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Tracey Furniss

At 178 years old, Queen’s Road is Hong Kong’s oldest street, built by the British Royal Engineers from 1841 to 1843, soon after the territory first came under British control.
Originally 6.4km long, it stretched from Shek Tong Tsui to Wan Chai, an area then known as Victoria City. In places it tracked the original shore line, as it was before extensive reclamation began.
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What’s in a name?

Its original name was Main Street – a bit boring, but thankfully it was changed to Queen’s Road after Queen Victoria. Unfortunately the Chinese translation came out as “queen consort” – ouch!
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How it all started

In the 1840s, Queen’s Road was lined with squatter huts, military camps, taverns and the first Christian churches.
On Christmas Day in 1878, a fire broke out and raged for 17 hours destroying the squatter huts and other buildings along Queen’s Road and the surrounding area, leaving 400 people homeless. The rebuild paved the way for the Central we know today, with more expensive homes and commercial buildings being erected.
Back then, Queen’s Road was Hong Kong’s first shopping hub, and was also the city’s main trading and services centre.
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Sincere department store opened its first location at 172 Queen’s Road in 1900, and was the city’s first Western-style department store. The original building is still there today.
Sincere was the first store in China to use Western practices such as employing female shop assistants, using fixed prices and issuing receipts. Founder Ma Ying-piu’s wife and two sister-in-laws even worked on the shop floor at the Shanghai store they opened some years later.
Another original building close to Queen’s Road, dating from 1842, is the red brick one on what is now Battery Path, above Queen’s Road Central. Known as the Former French Mission Building, it more recently housed the Court of Final Appeal until 2015. It was built however as a then-beachfront home for the first Governors of Hong Kong: Sir Henry Pottinger, and his successor, John Francis Davis, lived there.
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The rise of the entertainment scene

Queen’s Road Central and its nearby streets have long been popular entertainment hubs, starting in the early 1900s.
One of the city’s most famous cinemas was Queen’s Theatre on the corner of Theatre Lane. It opened in 1924, seated 1,200 and showed early silent films with local musicians playing the soundtracks live. The first building was demolished in the late 1950s and was replaced by a second Queen’s Theatre, which opened in July 1961, seating 902 with stalls and a circle level. In 1995, the theatre was divided, with the stalls area becoming retail space, and the circle level becoming a smaller 303-seater cinema. It was completely closed down in 2007 and demolished the following year.

King’s Theatre was built in 1931. It was the first cinema in Hong Kong to install air conditioning. The original theatre closed in 1962 and it was rebuilt bigger and better, with the building including shopping and office spaces. This building was demolished in 1990.
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Queen’s Road today
These days Queen’s Road is made up of four sections: Queen’s Road West, Queen’s Road Central, Queensway and Queen’s Road East. Though it no longer runs along the waterfront, it remains a key commercial thoroughfare, lined with shops and office buildings.
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Hong Kong Origins Stories

The junction of Queen’s Road Central and Ice House Street in Central, Hong Kong. Though Hong Kong’s oldest street, Queen’s Road remains one of its most important, linking several of the busiest commercial areas of Hong Kong Island. Photo: SCMP

The junction of Queen’s Road Central and Wyndham Street in Hong Kong, in May 2018. Photo: SCMP

Hong Kong, Queen’s Road by Edward Hildebrandt. Photo: Handout

Queen’s Road in Central, Hong Kong. On the left is the old Sincere department store building. Photo: @sensounicolovers2/Instagram

Queen’s Road, Hong Kong. Photo: @germain_tailors/Instagram

This image taken by the late Hong Kong photographer Fan Ho was titled Outside King’s Theatre and shows a familiar scene from the 1950s or 60s. Photo: Handout

From David Bowie to Bruno Mars, old Hong Kong’s tailors made suits for them all – even Giorgio Armani paid a visit to Sam’s Tailor in Tsim Sha Tsui

Tailoring to the tycoons (and everyone else), Hong Kong’s old tailors were sewn into the city’s fabric, as evidenced by this shot of shipping magnate Dr Stanley Ho being presented with an elegant worsted three-piece suit by Austin Reed, a British tailor, in 1989. Photo: SCMP

Sailors and other expatriates having suits and shirts made in a tailor shop in Hong Kong in April 1970. Photo: SCMP Archive

An open tailor shop at The State Theatre shopping centre in North Point, Hong Kong, in October 2020. Photo: SCMP

From left, Mark Cho and Alan See, founders of The Armoury and Drop93. Photo: Handout

Sam’s Tailor boss Manu Melwani made this blazer jacket with a special lining for George Bush senior at his request. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong tailor Raymond Lun at his boutique in Causeway Bay, from the book The Other Hundred Entrepreneurs. Photo: Leo Kwok

The Peak Tram, an old Hong Kong icon: taking millions of tourists a year to Victoria Peak, what can we expect from its sixth and latest upgrade since opening in 1888?

