north by Hollywood Road, south by Staunton Street, east by Aberdeen Street and west by a line of granite steps? On the Hollywood Road frontage was the Lunatic Asylum, the Man Yue Tong booksellers, and a few Chinese houses. The main site was covered by the scattered ruins of old European properties. Queen's College now crowns the plot.
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One of the more interesting lines of research work for a local historian is the tracing of street names. From time to time we have had references in these articles to the famous people of the past whose memory is retained in the designation of some local thoroughfare; but there is still a long list of names available through perusal of the official street Index, such as the new roadways on the Praya East reclamation, and with these it is intended to deal later. Apart from that aspect, however, are a fair number of names which might entirely elude the general public, and are worthy of research. I intend to take a few and deal with them here.
Reference has already been made on several occasions to Caroline Hill and Mount Caroline, and in Sookunpoo we find Caroline Road. Now, who was Caroline? Apparently the name of some lady, just as Violet Hill must commemorate a Christian name for the place is not noted for any floral violets. Can any reader give a solution, or must the query remain unanswered for the present, like "Who was Murray," Wyndham and several others?
Keeping to an alphabetical order, we find Catchick Street, at Kennedy Town. The index fortunately sets us wise immediately - this was formerly Chater Street. When Chater Road was named on the new Central Praya, confusion was avoided by taking Sir Paul Chater's other name for the Kennedy Town lane.
Causeway Road, we recently noted, commemorates the old causeway along the line of which it runs; but a more difficult problem is set by Chico Terrace, a private road off Peel Street. Tradition has it that this place was named after a notorious piracy of old, and on turning up the records we find an account of the piracy of the Danish brig "Chico" towards the close of 1863. The vessel while passing through the Lyemoon passage was attacked by pirates who murdered some of her crew, and the affair caused something of a sensation even at a time when freebooters were unusually active. Rewards were offered for the arrest of the guilty parties, and it was suspected that besides the Chinese pirates certain British and American freebooters were involved. It was a period when some of the se gentry were associating with the Chinese in manning raiding junks. The name commemorates an interesting piece of history and practically dates the building of the original terrace, consisting of four houses.
Passing over various names, like Conduit Road, Cross Street and Electric Street, which are self-explanatory, we come to a short private pathway off Robinson Road leading to Elliot Crescent. This is almost the sole commemoration to-day of the first Administrator of the Colony, Captain Charles Elliot, R.N. As previously noted, Glenealy has replaced the name Elliot's Vale, and Elliot Battery was done away with some years ago on the realignment of the Pokfulam Road.
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