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
- St Andrew’s, Hong Kong’s oldest Anglican church, was built in 1906, while the building next door once housed the King George V school
- Originally named Robinson Road, in 1909 it was renamed after a former governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, and was nicknamed the ‘Golden Mile’ in its post-WWII heyday
Nathan Road remains one of Hong Kong’s most famous streets thanks to the fact that it is lined with hotels, shops and heritage sites. Stretching 3.6km north from the Kowloon harbourfront in Tsim Sha Tsui to Sham Shui Po, it also happens to be the oldest road in Kowloon.
History
The first part of the road was completed in 1861, soon after the land was ceded to the British colony by the Qing dynasty in 1860. The road began where Middle Road meets Nathan Road today, an area of beach at the time, extending to the junction with modern-day Austin Road.
The original road was lined with colonial-style homes and the Whitfield Barracks, which is now the site of Kowloon Park.
The oldest Anglican church in Kowloon, St Andrew’s, was completed in 1906 and is still there. Next door to the church is a building built in 1902 with donations from Sir Robert Ho Tung that at one time housed the former Kowloon British School, the first school for expatriates in the city. The school moved to Ho Man Tin in 1937 and was renamed King George V School in 1948. The building is now the Antiquities and Monuments Office.