781
FEDDER STREET
THE PREDECESSOR OF BLAKE PIER
I publish to-day a photograph of the northern end of Pedder Street taken thirty-five years ago, when the central reclamation had just been completed, and temporary landing steps sufficed at the water's edge pending the construction of Blake Pier.
It is interesting to trace the history of this, one of the oldest landing stages in the Colony. In the beginning a rude wooden pier was constructed, on a site approximately where the automatic light signal now stands in the middle of Des Voeux Road. This was the original seafront.
The first Harbour Master of Hong Kong, Lieutenant William Pedder R.N. had his name given to the wharf; as it was to the rising land east of Wyndham Street, where his office was built which for many years was known as Pedder's Hill.
In due course we find "Pedder's Wharf" already a definite locality of the city, and several business firms had their address as such, in the old records.
There are no details at present available of the earlier changes at this site, but by the Eighties it was evidently found necessary to reconstruct the pier, and a substantial wooden one was constructed.
It is interesting to find the following, in the Hong Kong Telegraph of February 12, 1886.
"The first pile of the new Pedder's Wharf was driven at 11.35 o'clock this forenoon, at a distance of 38 feet from the Praya Wall. This pile is of Aranga wood, one foot in breadth and depth and 24 feet long, iron-shod at both ends. Three similar piles have been towed over from Tsim-tsa-tsui and are ready to be put in place.
"The operations this morning were under the superintendence of Mr. J. Cramp, clerk of works in the Public Works Department. Governor Bowen being absent from the Colony a boon for which we cannot be too grateful the Honourable the Surveyor General did not honour the interesting ceremony with his distinguished presence. There was, consequently, no speechifying, toadying, or lickspittling à la the first sod cutting farce at the bogus Bowen Park fiasco. We marvel that Mr. J. M. Price has not discovered that it is the desire of the community at large to name the new wharf after his complacent patron, the practically defunct Sir Jaw Bone! Seen the folly of his ways eh? Not exactly. Only lying back for his opportunity. And so are we. Success to the new Pedder's wharf."
The above quotation brings rather forcibly to mind the hatred which Sir George Bowen had inspired in certain sections of the European population: as well as the unrestrained and undignified language in which he was attacked by the malcontents.
Anyhow, the language apart, it gives us a clue to the date when the new Pedder's Wharf (to remain so named until the close of the century) was built, and the material of which it was constructed.
From later account, it is shown that the wharf was situated exactly at the foot of Pedder's Street, its centre line coinciding with the centre line of the roadway. It extended 195 feet out from the Praya wall, and was 40 feet broad, having six sets of steps down to the water. Messrs. Lane, Crawford supplied the Aranga timber of which the wharf was constructed.
When the big reclamation scheme was commenced in the Nineties this pier had to go, and its site became an inland point. The photograph reproduced here shows the reclamation completed, ready
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Page 206
781
FEDDER STREET
THE PREDECESSOR OF BLAKE PIER ·
I publish to-day a photograph of the northern end of Pedder Ptreet taken thirty-five years ago, when the central reclamation had just been completed, and temporary landing steps sufficed at the water's edge pending the construction of Blake Pier.
It is interesting to trace the history of this, one of the oldest landing stages in the Colony. In the beginning a rude wooden pier was constructed, on a site approximately where the automatic light signal now stands in the middle of Des Voeux Road. This was the original seafront.
The first Harbour Master of Hong Kong, Lieutenant William Pedder R.N. had his name given to the wharf; as it was to the rising lnad east of Wyndham Street, where his office was built which for amny years was known as Pedder's Hill.
In due course we find "Pedder's Wharf" already a definite locality of the city, and several business firms had their address as such, in the old records.
There are no details at present available of the earlier changes at this site, but by the Eighties it was evidently found necessary to reconstruct the pier, and a substantial wooden one was constructed.
It is interesting to find the following, in the Hong Kong Telegraph of February 12, 1886.
"The first pile of the new Pedder's, Wharf was driven at 11.35 o'clock this forenoon, at a distance of 38 feet from the Praya Wall. This pile is of Aranga wood, one foot in breadth and depth and 24 feet long, iron-shod at both ends, Three similar piles have been towed over from Tsim-tsa-stui and are ready to be put in place.
S
"The operations this morning were under the superintendence · of Mr. J. Cramp, clerk of works in the Public works Department. Governor Bowen being absent from the Colony a boon for which we cannot be too grateful the Honourable the Surveyor General did not honour the interesting ceremony with his distinguished presence. There was, consequently, no speechifying, toadying, or lickspittling a la the first sod cutting farce at the bogus Bowen Park fiasco. We marvel that Mr. J. M. Price has not discovered that it is the desire of the community at large to name the new wharf after his complacent patron, the practically defunct Sir Jaw Bone! Seen the folly of his ways eh? Not exactly. Only lying back for his opportunity. And so are we. Success to the new Pedder's wharf."
The above quotation brings rather forcibly to mind the hatred which Sir George Bowen had inspired in certain sections of the European population: as well as the unrestrained and undignified language in which he was attacked by the malcontents.
Anyhow, the language apart, it gives us a clue to the date when the new Pedder's Wharf (to remain so named until the close of the century) was built, and the material of which it was constructed.
From later account, it is shown that the wharf was situated exactly at the foot of Pedder's Street, its centre line coin- ciding with the entre line of the roadway. It extended 195 feet out from the Praya wall, and was 40 feet broad, having six sets of steps down to the water. Messrs. Lane, Crawford supplied the Aranga timber of which the wharf was constructed.
*
*
When the big reclamation scheme was commenced in the Nineties this pier had to go, and its site became an inland point. The photograph reproduced here shows the reclamation completed, ready
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