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Victoria City, Hong Kong
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Have you ever written your address like that? Probably not, but if you live on Hong Kong island there's a good chance your address lies within the 'City of Victoria'. Here's a map showing the city boundary, as laid out in Solomon Bard's book 'In search of the past: A guide to the antiquities of Hong Kong':
The red dots on the map above show where the stone markers can be seen along the boundary line. Here's a picture of the one on Wong Nai Chung Road:
Dr Bard's book says that there were six stones erected, and that all remain today. However I note that a couple of local websites believe that there is a seventh stone on Magazine Gap Road - look at the top right photo here, for example.
Has anyone seen a government record describing when the stones were erected? That would clarify how many there were originally, and how it was decided which points along the boundary needed marker stones. My guess is that a stone was used when the description of the boundary could be misunderstood, eg when there was no other clear landmark to identify the boundary's course.
Here's an example from 25th Jan, 1901, showing how Hong Kong's continuous development made it difficult to give a fixed description of the boundary:
The ATTORNEY -GENERAL said―Just before coming into the Council it was pointed out to me that in the definition of the city of Victoria the eastern boundary is described as― "A straight line from the skew bridge at the south-west corner of Causeway Bay to Wong-nai Chung public school-house, produced southward until it meets the southern boundary." I am informed that the skew bridge here mentioned has been recently done away with. I therefore put myself into communication with the Director of Public Works, and he suggested that instead of the words "skew bridge" we should use the words "centre of the nullah crossing the Shaukiwan Road."
The point "Wong-nai Chung public school-house" is the same as the Wong Nai Chung Rd marker - the rightmost marker on the map. If you follow the boundary from there up and to the right to the next turn of the boundary, that would have been the "skew bridge" mentioned above. The bridge lay on the coastline in 1901, and so marked the end of the boundary. You can see that reclamation means the boundary has had to be extended Northwards several times since then.
Even though we don't hear the term "City of Victoria" used today, the boundary is still legally recognised (though I'm not aware of when it is used - any suggestions?). Here is the latest description I could find, written in 1998:
BOUNDARIES OF THE CITY OF VICTORIA
On the north-The Harbour;
On the west-A line running due north and south drawn through the north-west angle of Inland Lot No. 1299 and extending southwards a distance of 850 feet from the aforesaid angle;
On the south-A line running due east from the southern extremity of the western boundary until it meets a contour in the vicinity of the Hill above Belchers 700 feet above principal datum, that is to say, a level 17.833 feet below the bench-mark known as "Rifleman's Bolt", the highest point of a copper bolt set horizontally in the east wall of the Royal Navy Office and Mess Block Naval Dockyard, and thence following the said contour until it meets the eastern boundary;
On the east-A line following the west side of the Government Pier, Bay View and thence along the west side of Hing Fat Street, then along the north side of Causeway Road to Moreton Terrace. Thence along the west side of Moreton Terrace to the south-east corner of Inland Lot No. 1580 and produced in a straight line for 80 feet, and thence along the north side of Cotton Path and produced until it meets the west side of Wong Nei Chong Road on the east side of Wong Nei Chong Valley and thence to the south-east angle of Inland Lot No. 1364, produced until it meets the southern boundary.
Finally, how many of the boundary stones have you seen? Pictures below, with locations as described on this LCSD page (it also has some more history about the City of Victoria).
MrB
Following the boundary in a clockwise direction, the first stone is at the pedestrian road of the car park opposite to St. Paul's Convent School at Wong Nai Chung Road:
Bowen Road near Stubbs Road:
Old Peak Road near Tregunter Path:
Hatton Road near Po Shan Road
The south of Pokfulam Road near the pedestrian subway of Mount Davis Road:
The Kennedy Town Temporary Recreation Ground at Sai Ning Street:
The Magazine Gap Road boundary stone
Thanks to reader Moddsey for tracking this down:
He also managed to find more detailed information in records from Legco about when the boundary was formalised:
Thanks Moddsey!
MrB
Was there an eighth marker stone?
As Moddsey writes above, there seems to be a large gap in the middle of the island without any marker stones. Were there more than the seven we've seen?
My first thought was to look at old maps from the early twentieth century, in the hope that the marker stones would be shown on the map. I thought if I could see any special mark on the map at a place I know a stone exists today, I could then look across the map for the same mark at any other places.
No luck with that approach, but I did find a 1964 government map that showed the boundary in more detail. I've marked the boundary in blue, and also the points where the boundary crosses a road. Green marks are where a stone exists today (including the 7th stone on Magazine Gap Rd), and red marks are possible locations of extra stones.
I felt that the Wanchai Gap Road was the most likely place we'd see another stone, but despite a sweaty walk up the hill from Wanchai, I couldn't find any trace of a marker stone. Maybe there would be a stone on Stubbs Rd?
Moddsey made a valid point that Stubbs Road was unlikely, for the simple reason that it did not exist in 1903, the date on the stones. The name 'Stubbs Road' was only gazetted in 1923, soon after the road was completed.
He then went on to search the old government records to see if any details of the stones' locations could be found. No luck there, but he found a couple of relevant entries from the Director of Works' Annual Reports:
Hmmm, so although the stones were dated 1903, they may not have been erected until 1924, and some as late as 1929! With this in mind, Moddsey took a walk through the likely areas for extra stones:
We've run out of ideas for now. If anyone has more definitive information about the original number and location of the stones, please do let us know.
MrB
Just a bit of nitpicking
The Wong Nai Chong is at the opposite of St Paul's Primary Catholic School (Homepage). The same holy order started St Paul's Convent School in Causeway Bay where it is still located in late 19th century and its primary school was relocated in Happy Valley in 1927. Somehow the two schools split and this primary school turned to St Paul's Secondary School (we call it St Paul's at Happy Valley), owned by the same holy order.
I checked whether Moddsey's
I checked whether Moddsey's path mentioned existed on Centamap, and it did exist. Look at this image from Centamap-- there is a faint grey line from Wanchai Gap Road to the Magazine Gap Service Reservoir, along the 200m contour line.
Well spotted
That also gives another idea of where to look on Wanchai Gap Rd. If I zoom in one more level on the Centamap, it shows the 210m contour. 700ft = appx 213m, so any stone should have been just above the 210m contour.
Cheers, MrB
Junction of the eastern and southern boundaries
Hello! I just read Hong Kong Guide 2007. It shows that there is a footpath around Middle Gap leading the way downhill from Black's Link to a point up hill behind the Mount Nicholson Gap Flats. At that point, the footpath forks into two. Both are blind ended. One of them further leads the way up a point up hill behind Rosaryhill School and ends there. Surprised! That end point is just the junction of the eastern and southern boundaries of the City of Victoria. I haven't paid a visit but thought it a reasonable guess for another location of a boundary stone.
Cheers,
JT
So it would mark
the point of the sharp turn in the boundary? Do let us know if you get a chance to check out the area.
A couple of months back I did have another good look around the Wanchai Gap area, based on the extra info about the contour, but no sign of any stone.
MrB
The shifting eastern boundary
Reader Isdl notes this definition of the eastern boundary in 1911 (see page 8):
The Queen's Recreation Ground covered the area that is now Central library + Causeway Bay Sports Ground + Chinese Recreation Club sports ground.
This is the only boundary that was repeatedly redefined as reclamation and development changed the landmarks in that area. There is almost no change in the definitions of the other three boundaries between the 1911 and 1988 versions.
MrB