Queen Victoria
Over the years I’ve had the chance to spend a lot of time in Hong Kong both on business and holidays. Of late I’m there again working and enjoying the sights, sounds and delights.
I’ve been aware for some time of the role that Queen Victoria played in lending / giving her name to many places, things and locations in Australia. When you consider that she reigned over the British Empire from 1837 to 1907, actually just shy of 70 years you begin to see why. Then dig deeper and you realise that in the early part of her reign the British Empire was expanding and new places were being colonised.
If we look close to home here in Australia we have both of the states of Victoria and Queensland named for her. I must admit here that I was well aware of Victoria and the link to the Queen but I had never really thought about Queensland. It makes a lot of sense to me now.
Beyond that and still close to home we have the following:
Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Victoria
Great Victoria Desert, Victoria
Queen's College, Melbourne, Victoria
Queen Street, Brisbane, Queensland
Queen Victoria Building, Sydney, New South Wales
Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria
Queen Victoria Street, Drummoyne, New South Wales
Queen Victoria Street, Fremantle, Western Australia
Queen Victoria Street, Leonora, Western Australia
Queen Victoria Street, Newington, Victoria
Queen Victoria Terrace, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Victoria Square, Adelaide, South Australia
Victoria Street, Melbourne, Victoria
Victoria Park, Adelaide
Victoria Park, Perth, Western Australia
Victoria Dock (Melbourne), Victoria
Victoria Street, Brunswick (Melbourne Suburb)
But what’s the linkage to Hong Kong you ask? Well, I’d never really noticed it before but there are a lot of things in Hong Kong named for Queen Victoria as well. And given the timing of its colonisation, i.e. around the same time as Victoria and Queensland here, you begin to understand why. So when I was out and about there over the last weeks I’ve started to pay a bit of attention.
Victoria Harbour
There is of course the lovely Harbor in HK named for her. I do fear however that it will become a river or a lake if they continue to fill it in for infrastructure projects!
Victoria Peak
If you’ve been to Honkers you’ve probably been to the Peak. Yep, it’s named for the Queen.
Victoria Park
Here’s another one I didn’t know about until recently when on a Sunday morning I took a big walk from Wan Chai through Causeway Bay and beyond I came across the park. It’s not as big as some but it’s still very large for the city. And boy was it busy on the Sunday I was there. My favorite thing there was the pool for locals to race remote controlled boats on! Oh, and of course the statue of Victoria.
Streets and roads
Jubilee Street
Queen's Road
Queen Victoria Street
Queen Street
Victoria Road
Queensway
Places and things
Queen's Pier
Statue Square
Victoria City
Victoria Prison
Queen's College, Hong Kong
Tang Siu Kin Victoria Government Secondary School
Victoria Swimming Pool
But it doesn’t really stop there for as I realized last Sunday when I was heading out for brunch (at 1pm mind you, go figure…) her husband, Prince Albert has not been forgotten either.
Lower Albert Road, Government Hill, Central
Upper Albert Road, Government Hill, Central
Statue, Statue Square (Former)
I can’t let the mention of Upper Albert Road go by without mentioning what else you find on that road. Again, on a morning walk I headed up the hillside and discovered a number of fabulous things.
First was Government House, the residence of former Governors of Hong Kong and present Chief Executive of Hong Kong. Apparently the road is used as a destination for various protests which sometimes results in traffic congestion, and as such Upper Albert Road is used as a synonym of the Chief Executive's Office.
For my American friends out there you will also find the Consulate General of United States of America. It sits where the road intersects with Garden Road, Kennedy Road and Cotton Tree Drive. It looks pretty much like every other fortified US Consulate I have seen around the world, except it’s on the side of a huge hill.
But to my complete surprise, on the upper part of the road and on the north (high) side you find the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. And as I said at the start of this I’ve been there a lot over the years but I wasn’t aware of these. I was there early on a Saturday morning, the gates were wide open and the animals were awake. Not surprisingly there were plenty of monkeys, apes and baboons, birds, butterflies and even a meerkat exhibition. I was not expecting to find this.
The mention of Albert's statue leads me to Statue Square. Statue Square is in Central, Hong Kong and has a number of things on or around it for the keen historian interested in the British past of HK.
"Empress' Statue Square" as it’s officially known is a public pedestrian square in Central, Hong Kong. It’s built entirely on reclaimed land at the end of the 19th century – as they love to do in HK. It’s made up of two parts separated by Chater Road into a northern and a southern section. It is bordered by Connaught Road Central in the north and by Des Voeux Road Central in the south.
The name is a reference to the statues, mainly of British royalty, which stood on the square until the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. Today, the only statue on the square is the one of Sir Thomas Jackson, 1st Baronet, an early HSBC banker. (HSBC is over the road.) Unfortunately, Prince Albert is long gone.
On or around the square you will also find The Court of Final Appeal and The Cenotaph.
Having spent some time in HK of late I’ve come to understand a bit more about two places that I’ve talked about here.
Domestic workers are very common in Hong Kong and under the way it works they are typically given a day off a week. Most opt for Sunday and if you’ve been in the city on a Sunday you will know of what I speak. Anyway, it seems that it is tradition for thousands of Filipina domestic workers to congregate in and around Statue Square every Sunday.
Some ways way, in Causeway Bay, at Victoria Park, the same tradition has developed for Indonesian domestic helpers in Hong Kong.
I’ll be back in HK again shortly working and I plan to hunt down a bit more of the British Colonial history of the city. I’ll fill you in on what I find!
Have fun out there!
Chris