Monday, April 24, 2017

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay

Whoops! I missed this one when I was looking at Yee Wo Street just a few posts ago. The reason is because it is in the same sequence, just seen, as the car leaves the ferry pier and drives back up Jordan Road. The giveaway in this sequence of shots is the unmistakable presence of the Great George Building with its old Daimaru signs at the top. True fact: There are still red minibuses in HK that use "Daimaru" as a destination on their front sign boards, even though the pace closed many years ago.


So it looks as though the film posters were perhaps attached to scaffolding that was shielding the site of the -yet-to-be-constructed Hong Kong Mansion building on the corner of Gt. George Street, East Point Road and Yee Wo St. This means that funky curved building is the precursor to the modern day Island Beverley and the smaller buildings on the left are on the opposite side of East Point Road and were replaced by the old wing of the East Point Centre - which, of course, has hosted SOGO for many years.

Does anyone remember what was in that nice curved building? It's a really nice looking building and far more stylish with the big gold box that replaced it.

6 comments:

C said...

The Chinese characters on the wall suggests that it was a men's hostel called Hop Kwan Building.

Phil said...

Thanks C. Do you think there was a shop of some sort on the ground floor as well?

C said...

There was a restaurant called Peking Restaurant (東興樓, pronounced Tung Hing Lau) on the ground floor of Hop Kwan Building men's hostel (not sure if it is the official English name; Chinese name is 合羣大厦男子公寓).

Phil said...

Many thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil,

I believe the Hostel stayed until the mid-1970s, before being rebuilt or remodeled into a small Hotel called Goldberg (金堡酒店)。 The current building (The Island Beverley) was inaugurated in 1984.

T

Phil said...

Thanks Thomas. It's an interesting little building, I don't think i have ever seen pictures of it before.
Cheers, Phil

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