Possession Street
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/HK_SW_Possession_St.jpg/170px-HK_SW_Possession_St.jpg)
Possession Street (Chinese:
Name
[edit]The original Chinese name was
History
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Hong_Kong_harbour%2C_1845.jpg/250px-Hong_Kong_harbour%2C_1845.jpg)
The area was the site of Possession Point, a former point of land on the northwestern coast of Hong Kong, before land reclamation moved the spot further inland. The area is where Commodore Gordon Bremer, commander-in-chief of British forces in China, took formal possession of Hong Kong on 26 January 1841, and this date is considered as the founding of Hong Kong.[2][3]
Captain Edward Belcher, who surveyed the island in 1841, wrote: "We landed on Monday, the 25th, 1841, at fifteen minutes past eight A. M., and being the bona fide first possessors, Her Majesty's health was drank with three cheers on Possession Mount."[4] Accompanied by officers of the naval squadron the next day, Bremer took formal possession, under a feu de joie from the Royal Marines and a royal salute from the men-of-war ships.[4] The hoisting of the Union Jack was possibly done by either William Dowell, who was a midshipman during the ceremony, or Mohammed Arab, who served in either the Bengal Volunteers or 37th Madras Native Infantry.[5]
The area was kept as an open space, and used for recreation by the local Chinese, who called it Tai Tat Tei (
The point has now disappeared from the coastline, but Possession Street and the sudden turn of Queen's Road West reveals its original location. In maps of the 1980s and before, Hollywood Road Park is marked as Possession Point.
At the end of the 19th century, the street was full of brothels, until 1903, when they were relocated to Shek Tong Tsui[7] and the premises was replaced with housing. It resulted in the golden period of Shek Tong Tsui, tong sai fung yuet (塘西
See also
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
References
[edit]- ^ Possession Street on Google Maps
- ^ UK Parliament (20 January 2021). "Early Day Motion: 180th anniversary of the founding of modern Hong Kong". Archived from the original on 3 September 2021.
- ^ "
拜 登 延長 及擴大在 美 港 人 不 被 強制 離 境 兩年 :受惠人數 增 時間 長 半年 ". Radio France Internationale (in Chinese). 27 January 2023. Archived from the original on 27 January 2023.1
月 26日 是 香港 開 埠日⋯⋯香港 於1841年 1月 26日 開 埠,當日 是 英國 與 中國 滿 清 政府 簽訂《穿 鼻 草 約 》後向 香港 殖民 ,並 開放 為 自由 港 之 日 。 - ^ a b The Chinese Repository Archived 2 February 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Volume 12. Canton. 1843. p. 492.
- ^ Lowe, K. J. P. (1989). "Hong Kong, 26 January 1841: Hoisting the Flag Revisited Archived 28 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine". Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Volume 29. pp. 13–14.
- ^ Tsang, Steve (2007) [2004]. A Modern History of Hong Kong. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 16. ISBN 9781845114190.
- ^ "Early Hong Kong Brothels", Exhibition at the University Museum and Art Gallery, 26 November 2003 to 29 February 2004