We interrupt this Legacy of Rage broadcast to bring you a location that I could not track down when I first looked at this film back in 2015. Over the years the tools at my disposal have got much better (3D GoogleEarth is a HUGE help) and so I had remembered this place from That Man Bolt. It's a rather nice looking property with an extensive garden that Bolt (Fred Williamson) wakes up at one day. It's been a while since I saw the film so I can't remember the story but I expect it was some sort of romantic liaison.
I was eventually able to identify part of the background and have pinpointed it to the property located at 15 Cooper Road in the Jardines Lookout area above Happy Valley. The building is still around and also goes by the name of Valley View (also 愉苑 in Chinese which basically means "happy garden"). It was built in the 1950s, and if you look at GoogleEarth you can still make out the kidney-shaped pool and stone bridge in the back garden.
I have no idea who owns the property but a lack of recorded transactions are usually indicative of it being owned by a limited company. This allows it to change hands via selling the company rather than the property - a common occurance in Hong Kong because it avoids Govt stamp duty and usually keeps the owner anonymous (unless their names get leaked in a "panama papers" style data dump).
9 comments:
Interesting facade on this property because many, if not most, 1950s houses were concrete boxes with windows. Are those prefab construction panels on this exterior? I recall my boss telling me about a prefab house in Repulse Bay that was put together in '90s in a very short time.
I also like the two protruding air conditioners on the ground-floor. I can't see the brand, but it is likely not Friedrich, had a few of those as a kid. Actually, there is a restaurant in NYC that still runs an old Friedrich. Was in there recently and was very surprised the eco hypocrites, I mean activists, haven't shamed them into removing it.
The house two doors down from this is another old colonial, albeit modernised, propert. It has been on the market and I've seen recent pictures/video of it. I remember the original owner selling that house in 2002 and the boss man might have even gone to take a look at it.
It looks like some sort of cladding. Maybe in vogue in the 70s? I still have all of those types of Aircon in my flat...4 of them!
Got the 'Failed to Publish' error a few times while trying to make this comment. I thought it published last night, but looks like it did not.
All the available streetviews do not show any cladding on this property. I did find an old directory that refers to a resident at the 1st floor of this address.
No. 19 has been reclad recently according to Earth 3D. The pictures I saw in a newspaper a couple months back, when it was still available for lease, still showered the original, white, concrete exterior.
yeah, sometimes Google throws a bit of a wobbly. I really only started using blogspot because wordpress charged me for image hosting over a certain amount.
I expect the cladding went a long time ago once it went out of fashion-maybe it was just plastic put up just for the film, who knows? These older buildings look so much better with their original finish - as long as it is properly maintained. Not an easy ask given the harsh climate.
Yes, blogspot seems fine again, so I can write a comment totally unrelented to this charming property.
For some reason I suddenly remembered seeing a modern "castle" in Hong Kong. During the 1980s, some smaller 3-4,000 sq. ft. castle-like homes sprung up in affluent American suburbs and the HK version was like that. However gaudy and vulgar they were for the most part, at the least the American castles used stone and brick, whereas this local knockoff I think was just a concreted exterior with two square turrets and a dizzying number of Guelph merlons and crenels along the top. There was a square, car porch/portico with a balcony that was ringed by yet more merlons and crenels.
Have you seen a house like this, phil? No, I'm not drunk... I really did see a house like this in a late-'80s, possibly '90s, Hong Kong film or maybe it was on local tele.
Hi Rodney, nothing springs to mind other than Green Jade (aka Tsing Bik Villa) in Tuen Mun, or Euston in the mid-levels. I'm sure it will turn up one day and the penny will drop.
Hi Phil, adding this tidbit after I stumbled on a scene from a local TV series that was filmed on the same street. As I commented above, I found a directory that once showed a resident at 1/F of Bolt's No. 15. The property in the series I just saw was No. 8 and it was clearly a house on old maps, but by the mid-'80s, it might have been turned into flats. The intercom outside the gate had three buttons for the residents and a gweilo's name was the only one shown in full lol. I wonder if a few of these houses were turned into full-floor flats at some point like the old Belgian consul residence at 22 Barker.
In the penultimate screen grab where Bolt is walking by the pond, there are other houses on Cooper Road visible. The house with the slanted, greeen roof should be No. 10 and No. 8 the taller, white facade house that looks like flats. Then I think Purves Road houses are above, No. 4 being the one with the red facade and No. 3 the flat-roofed house.
Thanks for the follow up, Rodney. I'm very tempted to start wading through old TV shows as well. There must be some gems captured on those as well. Phil
Practically all of the old TVB shows are available through their my tv service. I have also noticed that some houses were used only for one scene or exterior shot, which makes them downright impossible to identify in the absence of visible background scenery. I would say that most of the gems I have seen are in the lavishly produced, extra long series that TVB aired in its 7 PM to 8 PM hour from '76 to mid-'80, at which point they were discontinued due to a change in the preferences of the audience as told by Wikipedia.
No. 8 was owned by a family surnamed Chan from at least the '60s. I took another look at the show I first stumbled on a few days back, Chan could still be seen at the top of the intercom above the middle button. The third resident's name was the furthest right on the panel and obstructed by the actor's hand. The presumably G/F resident had his full name shown like it was a joke on the gweilo.
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