First Houses on The Peak in Hong Kong

In the late 1980s, when I was an alderman on Mission City Council, I enjoyed learning about the implications of depths of road beds or the consequences of varying lifts of asphalt, or the life spans of pipes. It was a time when I learned, in a most visceral way, how angry voters can get with politicians when things like slopes and river dikes fail, but how unwilling they are to fund them when the risks do not appear to be imminent. These days, I am training most of my amateur curiousity about infrastructure on some of the issues that Hong Kong faced about a hundred and fifty years ago, particularly with respect to the challenges of dealing with the development of the residential area known as The Peak.

Thomas Jackson acquired his Peak property sometime in late 1878 or early 1879. He named his house Creggan - after the parish where he had grown up in South Armagh, and where his infant daughter Edith had died four years earlier. By the time that he and Amelia Lydia Dare had moved into their new home, looking down on the harbour, they already had three living children, and there would be five more to come.

I took this photo - with permission - in 2012 from a Jardine Matheson residence on Strawberry Hill. I believe that Creggan would have been sited about where the red roof is in the foreground.

It is easy to miss seeing how young so many of these early residents of The Peak were. By the time that they were being celebrated in banquets and such, they had become notable members of the old boys club, but in the late 1870s they would more accurately have been called the young boys club. Their wives and children joined together at church outings, social clubs, and charity events, while the men met in board rooms, or at the Jockey Club or sporting events. Actually, many of the women were also surprisingly athletic.

Thomas Jackson was in his mid-thirties when he built his Hong Kong home. Like many of his neighbours, he had not been born into wealth, but had taken a chance on life on the other side of the world. Even though he and his neighbours were privileged to enjoy the support of the British Empire, as well as the benefits of the laws and prejudices that disenfranchised the Chinese residents, they were also men with more grit and determination than most. Building their mansions on The Peak was as much as anything a statement and a celebration of their successes.

By the late 1870s, the desirability of The Peak for Hong Kong’s white upper crust was already apparent. Victoria, the city at the foot of The Peak, had serious issues with over-crowding, unsanitary water and decent sewage disposal. Its system for the disposal of human wastes relied on the labours of the night soil scavengers. In the heat of the summer, when the rates of disease peaked, and lives were lost, those on The Peak rose above it – literally.

It took daring to be amongst the first to build and live there. Not only was the tramway yet to be built, but there were also the issues of how to supply water, sewage, power and such. Dozens of questions come to my mind when I try to envision what this must have been like.

A view from Creggan - likely in the 1890s.

Where did these early homes get their water? Creeks, wells, pipes or cisterns?  

Without access to early hydrology maps, I can’t say if Creggan had access to a nearby creek. I suspect not. Most of the old creeks now run through underground pipes or have been channeled into concrete conduits. Much of the need for this came about through trial and error. The risks of slope stability in a climate which often experiences sudden, torrential rains was clear long before 1841. Early pictures show that The Peak had already been stripped of the native trees which would have kept the soil in place. By the time that Jackson built his house, some of the risks of slope instability had been lessened by plantings that also greened up the hillside.

I took this photo in 2012 while walking on The Peak - I can't recall where. There is a sophisticated system for following slope slippages on The Peak. There are decals pinned on the rock faces or concrete retaining walls identify the precise location, and where to phone to report change. Unfortunately, the only photo that I took of such decals was in my mind. At least this photo shows the kind of slope that engineers and landscape architects have to contend with..

A channel on The Peak, designed to manage water during downfalls.

In 1863, the first water reservoir was constructed at Pok Fu Lam under the watch of the Governor Sir Hercules Robinson of Rossmead, Co. Westmeath, Ireland. Although this water system was expanded in 1877, it seems more likely to me that Creggan and its neighbours were supplied by well water at this time. An 1888 map shows a well less than two hundred feet northwest of Creggan, and due north of The Mount - the home of Thomas Jackson’s neighbour and longtime friend and business associate John Bell-Irving.

