Sunday, October 11, 2015

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Stanley Bay, Stanley

Although I can't quite nail the exact location - I suspect because it has been redeveloped already - I thought this quick scene in Stanley is worth putting because in one of the two shots we can see what used to be Ma Hang squatter village in the background.

The whole area was cleared down sometime in the 90's and the space was used to reconstruct the Murray Building in its place. The HK Govt like to tell you they recreated the building brick by brick when in actual fact a concrete centre was poured and the outer parts of the buildings such as the verandas and columns were bolted on to the new structure - hence why there are some spare columns left over and on display out front...

But anyway, I digress as usual. Here are the grabs.


 The angle of the camera suggests this was a building along Stanley Main Street near to the current roundabout. I don't think it's The Boathouse but perhaps the building next door that has since been replaced by the Stanley Beach Villa building (built 1999). If anyone has any recollections as to where this balcony was, please feel free to add a comment.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The same restaurant features in the 1990 Sammo Hung movie "Pantyhose Hero". Sammo goes there on a date, and ends up in a fight. - Jude

Phil said...

thanks Jude, I'll keep an eye out for it. Any chance you remember if it was next to "The Boathouse" - the latter, by the way, has been scheduled for redevelopment. Big shame as it's a nice looking building.

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

I have a faint impression that the present day Stanley Boathouse used to be called The Stanley (泳盧) in the early 1980's Probably under another management. I especially remember its heavy set wooden door back then. I think they only use simple whitewash then. However its balcony doesn't seem to be as wide as shown in your screen capture. Maybe it was the building next door (its previous version, I would say).

I also remember seeing a headline in SCMP months ago that someone want to demolish the Boathouse and replace it with a boutique hotel........ Ugh! Greedy landlord.......

T

Phil said...

Hi Thomas - good to know you concur with my conclusion. However, I have no idea what the previous building looked like, so it's pure guesswork on my part.

I think I read somewhere that the developer has links with Lee Shau Kei, but that may have been something else...

Cheers
Phil

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil,

We may have a photo at Gwulo showing the building after all. Please take a look at this:

http://gwulo.com/atom/22889

The low rise next too the previous reddish/brownish The Stanley.

T

Phil said...

Hi Thomas - do you mean on the far left? I guess it could be because it looks to have the open areas that could be where the railings are. It's a shame I can't seem to zoom in on that photo - I guess it wasn't uploaded with enough resolution? Still, at least we know the initial guess hasn't been proven wrong yet :-)
Phil

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil,

Yes, the far left. The reddish/brownish house next to it was 'The Stanley' in its original colour, not the current blue paint.

T

Unknown said...

I remember eating at an Indian restaurant, the Curry Pot in the 90s. It was a few floors up on Main Street and had a balcony. I believe it’s closed down now but seems the address was 6th floor, 90/B Main St. This may or may not be it, it was more in the middle of the road, rather than at the Boathouse end, and there were/are of course many restaurants on that road.

Your screen grabs here reminded me of it but I can’t say it jumped out at me when I saw the episode.

Phil said...

thanks James, I reckon someone will one day be able to tell us the exact name of the place. Until then...

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