NEW WESTERN
TELEPHONE
EXCHANGE
Architects:-
Palmer & Turner.
A new 12,000 line telephone ex- change is proposed for the West- ern District. Present plans call for a ten storeyed building, which will accommodate an automatic ex- change and offices, in addition to quarters and other amenities for some of the Telephone Company's staff.
This new Western Exchange will be fully capable of meeting the re- quirements of the western area of Hong Kong for some years to come.
The Hong Kong Telephone Com- pany. which already serves more than 50.000 stations or subscribers. added 5.080 new stations to its net- work last year. However, there are
The Chairman of the Board of
Η ΠΙ
Architects' perspective drawing of the exchange building.
still about 18.000 unfulfilled applica- public utilities is the surest Indica- porary Post Office was built at the tions for new stations, and it may tion of this, and our Company is end of Des Voeux Road. be possible to install these within proud to have played a part in the two years.
development. It is clear that our Over half of the ground floor of Directors and Management have the proposed building will be OC- Directors of the Telephone Company; of the Colony for increased tele- public entrance of which will be from been fully alive to the pressing needs cupied by the new Post Office, the Mr. J. H. Hamm said at the annual phone service. Although over 50.000 Wing Lok Street, rather than from general meeting "that Hong Kong stations have been installed, the de- the crowded part of Des Voeux Road has never been more enterprising than it is today. The expansion of
mand has remained as urgent as near Western Market. Space will be
provided for Post office vans loading or unloading.
WING
STREET
MORRISON
LOK
STREET
8249′′
100-STREET
||PROPOSED WESTERN NEXCHANGE FOR THE HONGKONG TELEPHONE CO.LTD
822
DE
VOEUX
ROAD
WESTERN MÄRKET
100
A LE
Site plan
IVI
ON
ISOFT
ever.
in
"The development
programme which they have drawn up. and part already implemented, is com- prehensive and will go far to satisfy
while
There will also be a small office for Cable & Wireless, Ltd..
on the Sheung Wan Post Office. ground floor, as there was in the old
A
the bulk of this demand. Hence the years 1953 to 1956 will be a memor- The remainder of this floor will able period in the history of our be occupied by the Telephone Com- Company, for this period will see the pany itself. The accommodation completion of three new main ex- will comprise an accounts office, changes. those at Leighton House: garage for a breakdown van, and Telephone House. Kowloon; and the rooms for the air-conditioning plant new Western Exchange. Although and diesel generator. these exchanges are planned to take care of the urban areas. the needs of The first floor will be entirely de- the rural communities have not been voted to apparatus required by the forgotten and plans for the develon- Telephone Exchange itself. This will ment of the New Territories have be the second largest in the Colony been going ahead."
and will be air-conditioned. It will be capable of extension up to 19.000 lines on the one floor.
The site of the new exchange is an island lot at the Sheung Wan end of Des Voeux Road. Central, ooposite Most of the second floor will be Western Market. This land was pre- used for the recreation and welfare viously occupied by a small Post Of of Telephone Company staff. Accom- fice and an office for Cable & Wireless, modation will include a large recrea- which have been demolished. Dur- tion room. a tiffin room, and ing the redevelopment, a small Tem- clinic.
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