There are several points associated with the development of Happy Valley (a brief history of which was given yesterday) which can be amplified. As regards the hopes, in the early years, that the mercantile quarter of the town would develop in that direction, we find wharves and godowns planned or erected from Wanchai up to East Point, and it is understood that the first substantial buildings to have been erected in the Colony after the British occupation were the so-called Albany Godowns of Messrs. Lindsay & Co., at Wanchai, and Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co.'s godowns (1843) at East Point. It is hoped to publish more about this in due course.
I am indebted to Sir Henry Pollock for the following interesting follow-up to the article on Happy Valley.
"As already pointed out, the Happy Valley was originally the fashionable part of the Colony.
"In this connexion, it may be pointed out that the first Government House was in Spring Gardens, Wanchai; and that the residence of the first Chief Justice was in the same locality, whilst close by were the houses of the two taipans of Jardines at East Point. In the Council Chamber there is now an interesting old picture, belonging to the Chater collection, which shows groups of pedestrians of many races and a few Europeans on horse-back, in the vicinity of the Happy Valley Monument, in the early days of the Colony.
"Bowrington, i.e. Bowring's town is the reclamation which took place during Sir John Bowring's Governorship, 1854-1859. (The name persists in Bowrington Canal and Bowrington Road.)
"Prior to 1890 there was a large round pond, at the northern end of the land enclosed by the race-course track, which was filled up in that year for the convenience of golfers, who started the first Hongkong Golf Club there in 1889 (now known as the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club).
"Old residents will also remember a forest of small trees to the north and north-west of the present Hongkong Football Club ground, which was cleared away in the Nineties and is now occupied by bowling clubs.
"By the way, the modern so-called Jardine's Look-Out, just above Broadwood Road, is a fraud. The real original Jardine's Look-out is a ridge of hill above the Wongnei chong Reservoir, from which there is a wide sea-view to the South, where, in the old days, men with telescopes scanned the horizon for the advent of clippers arriving from Home."
The reference to Jardine's Look-out is particularly valuable, as showing how a change of location may occur which can puzzle future generations of residents. The original Lookout still has, on one section of the ridge, the ruins of the Jardine residence.
As regards Bowrington and Sir John Bowring, it might be noted that Mr. Bowring, formerly a member of the House of Commons for Bolton, came out as a Consul at Canton in 1849, after which he returned Home and was appointed Governor of Hong Kong. He had a very stormy career in the Colony and when he left here lived in retirement, passing away in 1872, in his 80th year.
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