Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - View from The Tregunter, Central

As we have already established, Rose Court in the series is actually The Tregunter in Central mid-levels. The only thing I wasn't completely certain of initially is whether it was Tower 1, 2 that was being used, however, after reviewing the following panorama, I think I am wrong about both of those. Here's why. 

The screen grab is an edited view from Orlanda's balcony in Rose Court. The building on the right is Garden Terrace (built 1983) and moving left the smaller one with the blueish decor is Hollywood Heights (1977). The Albany is missing because it wasn't completed until 1989, which means construction probably hadn't begun yet (remember, the missing Standard Chartered means filming took place probably in 1986 or early 1987). The small low rise buildings at the very bottom of the picture are the roofs of Pine Court and Kam Yuen Mansion, and of course this view would now be completely blocked by the wall-like edifices that are Queen's Garden and Dynasty Court. But what is also missing is Tower 3 of The Tregunter itself.

Tower 3 is a bit of a mystery, but it seems that an initial Tower 3 was built at the same time as Towers 1 and 2 but was significantly smaller in size. It wasn't extended to its current height until 1993. I say extended, but actually, it looks like the original tower was demolished and rebuilt from scratch. Anyway, it seems that Tower 3 was the one that stood in for Rose Court throughout the series and a quick comparison of the entrance on Old Peak Road seems to confirm as such (see this updated post).

If anyone knows the actual reasons behind the redevelopment it would interesting to hear about because at the moment I can only suppose that either there was an initial height restriction due to plot ratio/height restrictions (this seems to be the main reason in HK but also appears to be ignored anyway while the Govt Depts responsible for oversight wring their hands nervously).

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - So Kwun Wat, Tuen Mun

I can remember Thomas identifying this next location several years ago, but for some reason when I moved my blog, this one was forgotten about. The location is the one where John Chen's body is dumped after the bungled kidnapping. The big clue here was the building at the back that belonged to the Koon Lam Vegetable Marketing Co-operative Society. It looks as though the Vegetable Marketing Co-operative society was/is part of a larger organisation, the Vegetable Marketing Organisation, that was set up post-war to encourage local farming as a way to help recovery from the occupation.

The Koon Lam branch ( the name on the building reads from right to left : 管欖區蔬菜產銷有限責任合作社 ) was situated in So Kwun Wat, now part of Tuen Mun District, and you can see an old picture of it on the VMO website. But here it is back in the 80's when it was the site for a fictitious murder/body dump.

Unfortunately for me, So Kwun Wat has undergone a significant amount of development since the filming and the whole area has seen not just small house development, but also large residential developments and even a couple of large schools. All this means that finding the exact location of this little building is a bit difficult, but judging from a few visible landmarks I think it is safe to say that it stood on the side of So Kwun Wat Road. If you compare the mountains at the back of the second from last picture, you can see they match with the ones in the Streetview below.

And the hillock behind Gordon Jackson in the bottom picture looks very much as though it is the small hillock that is now hidden behind the Mrs Cheng Yam On Millenium School at the far end of So Kwun Wat Road.

Anyway, perhaps someone out there can be more exact, but for the moment I have marked the location along So Kwun Wat Road behind the Avignon development.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Hillier Street, Sheung Wan

In one of the Aberdeen bank scenes when the copper tries to catch the gangster who is robbing the bank patrons, a chase ensues and both end up running along Hillier Street towards the junction with Jervois Street. 

The first two shots show Hillier Street, first looking north (towards the Jervois St junction), the second looking back towards the south towards the junction with Burd St.

Here are the current Streetview's. Some change, but also quite a few buildings are still recognisable.

And then later when the policeman loses his gangster and turns to look up and down Jervois St. Top picture facing east, second one facing west.

Followed by the current Streetview. Note that looking westward (second picture) you can just make out the green building that was featured in this blog post.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - King's Road, North Point

Another brief snippet of Hong Kong normality is this quick look at a tram traveling along the road. This was filmed all the way over in North Point where there is a pedestrian flyover where King's Road meets Tong Shui Road.

It looks as though the tram will be terminating at Sai Ying Pun but I'm not sure. Anyway, this view is looking east, much of the signage has been removed but the flyover is still around as are some of the building in the background.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Sham Wan, Aberdeen

Probably the standout sequence from Episode 2 is the massive fire on board the "Floating Dragon" restaurant. Of course, this is one of the disasters from the novel that was based on real events when the original Jumbo restaurant went up in flames in October 1971. The restaurant had yet to be opened to the public but there were still a massive amount of deaths (30+) from the fire and the whole thing had to be rebuilt.

The version of the Jumbo that finally opened in 1976 and still sits in the Sham Wan section of Aberdeen Harbour is the same one that can be seen below - although obviously it was a sophisticated mock-up that was torched for the TV show along with the use of a not-so-sophisticated miniature (with little toy boats floating around it.

So in the pictures below you can see the boarding pontoons that are tied up at the end of Sham Wan Pier Drive behind the Aberdeen Marina Club (it's a private members club owned and operated by the Shangri-La Hotel group) as well as a nice glitzy closeup of the front section.

