Hollywood Road

Hollywood Road

Hollywood Road – view from near PMQ
Traditional Chinese 荷李活道
(also 荷里活道)
No65 Hollywood, the national father had always visited here in 1880s~1890s
Hollywood Road
A traditional rice dealer on the road.
Central Police Station

Hollywood Road is a street in Central and Sheung Wan, on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. The street runs between Central and Sheung Wan, with Wyndham Street, Arbuthnot Road, Ladder Street, Upper Lascar Row, and Old Bailey Street in the vicinity.

Hollywood Road was the second road to be built when the colony of Hong Kong was founded, after Queen's Road Central. It was the first to be completed. The Man Mo Temple was a place for trial in very early years.

Name

Hollywood Road was put up early in 1844, before the more famous Hollywood in California was settled. The street runs between Central and Sheung Wan, with Wyndham Street, Arbuthnot Road, Ladder Street, Upper Lascar Row, and Old Bailey Street in the vicinity.

It was probably named by Sir John Francis Davis, the second Governor of Hong Kong, after his family home at Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol, England.[1] Another origin mentioned for the name is that holly shrubs were growing in the area when the road was constructed. Such plants were not indigenous to the area and would have been imported.[2]

History

Hollywood Road was the second road to be built when the colony of Hong Kong was founded, after Queen's Road Central. It was the first to be completed. Like most major roads in the early years of the colony, Hollywood Road was built by the Royal Engineers.[1] More than 100 years ago, Hollywood Road was rather close to the coastline. In those days, foreign merchants and sailors would put up the antiques and artefacts they "collected" from China for sale here on their way back to Europe. This is how Hollywood Road began its role as an antique market. The 1960 Hollywood film The World of Suzie Wong was shot in part in Hollywood Road. An old wood-built building was re-constructed as a bar for the movie.

The Union Church

There was a Union Church in the street founded in 1844 by the Reverend James Legge, a Scottish missionary who had been sent to Hong Kong in 1843 by the London Missionary Society. The first Union Church was built in 1845 on Hollywood Road above Central. Every Sunday an English language service was held in the morning and a Chinese language service in the afternoon. The Church was later relocated to a new site on Staunton Street.

Features

Hollywood Road is filled with trinket and antique shops of all sorts: from Chinese furniture to porcelain ware, from Buddha sculptures to Tibetan rugs, from Japanese netsukes to Coromandel screens, from Ming dynasty ceramic horsemen and kitsch Maoist memorabilia. Previously known solely for antique shops, Hollywood Road has developed into a contemporary art district in Hong Kong. The first gallery to open was Plum Blossoms in 1987. From then on, many galleries opened in the area.

Man Mo Temple

Man Mo Temple or Man Mo Miu (文武廟) is a commonly sort of temple worshipping the Man Tai (文帝), Pau Kung and Mo Tai (武帝), Kwan Yu, to pray for good results in examinations in China. The one on the Hollywood Road was built in 1847. It has been managed by Tung Wah Group of Hospitals since 1908. It is a declared monument.[3]

Central Police Station

Central Police Station was the first police station in Hong Kong. The oldest structure within the compound is a barrack block built in 1864. It is a three-storey building constructed alongside Victoria Prison (see below). A storey was later added to the mass in 1905. In 1919, Headquarters Block facing Hollywood Road was constructed. Subsequently in 1925, the two-storey Stable Block was constructed at the northwest end of the procession ground and later used as a munitions store. The Police Station accompanied by the former Central Magistracy and Victoria Prison form a group of historical architecture representing law and order in Hong Kong.

Intersections

The entire road is in Central and Western District.

Locationkm[4]miDestinationsNotes
Sheung Wan0.000.00Queen's Road WestWestern teriminus
0.080.05Po Yan Street
0.140.09Possession Street
0.160.10Pound Lane
0.200.12Ng Kwai FongPathway
Wa LanePathway
0.220.14Upper Station Street
0.250.16Lok Ku Road
Sai Street
0.270.17Water LanePathway
0.290.18Tung Street
0.350.22Tank LanePathway
0.420.26Ladder Street
0.470.29Ping On Lane
0.570.35Shing Wong Street
0.630.39Shin Hing StreetPathway
0.670.42Mee Lun StreetPathway
0.680.42Aberdeen Street
0.730.45Elgin Street
0.760.47Peel Street
Central0.810.50Graham Street
0.81–
0.83		0.50–
0.52		Lyndhurst Terrace
0.870.54Shelley StreetPathway
0.910.57Cochrane StreetPathway
Old Bailey Street
0.980.61Pottinger StreetPathway
1.000.62Arbuthnot Road / Wyndham StreetEastern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
  •       Closed/former

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Wordie, Jason (2002). Streets: exploring Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-962-209-563-2.
  2. ↑ Ingham, Michael (2007). Hong Kong: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-19-531496-0.
  3. ↑ Antiquities and Monuments Office. Man Mo Temple Compound, Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan
  4. ↑ OpenStreetMap contributors. Hollywood Road (Map). OpenStreetMap. Retrieved 22 March 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hollywood Road.

Coordinates: 22°17′03″N 114°09′01″E / 22.284172°N 114.150201°E / 22.284172; 114.150201

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, March 23, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.