when Des Voeux Road (originally designated Strand Road) was formed. Part of this pier is shown in the photograph of Russell and Company's old offices published the other day (see 15-12-33); it is now buried near the corner of Alexandra Building. A new public pier was constructed at the same time, about the spot where the present taxi rank stands opposite the General Post Office; and there was another public pier (it was certainly projected) in the vicinity of the old King Edward Hotel at the bottom of Ice House Street, as it then existed.
When the big Praya reclamation extended the seafront outwards, giving rise to Connaught Road (see 8-1-34) the city obtained Blake Pier and the Hongkong wharf of the Star Ferry Company in exchange.
These are a few of the alterations which immediately occur to one's mind on glancing through the old plans: it is hoped to make more detailed reference to some of the changes, as occasion arises, in the course of these articles on Old Hongkong. Acknowledgment is due to the Land Office for kindly permitting examination of their old sale-plans, which form a most promising field of research.
It is intended to give a more detailed summary to-day of the principal features of the earliest sketch-maps of Victoria city, showing the buildings, localities and main wharves in the years 1841-3. Later, certain features of more than ordinary interest will be elaborated upon, showing changes which had occurred within five years, that new road alignments and various substantial premises had appeared by the time Mr. M. Bruce made his drawings of Old Hongkong which are so valuable at the present time.
Starting, for the sake of a clearer understanding, at the extreme east of the old city confines at Sookunpoo, we find the Jardine property, at what we now know as East Point, already established. The first of their old godowns (augmented in a year or two by substantial structures) were already defined; and the houses of the heads of the firm were already shown on what is now Lee Gardens, though later plans indicate that these bungalows were somewhat elaborated in following years.
Of great interest is a rather large dwelling shown on the low hill where the South China Athletic Association now have their football ground. Up to recent years the old house still stood there; but was demolished when the site was levelled in preparation for the new Queen's College. We find on searching the records that the original house belonged to Captain William Morgan, but was resumed by the Government in 1848. In 1851 it was granted to the French Superior of the Roman Catholic Mission of Wangtung (apparently the forerunner of the present French Mission), but from 1881 onwards was in the possession of various British owners, one of the first being Mr. Edmund Sharp. In 1921 it was again resumed by Government, the old dwelling was pulled down, and in due course the site was prepared for the College scheme, which has hung fire up to the present.
We find Causeway Bay of old with a large area of water, since reclaimed, opposite Tai Hang village. The idea occurs to the historian to search for the source of the name, and the search is rewarded in a later plan, dated 1846, which shows a distinct causeway crossing the rather wide mouth of a stream flowing through what is termed Hoong-heong-loo—evidently the ...
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