In the map above, Thomas Jackson’s Creggan is coloured in green. It is hard to see, but it is beneath and to the right of the well which is marked in red. The surrounding cluster of early development makes perfect sense.

Who funded the construction and operation of this well?

With two such powerful men owning land so close to it, at a time when residential development was just beginning, it is hard to believe that they didn’t either lobby for the construction of this well or even fund the building of it themselves. The next question is: Was it a drilled well? (likely) An artesian well? (If they were lucky). Was it gravity feed (doubtful), or was it steam powered? These kind of questions are part of my rationale for writing posts like this one – in the hopes of learning more.

How did the early builders get their building materials up there?

I won’t repeat what I described in a previous post: Creggan on The Peak, but one aspect that I should add is that I suspect that much of the rock that was used for retaining walls and such was quarried in situ. Most of the ledges available for building were narrow, and although the early photos are fuzzy when magnified, there is enough detail to suggest that blasting created a level space, and the resulting blast-rock went into masonry walls to buttress access roads, The leftover rubble seems to have been used as back-fill and to level off the surface of the access roads.

When did electricity (or gas), phone and transportation services come to The Peak?

By 1883, there were 30 to 40 families who lived on The Peak, but electricity as a source of residential power was in its infancy, not only in Hong Kong, but world-wide. It wasn’t until then that Thomas Edison discovered a practical way to both generate and transmit electricity in a cost effective and reasonably reliable manner. Given this time frame, it is extraordinary that the Hong Kong Electric Company was able to introduce Hong Kong's first telephone system in 1882. This made it easy for a taipan to call his chair coolies to carry him from the Praya all the way up to the Peak - although Thomas was known to prefer riding a pony or else hiking up the hill.

As to when the residences first had electricity, I don’t yet have an answer. The Peak Tram - 1,350 metres long and built by the Hong Kong High Level Tramways Company in 1888, - was initially steam driven, and not powered by electricity until 1926.

What about sewage disposal?

As most engineers will put it: Shit flows downhill.  Need I say more? There were outdoor privies on the early properties, but other than that, there were no systems in place to handle human wastes. Nuff said.

The Bluff Path which is near where Creggan was, on the eastern side of Strawberry Hill.

Also see: Wikipedia: First Houses on The Peak. NOTE: Sir Hercules Robinson had a path cut through the bush up to the top of The Peak in 1859, wide enough for sedan chairs. That and the water system were the first two bits of infrastructure improvements which opened the possibility for The Peak to be developed for residential use.

Location of Creggan in Hong Kong

When it isn’t a murder that helps me to focus on my next research path, as it did in my previous post, it is most often the kindness of strangers. Without them, I would be lost. It took me years of baby-steps to even begin to narrow down the likely date when Creggan in Hong Kong was built by Thomas Jackson. He named his Hong Kong home after the parish that he came from in South Armagh. The first reference to it being completed was in a letter written by his mother on May 5, 1880:

I was most thankful to learn that you & Minnie & the children are so well; may God keep you all so. And it is pleasant to reflect that you have your own nice cool “Creggan” to go back to; when the city becomes too hot.

Several months ago, I posted a chart on my website that shows what I know about where the Jacksons were in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. It also includes the names of some of the other occupants of Creggan on The Peak. There were stretches of time when the Jacksons leased it out. In response to that chart, I received an email from Richard Garrett on May 17, 2014:

One aspect in relation to Jackson and Creggan which may be of interest concerns the date of his building the house. Firstly Creggan was sited on the border of RBLs 6 and 8. The index to the streets etc. lists it as RBL 6s but a map of the Peak for 1907 lists it as RBL 8. Anyway the two lots abutted. The first RBLs on the Peak were nos. 1 to 4 which were all sold in September 1878. I don't have the date for when Nos 6 and 8 were sold but RBL 9 was sold in March 1879. Hence a date around the end of 1878 would seem to be about right. Given that the house had to be built it is reasonable to suppose that Jackson could not have moved in before about the end of 1879 or early 1880.

