Another aerial shot from
Key Witness. This one holds some interest because it shows the land being formed for what became the Science and History museums in East Tsim Sha Tsui. The first picture below gives us a nice angle on the Park Hotel as well - that's the curved grey-coloured building that sits on the corner of Cameron Road. It's one of TST's older hotels, being built in the 1960's, and is still going strong...for the time being at least.
The cluster of buildings on this side of Chatham Road South are still around and host a variety of office and commercial premises. The one most prominent (centre right) is Energy Plaza and fans of 80's HK movies will realise this is the building that Michael Wong was dangling from in Royal Warriors. The upper floors also used to house a gym and training facility patronised by many stars of yesteryear and run by a fellow called Eddie Maher. I'm not sure when it closed down - possibly sometime in the early to mid-90's?
On the right hand side is the bare piece of land that now holds the aforementioned museums. Strictly speaking that particular patch of land now houses the small park that leads up to the museums. I know the History museum moved here in 1998, and considering this aerial view was most likely taken in 1989 or thereabouts I'm not sure why it took so long for the site to be completed. Actually, on second thoughts that sounds exactly like HK.
2 comments:
The Science Museum opened first in 1991, so the site prep would've been preparatory to that, I'd imagine. (I left HK about 12-18 months later.)
That building was particularly interesting because it had to be built around Betsy, Cathay's first aircraft which formed the centerpiece of the museum.
She was located in Australia in 1983, I believe, and Cathay repurchased her, had her dismantled enough to slip her inside a 747 cargo plane, then HAECO restored her at Kai Tak. I *think* she was flown at least once post-restoration, although I'm not 100% certain of that. (I have a memory of seeing her flying near my home in Clearwater Bay, but maybe it's a figment of my imagination.)
Then she spent some time suspended from the ceiling of HAECO's hangar at Kai Tak, before being transferred to the Science Museum.
My recollection from newspapers and TV at the time was that the building was partially constructed, Betsy went on a barge from Kai Tak to Tsim Sha Tsui (wings separate but along for the ride), then she was towed backwards down the road to the museum and lowered into the building from a crane at the last possible moment before the roof was completed.
Interesting stuff there gweilo8888, i was hoping someone would be able to fill in some details. Many thanks.
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