IDJ has dug into his extensive HK transport files again. This time the subject is Pearl River Heliports, concentrating on those in HK and Macau extracted from an article published in the bi-monthly UK magazine, Airports of the World published by Key Publishing. The captions accompanying the images are those used in the original magazine article. Pearl River Heliports […]
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James Chan: John L Sardy was connected to the Motor Car Works, 8 Saracen’s Chambers, Snow Hill, London which sold the products of the Steam Vehicle Company of America, Pennsylvania, USA, for which Sardy was the General Agent. In 1894 John’s life was about to dramatically change! “John L Sardy was engaged by the R.E. Dietz Company to circumnavigate the globe […]
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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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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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“The Mariners’ Club has reinstated plans to renovate its near half-century-old building which have been put on and off the table for nearly 30 years, as declining revenue and a low number of seafarers using the club put pressure on its financial sustainability… … The number of Hong Kong sailors working on long-haul vessels has dropped from a peak of […]
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