Signal Hill/Blackhead Point - Now and Then

I took a side trip up to Signal Hill in Tsim Sha Tsui the other day because I remembered that Ryan O'Neal shot a brief scene here for Oliver's Story back in 1978. I was able to capture some reasonable comparisons on my phone and you can see them below compared to the film captures.

As you can see below, the pavilion is still there but the red tiles have been removed from the columns (I think that's a recent thing because I'm sure they were still there when I was last here a few years ago) and the balustrade finials have also been removed and just replaced with a pyramid style point.

Looking east from the battery. In the distance you can see Yau Tong/Lei Yue Mun area. The block behind Ryan O'Neal's feet is actually a granite boundary stone that has the letters W.D.L 54 etched into it. I think W.D.L should stand for War Department Lot. I think the railings are still the same ones.

This is looking towards the east side of the battery. I actually had to climb on a wall/fence for this shot because as you can see in the modern images, the battery is now fenced off for being "dangerous". I have no idea what danger it poses other than someone could potentially slip and sprain an ankle (hey, that's why the Govt have concreted miles of hiking trails in the hills).

The next angle shows the west side of the gun battery. Not much of a view today though, is there?

Oliver's Story - Ryan O'Neal (1978) - Signal Hill Garden, Tsim Sha Tsui

O'Neal goes off on a bit of a downer and goes for a wander around the garden at Signal Hill (Blackhead Point). You don't see it in the film but this is where the signal tower still stands and is actually a great little escape in the middle of busy Tsim Sha Tsui. I recommend a walk up if you get the chance. The concrete structure the old fella is practising his Taichi on in the top picture is the old gun battery - although these days it's fenced off.

Bruce Lee & I - Betty Ting Pei (1976) - Salisbury Road, Kowloon

In the flashback part of the film (well, I guess that is most of it isn't it) we see a supposedly 'young' Betty trying to cross the road in Kowloon. She's standing at Salisbury Road just a little along from the front of the Sheraton Hotel. This is an area that has changed immensely due to several factors including the reclamation that allowed the New World Centre to built, the Regal Kowloon - which has since become the Intercontinental, the removal of the old KCR terminus, only to be replaced by East TST station.

This of course was in the day when you could actually cross Salisbury Road at ground level. Now it seems to be a futile exercise in pedestrianism (is that even a word?) and instead the subways and underpasses have been designed to take you past as many shops as possible on your travels across the road. Since the road design was changed to allow quicker through traffic to use an underpass, it has also widened significantly. Sometimes I think modern life is complicated just for the sake of it...

There is a quick glimpse back up the road as well. It shows how the area looked before the newer East TST station was constructed. In front of the retaining wall on the front of Signal Hill (the wall is still there, just hidden) was an open space that also contained a children's playground.

In the screen grab above you can see the retaining wall and the trees mark the area where the playground was. When the station was built they used up the whole of that space for the station and stuck a new playground on the roof of the new station building. Thankfully Signal Hill has so far escaped all the surrounding development unscathed. Just the odd bit of obscuring its once open view, but if you fancy a quiet time in TST it is a great place to walk to - especially since the New World Centre was knocked down.