The reclamation of Central Waterfront in HK since 1865
The HK Island waterfront was at HSBC‛s front door in 1865
Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years - I know the place.
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The reclamation of Central Waterfront in HK since 1865
The HK Island waterfront was at HSBC‛s front door in 1865
click on the image to enlarge
© Jordan Lloyd | HSBC Headquarters circa 1865 Hong Kong | All Rights Reserved
The epic and staggering scale of the Central Waterfront Reclamation on Hong Kong Island from 1865 - 2025
“If you’re a time traveller in Hong Kong, you’d better pack a lifejacket because chances are the land you’re standing on wasn’t there 100 years ago. Since its first days as a city, Hong Kong has been shaped and reshaped by land reclamation, which has been an indispensable tool in turning 733 kilometres of craggy shoreline into a global metropolis of 7.5 million people.
Land reclamation is actually a bit of a misnomer; land creation would be more accurate. Mountains are levelled, holes excavated and the resulting soil and debris piled into the sea to extend shorelines or create artificial islands. Most of Hong Kong has been so thoroughly transformed through this process that, for many people, the city they remember from their youth no longer exists.”
If you click on the link above, there is a great story about Land Reclamation or Land Redevelopment | Creation in Hong Kong written by Christopher DeWolf who writes for Zolima Magazine and also it seems Cathay Pacific, I just love his articles which are thoroughly researched and he just nails it every time.
The image above is that of HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) back in 1865 and their first purpose built headquarters, the original image was obviously black and white and then it was colourised by our son Jordan who is a bit of an expert when it comes to colourising historic images.
What I always found fascinating is the current HSBC Headquarters at 1 Queens Road Central on Hong Kong Island stands on the same spot and I always try when possible to take my guests there, simply because it just highlights the massive land reclamation in the Central Business District on Hong Kong Island - it is hard to believe that the waterfront was literally a few steps away from the front door of the Bank in 1865.!
click on the image to enlarge
© of Images Acknowledged | All Rights Reserved
I spent a lot of time trying to find images that show the massive reclamation and HSBC Headquarters has always been a focal point of the ever changing waterfront in the Central Business District on Hong Kong Island.
the image on the left is also of HSBC Headquarters and taken from a slightly different angle and is the same as our son’s image and presumably taken around 1865 when the building was completed, it appears that it was a busy even back then
the image in the centre was clearly taken from INSIDE HSBC Headquarters and was taken around 1965 when Statue Square (the building site in front of the Bank) was being built. City Hall which had been built a few years earlier is on the right and you can see how much land had been reclaimed in 100 years, you can see where Victoria Harbour is and that was the site of the original Star Ferry Pier, the pier was about a minutes walk from City Hall, I still find it shocking that the built a new pier a 5 - 10 minutes walk from the old pier and trust me, in the summer heat and humidity it does not make for a pleasant walk but you cannot argue with the Governments plan, all that reclaimed land is also home to a massive road tunnel basically connecting the eastern end of the Island to the western end of the island.
the image on the right shows the massive scale of the reclamation, you can see City Hall and HSBC in the background in the left of the image, even though the image is from around the year 2005, this is the limit of the reclamation in the Central Business District, the ferry piers remain exactly as shown and much of the “building site” is in the final stages of buildings and such being completed. The road tunnel I mentioned above basically starts in front of IFC the 88 floor building that dominates the skyline on Hong Kong Island.
…. and yes, the writer of this article is also Christopher DeWolf!
So to be clear, you can take the Star Ferry from Kowloon across Victoria Harbour to Central Pier No. 7 on Hong Kong Island and it will take probably 15 - 20 minutes to walk to the iconic entrance of HSBC with the 2 bronze lions and this is where the waterfront used to be!
You have to give credit to successive Hong Kong Governments who where not bound by the natural form of Hong Kong Island, not enough space? well they just reclaimed the land from Victoria Harbour and this land has generated a staggering amount of revenue for the Government over the decades, most of this land is the most valuable real estate in the world.
,,,and yes there is a downside, we now have a situation where the journey time of the iconic Star Ferry is about half what it was when we arrived in Hong Kong in 1972 and over the years I have seen a few oddball stories about simply joining Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, who needs a harbour right! I am pretty sure that this will never happen.
So for me now I hope the reclamation on Hong Kong Island will stop and they need to turn their attention to the small matter of building a bridge or two to connect Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.
Watch this space.
oh and I am not quite finished with waterfront on Hong Kong Island in 1865 - see image below
click on the image to enlarge
This is one of my own image | Hong Kong Culture - HSBC Hong Kong Headquarters, The Bronze Lions - so if you want to think about the reclamation then standing here between the iconic and historic bronze lions will do the trick, this is where the waterfront of Hong Kong Island was back in 1865! and with a few steps you could take a sampan | junk across the harbour to Kowloon. Think about that.
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong |
| 2010 - 2025 All rights reserved. |
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