| Queen's Road | |
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| 皇后大道 | |
Queen's Road at the junction of Duddell Street, ca. 1900 |
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| Location: | Hong Kong |
| Construction | |
| Construction start: | 1841 |
| Completion: | 1843 |
| Queen's Road | |||||||||||
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| A painting of Queen's Road Central in 1865 | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 皇后大道 | ||||||||||
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Queen's Road is the first road in Hong Kong built by the Government of Hong Kong between 1841 and 1843[1], spanning across Victoria City from Shek Tong Tsui to Wan Chai. At most points, it marks the original shoreline before land reclamation projects permanently extended the land into Victoria Harbour.
The road is split into four, from west to east: Queen's Road West (Chinese: 皇后大道西), Queen's Road Central (皇后大道中), Queensway (金鐘道), and Queen's Road East (皇后大道東).
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The Road was originally 4 miles (6.5 km) long in 1841. The Royal Engineers built the first section to Sai Ying Pun with the help of 300 coolies from Kowloon. It ran parallel to the beach where Sir Henry Pottinger setup his tent in 1842[1].
Named after Queen Victoria of the British Empire, it was mistakenly translated into Chinese as 皇后 (Pronunciation in Cantonese: wòhng hauh? / wong4 hau6 ?) -- queen consort.
New arrivals to Hong Kong as late as the second half of the 19th century were surprised at the condition of the road. Instead of a proper road, as could only be expected of one named for the Queen in the largest British outpost east of Singapore, travellers found a pocked dirt road prone to dust clouds and puddles of mud.[2]
When Hong Kong was founded as a Crown Colony in 1842, Queen's Road was the hub of activity. Its development was haphazard, and its path winding as it made its way through the newly-founded city including the Hong Kong Club for tai-pans. Between squatter huts, military encampments, and taverns, the first governors built their homes along Queen's Road. The first post office and Christian churches soon followed.
In 1878 a Christmas fire broke out destroying a large area of the slums. The eyewitness account was recorded by Constance Frederica Gordon Cumming in the book Wanderings in China. The fire raged for 17 hours burning down 400 houses covering 10 acres (40,000 m2) of area. It left thousands in the community homeless[3]. The devastated structures in ruin were reused for reclamation adjacent like the area around Bonham Strand.
Queen's Road has shrugged its past and is now home to some of Hong Kong's most expensive land and famous buildings.
Queen's Road Central (皇后大道中) runs from Central to Sheung Wan. It was one of the first roads to be built when the crown colony was founded (Hollywood Road is another of the early roads). It was a major infrastructure of Queen's Town, later renamed the City of Victoria.
Queen's Road Central intersects with the similarly named, and thus easily confused, Queen Victoria Street, a short street that ends a few blocks near One IFC.
Queen's Road Central merges with Des Voeux Road Central to become Queensway at Garden Road.
From 1942 to 1945, the road was renamed Meiji-dori by the Japanese occupation government.
A section of Queen's Road East in what is now Admiralty was re-routed and renamed as Queensway (金鐘道) in 1967. It merges with the Queen's Road Central and Des Voeux Road Central at its west end and connects with Hennessy Road and Queen's Road East to the east.
Queen's Road West (皇后大道西) runs from Sheung Wan to Shek Tong Tsui beginning at the Possession Street junction.
Queen's Road East (皇后大道東) runs between Happy Valley and Wan Chai. Queens Road East forks to the south from Queensway near Justice Drive, where Queensway turns into Hennessy Road. It runs along the old northern shoreline of Hong Kong Island.
Queen's Road is an icon of British Colonial Hong Kong. In the transition period before sovereignty transfer, there were rumours that all streets and roads related colonial figures like Queen's Road would be renamed in honor of Chinese communists. Lo Ta-yu (羅大祐), a song writer, has written a song with Albert Leung (林夕) titled 皇后大道東 (Queen's Road East), performed by Lo Ta-yu and Ram Chiang Chi Kwong (蔣志光) in 1991, to describe the change in this transition period.
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