Waste Disposal in Hong Kong Text extracted from ‘Engineering in Hong Kong-50 years of Achievements’ published 1997. Many thanks to IDJ for sending this. The EPD first drew up plans for the development of a network of refuse transfer stations and three strategic landfills in the late 1980s. In order to tap private sector expertise in waste management, the department […]
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Ho Fan’s 何藩, extraordinary black and white photographs have appeared in several SCMP articles, linked below. He was born in Shanghai in 1937 where he started to take photographs when he was very young. He says the first thing he shot was the Bund taken with a Brownie, a “very simple, old-fashioned camera”. He immigrated with his family to Hong […]
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According to Claire Grey’s excellent family history website, linked below, W R Loxley and Company (China) Ltd was established in Hong Kong in 1872 and… ‘…J. M. Beattie bought it possibly in 1900. Later two brothers: A. Beattie and M. P. Beattie joined the firm. The business was sold to J. A. Russell and D. O. Russell in 1919 and under the agreement A. Beattie […]
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Our article about the origins of the Aberdeen Gasometer led us to discover that it was originally constructed by Samuel Cutler & Sons of Millwall, London and Telford, UK. This in turn provided both Stephen Davies and IDJ with the opportunity to link this particular gasometer design to Cutler’s Patent Guide Framing which was patented in 1888. Very familiar to any UK city […]
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Hong Kong has had seemingly hundreds of trading agents. They are of interest in their own right but also often offer an introduction to companies of a more directly industrial nature. This advert from 1950 is for the agent Tsang & Company with two initials. The second is C but what was the first, H,M,K or? York Lo: I believe […]
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HF: The building that is now known as Western Market was originally the old Western Market (North Block), which was identified by Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) as one of the Declared Monuments in 1990. It is the oldest market building surviving in Hong Kong. Further information about the demolished South Block would be of great interest. As would images […]
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Angus Harden read York Lo’s article, The Four Taxi Kings – Blue, Central, New and Star which includes: “The garage of Blue Taxi was initially located at the corner of Nathan Road and Market Street. In 1964, Tsan Yung built the 12 story, 72 units Tsan Yung Mansion at 70 Waterloo Road in Homantin. He and his family occupied various floors of […]
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‘Goldsmiths and jewellery makers flourished on Shanghai Street in the 1970s and ’80s, given their proximity to the Yau Ma Tei typhoon shelter and their target customers – the boat-dwelling Tanka people, who put on performances and sold food to locals and tourists. Wo Shing Goldsmith has been located on the street since 1892 and celebrates its 125th anniversary this […]
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IDJ has sent this 1997 article published on behalf of the HK Academy of Engineering Sciences and HK Institution of Engineers. “In 1989 Hong Kong Electric pioneered the introduction of mechanised tunnelling to Hong Kong, accepting the only bid that proposed the use of a tunnel boring machine for the construction of a 5.7 kilometre, 5 metre diameter cable tunnel […]
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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 […]
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