We finish this post with a brief glimpse back towards the shore line with the pontoons and the Aberdeen Marina Club in the background.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - The Tregunter, Mid-levels

Who can forget the destruction of Rose Court both on film and in the book - a fictional event based on a horrific real one that occurred in 1972 along Po Shan and Kotewall Roads. In reality, the fictional Rose Court is actually a rather famous residential development called The Tregunter which, at one point, held the world record as the tallest residential building. The Tregunter actually consists of three blocks staggered up the hill and after initially thinking this was either Block 1 or 2, I am now fairly certain it was actually the - since redeveloped - Block/Tower 3.

A quick look at Streetview shows me that Tower 3 is most likely (for reasons explained here) and you can see the redeveloped entrance along Old Peak Road below.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Jervois Street, Hong Kong

Here is another location identified by Thomas. These is the scene when the old A-Mah is followed back to her house by the police (played by an uncredited Stuart Ong I think?) and there is a shot of her on the balcony doing some spring cleaning. I think regulars around the Jervois St area will be quite familiar with the building next to the Amah because it is still standing even if the old block she is in has since been redeveloped.

The modern day comparison is supplied by  Thomas, so many thanks to him for the ID as well as the picture. In case you don't know, the grey building now stands where the older one stood, but as you can see the shophouse next door hasn't changed a bit.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - The Cenotaph, Central

This area is off-limits to pedestrians these days but it does appear, at some point in the past, to have been freely accessible to the public. The other thing to notice in this scene, which I had failed to do previously, is that the Standard Chartered building is missing beside the HSBC building. This puts a date on the filming sometime around 1987. According to wiki, the Palmer and Turner (now P&T) designed current building didn't start construction until March of that year. In this scene it looks like an empty space, so whether or not that counts as construction started I have no idea.

Although I failed to capture it in the screen grabs below, the Cenotaph was only recently (Nov 2013) declared a protected monument. Modeled on the very same Cenotaph back in London, this one was originally erected in 1923 to commemorate the Great War, but obviously has since been changed to remember World War Two as well - quite apt seeing as the structure still shows obvious signs of damage from bullets fired during the defence against the Japanese invasion in December 1941.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Man Mo Temple, Hollywood Road

This is another one of those places that has been used several times before. But here we see it at night time as Philip Chen (played by Burt Kwouk...RIP) goes about his not-so-legit business i.e. trying to deliver the ransom money to his son's kidnappers.

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Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Western District Community Centre, Sai Ying Pun

What is supposedly Aberdeen Police Station in the series, is in fact nowhere near Aberdeen but in the middle of Western Hong Kong Island in Sai Ying Pun. Locating this place was made easy by the street sign in the second picture, but this place is quite well-known so it wouldn't have taken too long given the absence of other clues.

The Western District Community Centre started life as a hospital, the old Tsan Yuk Hospital to be precise, built in 1922 and still going strong. You can read more about it on the wiki entry here. It has been given a Grade 3 status which, as you should all know by now, means totally nothing in terms of its ongoing survival.

Real building, fake sign

Coincidentally, the building also contains the Conservancy Association's Centre for Heritage. Streetview below.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Edinburgh Place, Central

Edinburgh Place has featured quite a few times on this blog now, and here we see it once again with its recognisable (and still standing...for the time being) car park. You can see Jardine House and the main post office at the back and on the far right of the second picture is the roof extension/cover for the Star Ferry entrance, now all gone along with the pier itself.

I'm sure at some point this car park will be considered a design classic - it has certainly outlasted a lot more of its slightly more architecturally-aesthetic neighbours (Queen's Pier, Star Ferry, Hong Kong club etc). From certain angle it's almost as if the place hasn't changed at all - see the Streetview below.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - The Regent Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

What we now know as the rather plush Intercontinental Hotel, used to be called The Regent Hotel and was owned and operated by New World Development (Cheng Yu-tung's company - he also owns the Chow Tai Fook jewellery chain) before being sold off to the Intercontinental Group circa 2001. It was rebranded and has operated as the flagship Intercontinental since then.

Funnily enough, Intercontinental have also just recently sold off the hotel to another owner. But all is not lost for your IC fans because the brand will continue thanks to a deal they struck to retain management of the hotel for at least the next 40 or so years...

In the above picture we are looking back the other way towards Salisbury Road and it's quite interesting to see (if you can just make it out) the old signal tower on Blackhead Point (top right). The grey building beyond the van is the Mariner Club along Middle Road. Suffice to say the open sky at the back is now filled with high-rises.

The two shots above are snipped from Episode 2, but we also return to the hotel during Episode 3 when Dunross goes to meet Brian Kwok, only to find out he is 'indisposed'. So in Epsiode 3 we also get a brief look inside the hotel lobby. From what I can remember of the place it hasn't changed much.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Central Police Station, Hong Kong

In this post we see the Central Police Station which was recently undergoing a major refurbishment and was supposed to be open full time last year (2015). However, just yesterday (29 May 2016) it seems that a major part of the building has collapsed. Time will tell the cause but I wouldn't rule out human stupidity at this point, HK seems to be infected with it of late.

Anyway, in case you wanted to remember how it all looked 30 years ago, here are the grabs from Noble House.

Southern building facade

Apparently, this is the real Interior

Driveway to central courtyard