This is the kind of response to a post that makes me feel like those football players that go totally nuts after they have made it across the goal line, ball in hand. Thank you, Richard, and I hope that one day we will meet in Hong Kong. In the meantime, here are a few maps that might help to orient other readers who may have an interest in this topic.

This is the oldest map that I have seen which shows the location of Creggan on The Peak. It is dated 1888, and shows a rectangle straddling lots #6 & 8. The property is not named as Creggan, but it can be no other. I have highlighted it in red.

I drew this map for my own purposes - mostly so I could see who the Jackson's neighbours might have been in the early years. The well, which is indicated in red, is mid-way between Creggan and Jardines Corner. Creggan is roughly in the middle of the cluster of houses.

This map, which is dated sometime after 1923 (I will add the date, if someone has it), shows Creggan as Number 351. It is shaded in red and is just to the left of Strawberry Hill, the property owned for many years by Jardine Matheson.That was the property that I visited in 2012, as a guest of Martha Keswick. A 1924 map shows the same siting of Creggan at #351.

The above document came to my attention thanks to Annelise Connell, It shows the date that the renumbering of buildings on The Peak began.

This map was dated 1960. What is curious is that there is still a building there that matches the footprint of the original Creggan. I do know that Creggan no longer exists, but not when it was torn down, nor under what circumstances.

Creggan is in the middle of this photo and the old site is covered by a cluster of buildings. I visited Strawberry Hills, the second home to the right of it in 2012. The access to all these properties is off Plantation Road, along a private drive which has an attendant on guard.

 The people who were key to me being able to even get this far with this part of my research are Annelise Connell, and David Bellis of www.gwulo.com - along with Richard Garrett, Martha Keswick, and the archivists at both HSBC Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Public Records Office.

David Jackson in Yokohama

All too often, it takes a murder to help me decide on my next research steps. I was researching the story of David Jackson (1855-1903), an HSBC banker in Yokohama in the mid-1800s, when I read about the murder of a Mr. Carew during one of my late night Google stints. Then I had to wait until a copy of Murder on the Bluff found its way into my mailbox

The murder was also described in a story in The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes.

The motivation for the murder was the kind which is as old as the hills. Edith May Porch was a young wife living in Yokohama in the mid 1890’s. She had married seven years earlier, at age twenty-one. At the age of twenty-eight, she was stuck in an unsatisfying marriage, and itching for a bit of fun. Her inconvenient husband was the unfortunate Walter Raymond Hallowell Carew (1853-1896). Given the circles under his eyes, life was not exactly a bowl of cherries for him either. One of Edith’s love interests, referred to in her diaries as The Youth, was Henry - aka Harry - Vansittart Dickinson, an accountant with HSBC. Arsenic, which she was convicted of having dispensed to her husband over time, was the weapon of choice.

On page 42 of Murder on the Bluff, I found what I had been seeking. A fact that linked the story of the murder to the Jacksons: Henry Dickinson moved closer to Edith, to No. 160 the Bluff – the Jackson’s house. David Jackson was not only the manager at HSBC but also Henry’s boss. Until then, I hadn’t known where David and his wife Margaret Louisa Wright had lived.

Not only was it now possible for Harry to live closer to Edith, by lodging with the Jacksons, but an added advantage was that David’s wife, Louisa offered the cloak of respectability. The illicit lovers often used her as a cover. In one letter, Harry first pledged his love to Edith: I love you utterly my dear one, and remembrance of yesterday will be ever with me…..  then he described a way for her to get out of a dinner obligation at her home:

If you cannot do it ask Mrs Jackson if you may come in here to dinner: it would make her think that there is no woman you could trust more than her.

Again, in another letter: I will come to church with Mrs Jackson and we will all walk up together if possible. Given that most letters were destroyed, it is likely that using the Jacksons in this manner was a common practice.

David Jackson was also the banker that Edith turned to when she needed to get more money from her father. In spite of a sizeable marriage portion that Edith had brought into the marriage, the Carews had been living beyond their means,. Additional funds had been sent by her father, but had been received not by her but by her husband. She never saw the money, and sought a more direct means of accessing these funds from her father. On October 6^th, 16 days before her husband’s death, Edith noted in her diary: Walked down the Town, saw Mr H. Jackson [sic –there is no H. Jackson at the bank at this time] about drawing on Papa.

