It is interesting to note the old Seamen's Hospital (see 15-7-33) on the site of the present Royal Naval Hospital. It was opened in 1843, and belonged to Jardine, Matheson & Co., who sold it in 1873 to the Navy, who in turn made alterations and additions to the structure.
Spring Gardens Lane, with a high-sounding name like Albany Street nearby, reminds us that, some years before this map was drawn, it had been a fashionable locality (see 26-6-33). Albany Street is now known as Tai Yuen Street, a name more in keeping with the locality as it is to-day.
The name Ship Street (later of such unsavoury associations) reminds us that shipping used to be accommodated at piers in Wanchai Bay in the old days: and here we see two piers, one an exceedingly lengthy structure opposite the seaward end of St. Francis Street.
Which brings us to the plots marking the old Protestant cemetery (see 10-7-33), later moved to Happy Valley.
There was also, it is seen, another old burial ground beside the building marked as St. Joseph Hospital.
It is interesting to note that while St. Joseph Hospital has long since gone, the St. Francis Hospital, the nearby Roman Catholic Chapel (known as St. Francis Church), and an associated Convent are still in existence. They are under the auspices of the Italian Mission; and continue to carry out a splendid, unostentatious, work of charitable service, earning the blessings of large numbers of the district's poorer classes; the maimed and the blind.
Here are a few supplementary references, following up the brief description which accompanied the old plan of Wanchai published the other day (see 30-9-33). It was shown that a remarkably long pier jutted out into the bay. This is referred to some years after the map (dated 1873) had been drawn. In the Hongkong Telegraph of August 12, 1882, attention was directed to the rotten condition of "the Long Pier at Wanchai," which was stated to be in a dangerous state, to have been demolished not very long afterwards.
It seems
In the same paper in its issue of August 12, 1881, there is a reference to the old Roman Catholic church:
"The Chapel of St. Francis at Spring Gardens is generally crowded during Mass by Europeans, who are no doubt attracted by the cleanliness of the Chapel."
It is noteworthy that the old Protestant cemetery, close to St. Francis Chapel, still had its graves at the time the map was drawn, and I find the following in the Hongkong Times of May 27, 1873:
"We are glad to observe that the old cemetery at Wanchai is now kept tolerably clean, but some improvements might yet be made. The bushes and creepers ought to be removed and some of the most effaced inscriptions restored to sight."
This cemetery was opened in the first year of British occupation (1841) and appears to have gone out of use in 1843, when it had already, most probably, become overcrowded! In 1845 we find the first reference to the allotting of a new burial ground in Happy Valley. The remains were removed from this old cemetery in 1889 (see 10-7-33).
Page 205
Page 206