Colonial Post Box Walk
For this walk, let's look at everyday sights that we see when out and about - Hong Kong’s Colonial Post Boxes of which there are around 64 left in operation today, with more on display in museums. Many are located in slightly more far-flung corners of Hong Kong - the Outlying Islands and New Territories, so it would appear that the boxes in more obvious locations have been replaced. It would therefore be advisable to go see them while you can! As with all my walks, we do tend to get sidetracked by history and this walk takes us from The Peak to Central, then over the harbour on the Star Ferry into Tsim Sha Tsui and Kowloon.
The oldest Post Boxes in Hong Kong date back to the reign of Queen Victoria, so these would have been installed from 1892, when the first post boxes were installed, until her death in 1901. They are not in use today and can be seen in museums only – one in the General Post Office, Central and one at the HK History Museum, Tsim Sha Tsui. You will notice the museum pieces are painted in their original bright red colour, the same as those in Britain today. The ones still use were painted green after 1997.
The Post Boxes still in use today are not as old as the museum pieces, but there are many more to see as we walk the streets and this walking tour will take us past some of the better ones. Our walk starts at the Peak where we can see a Pillar Post Box with the ‘ERII’ Royal cypher outside the Peak Café. This stands for Elizabeth II Regina – dating from 1952 onwards and we will see more of these as well as other Royal cyphers. From here, we walk down the quiet, scenic and steep Old Peak road towards Central, passing another one of the Victoria City Boundary Stones on the way down. When walking down this road, I always reflect on the past, when this road was the only road up to the Peak. Residents and their belongings would be carried up there, either on the old sedan chairs or latterly by rickshaw.
Moving on, and as we get to Central, our next Post Box is on Chater Road near Statue Square, so if we have time, we can pass by the Zoological & Botanical Gardens and St. John’s Cathedral on the way there. The Post Box on Chater Road is unique in that it displays the Scottish Crown – perhaps a throwback to some of the original Scottish colonialists - Jardine & Matheson. From here, we are just a stones throw from the General Post Office where we can pop in to see the oldest Post Box with its ‘VR’ cypher from the days of Queen Victoria.
From here, it’s time to jump on the Star Ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui to see the other Victorian Post Box at the History Museum on Chatham Road South, as well as an ERII box which is also in the museum. Of course there are many more things to see here, but today's walk is about Post Boxes, so we can come back here another day. From here, let's head towards Shanghai Street in Jordan to see a lovely pillar ERII Post Box, then get back onto Nathan Road and down Waterloo Road before turning left at Peace Avenue to see an old Wall-based Post Box with no Royal cypher. This one is hard to find - I walked past it several times before seeing it.
We’re onto the last few boxes for this walk, so let's continue down Peace Avenue, turn left on Argyle Street and right down Sai Yee Street. Eventually we come to Boundary Street where we turn right before a quick left turn down Tai Hang Tung Road. Soon we will see a footpath on the right side of the road which leads to Magnolia Road where we turn left and walk until we see a wonderful ‘GRV’ wall Post Box which dates between 1910 and 1936.
Now we return to Boundary Street and turn left until we get to the junction of La Salle Road where we see an ERII Pillar Post Box. Boundary Street used to mark the border between British Kowloon and China itself, before the rest of the New Territories was leased in 1898. From there we continue to Prince Edward Road West where we see our final ERII Pillar Post Box. We’re close to Sung Wong Toi MTR station now, so our urban history walk ends here.
There is so much history out there - not only the Post Boxes from this walk, but such things as City Boundary markers and old Property Lot markers. We can walk past them a hundred times, but once we're aware we can't help but look for more.