plan, runs close to that defence work, eastward of the old Elliot Battery (part of which has now been cut off by a straightening of Pokfulum Road). The name Belcher commemorates Captain Sir E. Belcher, R.N., who landed at Possession Point and took over the Colony in the name of Her Majesty Queen Victoria in January 1841 (see 25-7-33).
The whole West Point area therefore enshrines the earliest history of this place: and it is to be regretted that chance names like these are all that remain by way of actual commemoration.
Concluding the discussion of the old West Point district as shown in the plan published yesterday, dated about 1873, we might recall some of the names associated with street and other designations.
Most of the roadways are marked numerically, suggesting a paucity of names to draw upon at the time. We have Bonham Road already dealt with (see 3-11-33) this being called after Sir S.G. Bonham, who was Governor of Hongkong from 1848 to 1854. There is a peculiar designation shown individually, and we are left to assume that it had a national significance. Perhaps some reader will be able to supply the missing link.
Queen's Road of course is named after Queen Victoria, and Battery Road was dealt with yesterday: that leaves us with Whitty Street and Pokfulum Road, if we omit the obvious names like High Street and Centre Street, and Hill Road. Whitty unfortunately is another name that is not readily traced: it is not in any list of well-known people of that early period, and again it is hoped some reader will be able to bridge the gap. Pokfulum Road is the highway leading out to Pokfulum, and this deserves a fuller reference.
It may be thought that the western suburb of the city was only developed within the past quarter century or so, but actually it derives its interest from the fact that it formed one of the earliest settlements after the founding of the Colony. We find references in the older chronicles to the building of villas out at Pokfulum in 1856. In that period the idea of forming a delightful country settlement for Europeans arose prior to thoughts turning to the Peak (see 21-11-33). So much was this the case that in the Fifties houses were built out there to serve as sanatoria: and farms were opened up at which such items as ginger and coffee were grown. It is interesting to note the former attempts to grow coffee here, for it recalls similar efforts in Malaya, doomed to ultimate failure owing to the invasion of pests and the not quite suitable climate. Some of those old buildings still remain in the Pokfulum area.
Further European residences were erected in the district early in the Sixties, when the Peak project still hung fire, and we hear of a villa garden city developing beyond West Point, some of the residences being situated in what were then picturesque surroundings on the hillside. The gradual extension of the city slum area to West Point robbed some of those old houses of their salubrity.
One of the best-known places of residence erected at Pokfulum in the late Fifties was named Douglas Castle, and the connexion with the late Mr. Douglas Lapraik is obvious. At a later period it is hoped to write more extensively about this building; it was, I understand, taken over by the Nazareth Mission, and forms the nucleus of their well-known settlement at Pokfulum.
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24.
plan, runs close to that defence work, eastward of the old Elliot Battery (part of which has now been cut off by a straightening of Pokfulum Road). The name Belcher commemorates Captain Sir E. Belcher, R.N., who landed at Possession Point and took over the Colony in the name of Her Mejesty Queen Victoria in January 1841 (see 25-7-33).
The whole West Point area therefore enshrines the earliest history of this place: and it is to be regretted that chance names like these are all that remain by way of actual commemoration.
Concluding the discussion of the old West Point district as shown in the plan published yesterday, dated about 1873, we might recall some of the names associated with street and other designations.
Most of the roadways are marked numerically, suggesting a paù-city of names to draw upon at the time. We have Bonham Road already dealt with (see 3-11-33) this being called after Sir S.G. Bonham, who was Governor of Hongkong from 1848 to 1854. There is a peculiar designation shown individual, and we are left to assume that it had a national significance. Perhaps some reader will be able to supply the missing link.
Queen's Road of course is named after Queen Victoria, and Battery Road was dealt with yesterday: that leaves us with Whitty Street and Pokfulum Road, if we omit the obvious names like High Street and Centre Street, and Hill Road. Whitty unfortunately is another name that is not readily traced: it is not in any list of well-known people of that early period, and again it is hoped some reader will be able to bridge the gap. Pokfulum Road is the highway leading out to Pokfulum, and this deserves a fuller reference.
!
It may be thought that the western suburb of the city was only developed within the past quarter century or so, but actually it derives its interest from the fact that it formed one of the earliest settlements after the founding of the Colony. We find references in the older chronicles to the building of villas out at Pokfulum in 1856. In that period the idea of forming a delightful country settlement for Europeans arose prior to thoughts turning to the Peak (see 21-11-33). So much was this the case that in the Fifties houses were built out there to serve as sanatoria: and farms were opened up at which such items as ginger and coffee were grown. It is interesting to note the former attempts to grow coffee here, for it recalls similar efforts in Malaya, doomed to ultimate failure owing to the invasion of pests and the not quite suitable climate. Some of those old buildings still remain in the Pokfulum area.
Further European residem es were erected in the district early in the Sixties, when the Peak project still hung fire, and we hear of a villa garden city developing beyond West Point, some of the residences being situated in what were then picturesque surroundings on the hillside. The gradual extension of the city slum area to West Point robbed some of those old houses of their salubrity.
One of the best-known places of residence erected at Pokfulum in the late Fifties was named Douglas Castle, and the connexion with the late Mr. Douglas Lapraik is obvious. At a later period it is hoped to write more extensively about this building it was, I understand, taken over by the Nazareth Mission, and forms the nucleus of their well- known settlement at Pokfulum.
483
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