Two photographic details of the staircase with the entrance to the study shown in the right hand photograph.
a drying room. All bedrooms open on to balconies.
The servants' quarters are in a wing to the north-east of the main building, connected to the kitchen. by a covered way.
Whilst not being by any means a copy of any particular style, the planning, and indeed the detailing throughout, has been based on a study of the Late Renaissance period in England, with modifica- tions to suit the particular site and climate.
Garden
The back portion of the site, to which the access road leads, is a car parking area surfaced with brown gravel from the New Territories, with a turning circle on the centre line of the main entrance around a turfed plot on which are planted several ornamental flowering shrubs. The front portion of the grounds is situated at a slightly lower level, and this has been laid out as lawns and gardens, with magnolia and other evergreens, screened from the approach by an open colonnade. An additional large lawn is included on the north-east side. At each end of the garden and at the west end of the car park are screens and windbreaks formed by informal planting of casuarina, oleander and bamboo, whilst differences in ground levels have been effected by the use
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of walling of second-hand blue bricks and local granite. hillsides above and below the site have been landscaped by tidying and planting with rhododendron, hydrangea and other flowering shrubs, and turfing where adjoining the roadways. Every effort has been made to preserve existing creepers, trees and other vegetation.
Construction
The walls of the building are of solid load-bearing brickwork, with a granite plinth. For this purpose some of the granite which had been prepared for the Japanese War Memorial at Magazine Gap was used. The floors are of reinforced concrete, and the roof of pitched reinforced concrete slabs and beams is laid with green glazed roofing tiles. These tiles have also been used as a decorative capping to compound walls and elsewhere. The brick walls have been rendered with a felt float finish and coated with "Snowcem", whilst the walls supporting the terraces and the colonnade are faced with blue bricks and blue and grey granite. A suspended ceiling of plaster boards and gypsum plaster was used over the whole of the first floor. The stairs are concrete, cast in situ. Finishes
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Windows, doors and shutters are of teak, some of the material for this work being taken from the old Admiralty House, Conduit Road, An interesting feature is the use of two windows of the sliding sash variety, an uncommon type in Hong Kong. Teak block floors are used in the principal rooms, whilst the verandahs and balconies are paved with mosaic tiles. The study is
Two fireplace details.
(Left) The study fireplace. (Right) The fireplace and mantel in the living room,
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