Hong Kong’s famous Peak Tram closes on June 28 for six months to allow the replacement of track and cabling and the introduction of new, larger carriages. Photo: Sun Yeung

The Peak Tram will suspend services from June 28, 2021, for six months as it is scheduled for an upgrade of its facilities. Photo: Nora Tam

A scanned image from a lantern slide showing the Peak Tram. Photo: Peter Zheutlin

Hong Kong’s venerable Peak Tram is a funicular railway that has been in operation since 1888. Photo: SCMP

Detail of the seats inside a carriage of the Peak Tram. Photo: Sam Tsang

Peak Tram, Hong Kong Island, in November 2019. Photo: Martin Williams

American screen legend Clark Gable boards a Peak Tram at the Barker Road stop during the filming of Soldier of Fortune in November 1954. Photo: SCMP

What was Nathan Road like in old Hong Kong? Bruce Lee’s former address and current home of The Peninsula hotel – the history behind the iconic shopping street and tourist hotspot

Neon signs and street lights glow above a busy night scene along Nathan Road in the crowded Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon, Hong Kong. Photo: Getty Images

Exterior view of 190 Nathan Road, a Grade 3 Heritage Building in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: SCMP

The junction of Nathan Road and Gascoigne Road in 1950; on the left is the Alhambra Theatre. Photo: SCMP

St. Andrew’s Church on Nathan Road photographed in August 1966. Photo: SCMP

Bruce Lee and the Shamrock Hotel in the 1950s. Shamrock Hotel, which opened in 1952, is at 223 Nathan Road and was opposite to Bruce Lee’s residence (2/F, 218 Nathan Road) in the 1950s. The rooftop restaurant of the Shamrock was a popular place for Lee’s family to enjoy their tea. Photo: Hong Kong Heritages Facebook

Nathan Road in late 2012, showing why it is known as one of the most neon-lit streets in the world. Photo: Shutterstock Images

The junction of Nathan Road and Waterloo Road in Yau Ma Tei. Photo: Google Maps

The Beatles, Cantonese opera, Alien and even Miss Universe … Old Hong Kong’s iconic cinemas saw it all – but which ones are still standing?

The Princess Theatre on the corner of Nathan Road and Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, 1973. Photo: SCMP

Artwork of famous Hong Kong movie characters from the exhibition “Discover The State Theatre In All Of Us”, that ran in April and May 2021 at the State Theatre, one of the few old-style surviving cinemas. Photo: New World Development

The Princess Theatre, at one end of Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, 1973. Photo: SCMP

The ticket for The Beatles show at the Princess Theatre in 1964. Photo: Handout

An exterior evening view of Lee Theatre in Causeway Bay, 1995. Like the Princess Theatre, it also doubled as a venue for stage performances. Photo: SCMP

Cantonese opera diva Pak Suet Sin presents Princess Alexandra with a jade statuette of the White Snake as a memento of a November 1961 performance at the Lee Theatre. Photo: Information Services Department

A total of 73 international beauties gathered at the Lee Theatre for the 1976 Miss Universe Pageant. The picture shows them parading in their national costumes at the opening ceremony. Photo: SCMP

The theatre at 277-291 King’s Road in North Point is one of Hong Kong’s last surviving post-war movie palaces and was classified as a Grade 1 historic building by the city’s Antiquities Advisory Board in 2017. Photo: SCMP

The parabolic rooftop of the State Theatre. Photo: SCMP

The lobby of the Sunbeam Theatre. Photo: SCMP

Converted from a nightclub in the 1970s, the Palace Theatre could seat an audience of more than one thousand people. Photo: Handout

What is a Chinese ‘luminous cup’ and where do you buy one? Sotheby’s Hong Kong once auctioned an old agate goblet for US$35,000, and antiques shops on Lascar Row and Hollywood Road offer them too

The luminous effect of a white jade cup from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, which sold for US$1.19 million in 2004. Photo: SCMP

A luminous jade tea cup at Chi Spa, at Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa in Cebu, Philippines. Photo: SCMP

A jade cup from 2nd century BC, Western Han dynasty, unearthed at Xianggangshan, 1983. Photo: The Museum of the King of Nanyue

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First Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Henry Pottinger, had a house built where his successor John Francis Davis lived too – it was also the Court of Final Appeal
Queen’s Theatre opened at the popular shopping and entertainment street, followed by King’s Theatre, the first cinema in Hong Kong with air conditioning



The city’s oldest street has always been a prime shopping, entertainment and commercial area, but did you know it used to have more squatter huts than fancy buildings?
