2014. During this period I have seen several routes vanish, including Jordan Road to Central, a wonderful […]
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James Chan: I found this 1889 map while looking through an archaelogical assessement of the MTR West Island line. The map shows Kennedy Town. On it are a silk works betwen Cadogan and Davis Streets. And a rope works along Forbes Street between Davis Street and Smithfield. What does anyone know about either of these two works?
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HF: Elizabeth Ride has sent a number of BAAG reports about Taikoo Dockyard during 1943-1944. As she says this material is very raw but I think will be of great use to anyone interested in knowing what was going on there during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Elizabeth apologises for the the state of some of the documents, which […]
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HF: The Hong Kong Maritime Museum website currently has an online exhibition representing a small portion of the photographic glass plates from its Hong Kong & Whampoa Dockyard collection. All images below are courtesy of the Museum. The Museum website says, with slight adaptation,”The consolidation of the Hongkong Whampoa Dockyard (HWD) with the Taikoo Dockyard in 1973 represented the most significant […]
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HF: The Rhyl History Club, Wales, UK, has a report of Alfred Dickinson’s death and details about his career. He was a widely travelled man including to Hong Kong. His company Alfred Dickinson & Co was closely involved in the development of Hong Kong Tramways. For example, “In February 1902 The Hongkong Tramway Electric Company Ltd was formed in England […]
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Jane Taylor: My grandfather, Robert Taylor, appears to have started out in Macau in 1912 and moved to Hong Kong around 18 months later. He served as manager of the Green Island Cement Company, I think from the late 1920s, until his retirement in 1949. Recently discovered family photographs show the manager’s house clearly, and also its pre- and post-war […]
» Read more HF: In January 1904 Alfred Dickinson and Company, the consulting engineers for Hong Kong Tramways Ltd wrote to the under-secretary of state at the Colonial Office. The letter states that the company had discussed with Sir Paul Chater the possibility of constructing a tramway system on the Kowloon Peninsula and of extending this as far as Shum Chun in China. […]
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Eleanor Wong has written A History of the Wong Family Textile Business, a detailed account of her family’s business history in Shanghai, then in Hong Kong and finally Indonesia. She was assisted in this project by her editor, Carey Vail. Part One: Life in Shanghai is a history of the Wong family’s interests in the textile industry in the city from 1911, […]
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Amelia Allsop, Manager – Collections and Research at the Hong Kong Heritage Project, has sent A Century of Light – CLP Centenary Souvenir Book linked below covering the period 1901-2001. Amelia was kindly responding to an enquiry as to whether the Project has any infomation about Tai O Power Company which had been known as Tai O Union Electric Company. […]
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Hugh Farmer: New information in red Land for Oriental Brewery’s plant was acquired in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, in the spring of 1907, when it was announced that the consortium behind it intended to spend “over a quarter of a million dollars on an up-to-date brewery”. The Brewery opened in 1908 with a capacity of 100,000 barrels a year, using […]
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