The story of the Carew murder revealed quite a bit about the Jackson’s life in Yokohama. Many of their social circle were mentioned, the entertainments of the day were described, as was the place where they all went to ride, a plateau above the Bluff called The Plains of Heaven. The Boston News account of the trial described the Carews residence as the most fashionable portion of the reservation set apart for the foreign residents of this city. That description would also apply to the Jackson’s house.

David and Louisa Jackson’s home at #160 was right across the street from #162 where David’s older brother Thomas had lived a couple of decades earlier. That house had been just two houses over from #155 where Thomas’ in-laws, the Dares, had lived. Yokohama was clearly a tight-knit community.

The red lettering is mine.

The map image that I am working from is not all that clear, but it appears that there was only one lot between David & Louisa’s house at #160 and the Carew’s house at #169. All that Edith had to do to let Harry know when the coast was clear for a dalliance, was to display a handkerchief on the verandah. Opportunities arose quite frequently. Her husband often took short trips for his health and also his office at the Yokohama United Club at #58 on the Bund was a good walk or jaunt away. The proximity of Walter Carew’s office, only a couple of lots over from Harry’s at HSBC on lot #62, presented other opportunities to know when Walter Carew was likely to be detained.

I had wondered whether Harry might be a relation of David Jackson, but didn’t expect that when I Googled Harry Vansittart Dickinson that the first hit I would get would be on my own Silver Bowl website, nor that his name would have been inscribed in Jeannie Jackson’s Birthday Book. All the entries in this book are from people who either lived in Ireland or else attended the finishing school that her Uncle Thomas Jackson sent her to at Lausanne, Switzerland. Furthermore, each entry was done in their own handwriting. That means those who signed their names had to be with Jeannie in either Ireland, or Switzerland. She never went to Yokohama.

His entry is clearly in his own handwriting in July 29th.

In spite of his entry in the Birthday Book, Harry wasn’t Irish, and had no known Irish relations. The most likely possibility, based on his professional relationship with the Jacksons, is that he was visiting them at Urker. It would have to have been before 1908, the year when Jeannie left Ireland to be married in Vancouver. Since Jeannie had met the young banker Charlie Moorhead while visiting in Crossmaglen, this was perhaps how she met Harry. Perhaps he is one of the unknown men in photos that we have from that time.

In the course of the 1897 trial, Harry renounced his love for Edith. On May 27, 1901, he married Mary Hunter in Nagasaki. Mary had been born in Shanghai, possibly related to Henry Edward Ranson Hunter, an HSBC manager in Shanghai who was distantly related to Jacksons by marriage. Like Mary, Harry had also been born in South Asia, in his case in Hong Kong as the son of an East India merchant. At some point, they moved as a couple to Montreal, where Dickenson died as a widower in 1938.

As for Edith, she was sentenced to death, a sentence which was then commuted, and after serving a lengthy jail sentence, she lived out the last of her days at Cwm-yr-Eglwys in Wales. She died in 1958, several years after the natural deaths of Harry Vansittart Dickinson, and David and Louisa Jackson. I cannot grasp her motivation, but she paid for a memorial to her murdered husband to be installed in the Yokohama Foreign General Graveyard., with a quote from Tennyson, which I find particularly ironic given that Walter’s boat was named The Cocktail:

 Sunset and evening star

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea.

If you have read this far, you can probably tell that this post is a bit of grab bag. My hope is that it might be read by someone who knows more than I do about the social life of the foreigners who were living and working in Yokohama in the 1880s and 1890s. I would love to learn more. You can contact me through my web site at The Silver Bowl. I would be beyond grateful.

NOTE: Maps of the Bluff are at UK’s National Archives. They are also available in various trade books of the region. The on-line versions that I could find were pretty fuzzy. I would love to see more maps.