2026-10-05

The Road That Cut the Hill Why the Kowloon artery went through — Robinson Road to Nathan Road 彌敦道, 1861–1909

 

The Road That Cut the Hill

Why the Kowloon artery went through — Robinson Road to Nathan Road 彌敦道, 1861–1909

Histsyn· Independent research
Compiled 4 October 2026 · Endnotes and bibliography after The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed.

Abstract

Nathan Road — Kowloon’s great north–south artery — was first named Robinson Road, after the island’s mid-levels street of the same name was joined by a Kowloon duplicate. This paper reconstructs the road’s name and dates from the record, and answers the question of why the government built the artery through the peninsula’s hills rather than winding around them. The name: attested in the press from 8 March 1888 (“his new gardens, Robinson Road, Kowloon”) and in the directories from 1889 (the Kowloon Hotel on Robinson Road); renamed on 19 March 1909 by Gazette No. 184 — “in order to prevent confusion arising from the existence of duplicate names of streets in Hongkong and Kowloon” — Robinson Road to Nathan Road 彌敦道, Garden Road to Hankow Road, Macdonnell Road to Canton Road, Yaumati’s Third Street to Saigon Street 西貢街; the schedule verified against the scan. The why is in Governor Lugard’s 1909 despatch: the road was extended “through the hill which now confronts it” — a small hill immediately at the back of the proposed reclamation — because the spoil from the cutting would be used for the reclamation, the cost charged one-third to the road vote and two-thirds to the reclamation; the frontage was to be “straighten[ed] out” for the marine lots; the road was 100 feet wide; and the reclamation “should prove a very remunerative work”. A winding road would have yielded no fill and no straight frontage — no document records any winding alternative being considered, and the generalisation is flagged as inference. The premise’s “removing all mountains” is not supported: the corpus documents one hill cut, and the range remained — the Ma Tau Kok–Tai Shek Ku road “ascends the Kowloon range of hills with gradients varying from 1 in 4.3 to 1 in 5.26”.

Keywords: Nathan Road; 彌敦道; Robinson Road; Kowloon; Lugard; reclamation; spoil; hill cutting; street renaming; Gazette No. 184 1909; Saigon Street; Kowloon–Canton Railway

1. Introduction: the question and the frame

Kowloon’s main thoroughfare runs straight: from the harbour’s head at Tsim Sha Tsui north to the old Boundary Street, one hundred feet wide, the shops and the traffic of the peninsula’s spine. Today it is Nathan Road 彌敦道. Before 1909 it was Robinson Road — a name shared with the island’s Mid-Levels street, and surrendered because of it. The question this paper examines is the road-making itself: why the government built the artery through the peninsula’s hills — cutting them — instead of winding a road around them; and what the record says about the decision.12

The method is corpus-first: the hkintexts full-text index of Hong Kong texts, queried read-only, with every passage quoted read in its whole document; the 1909 renaming notice verified against the scan; the logged queries itemised in Appendix A.3 The answer has three parts: the road’s name and dates (documentary); the why (the government’s own despatch, 1909); and the correction of the premise — the hills were not all removed, and the record says so.

2. The road and its name, 1861–1904

The modern account gives the road’s birth: “The first section of the road was completed in 1861. It was the first road built in Kowloon, after the land was ceded… in 1860. The road was originally named Robinson Road, after Sir Hercules Robinson, the 5th governor of Hong Kong.”4 The corpus’s own record for the 1860s–70s road is thin — the 1860s AR notes Kowloon “surveyed… by Mr. Bird, late of the Royal Engineers” — but the land-lot index fixes the road’s earliest frontage: Inland Lots 695–704, the block that faced the first road, all granted 1861.5 The first section and the first lots are the same year’s work.

The corpus’s earliest press attestation is 8 March 1888: the HK Telegraph reports a garden show “held in his new gardens, Robinson Road, Kowloon” — the road in use, a garden suburb at its side.6 The directories then list it continuously: the 1889 edition’s “Kowloon Hotel, Robinson Road, Kowloon”; the name running 1889–1904 (the 1904 edition still lists “Oaklands, Robinson Rd.” and “2, Fairview, Robinson Road, Kowloon”).7

3. The 1908 works, and the name already shifting

The 1908 Administrative Report carries the road’s works and the name’s transition in the same pages. The “New Roads, Kowloon” vote (estimates $30,000): “(i.) Extension of Robinson Road (re-named Nathan Road) from Market Street to Waterloo Road. This work was completed at a cost of $13,581.70.”8 And the maintenance report: “The kerbing and channelling of the West side of Nathan Road (formerly called Robinson Road) was completed during the year and the macadamizing of a portion of the surface was extended to and carried along Austin Road, Austin Avenue and Kimberley Road” — with “the progress of the railway works on the East side of the Peninsula and the raising of the roads in that district” alongside: the Kowloon–Canton Railway’s works were reshaping the peninsula in the same year.9

The name was thus already shifting in the government’s own reports of 1908 — months before the formal notice — and the two motives sat together in the same report: the road extended, the railway raised, the peninsula rebuilt.

4. The rename of 19 March 1909

The formal rename is one page of the Gazette of 19 March 1909, No. 184, p. 173, verified against the scan: “It is hereby notified that in order to prevent confusion arising from the existence of duplicate names of streets in Hongkong and Kowloon, His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to direct that the streets in the subjoined list be re-named as shewn therein.” The Kowloon schedule: Chater Street → Peking Road 北京道; Des Voeux Road → Chatham Road 漆咸道; Garden Road → Hankow Road 漢口道; Robinson Road → Nathan Road 彌敦道; Macdonnell Road → Canton Road 廣東道; Elgin Road → Haiphong Road 海防道; East Road → Hanoi Road; East Avenue → Sainam Avenue; East Terrace → Wuchow Terrace. Yaumati: First Street → Kansu Street; Third Street → Saigon Street 西貢街; Sixth Street → Jordan Road; Eighth Street → Bowring Street — and Temple Street and Portland Street continued to new points. F. H. May, Colonial Secretary.10

The rename’s cause is stated on its face — the duplicate names — and the press carried the notice within a day: the China Mail of 20 March reprinted it, in an issue whose own columns still carried a “No. 2, Robinson Rd, KOWLOON” advertisement — the change was days old and the address plates had not followed it.11 The directories settled into the new name from 1910 (“GAINS, M., Court Milliner—18, Nathan Road, Kowloon”).12 The rename itself is therefore documentary on three independent witnesses: the notice, the reports of 1908, and the directories’ diff.

5. The why: the hill cut and the reclamation

The answer to the road-making question is in Governor Lugard’s despatch of 1909 (CO 129/358, p. 230) — the government’s own account of its own vote. The passage is worth giving in full: “$40,000 is now included in the Estimates for 1910 and a further sum of $15,000 will be spent out of the vote for ‘New Roads, Kowloon’ in extending the 100-foot Nathan Road through the hill which now confronts it. This small hill lies immediately at the back of the proposed reclamation, and since the spoil from the cutting will be used for the reclamation, I have thought it proper to charge the road vote with one-third and the Reclamation with two-thirds of the cost.”13

The reasoning continues: “This Reclamation should prove a very remunerative work even after the lot owners have been satisfied in money or kind, and it will further be seen on reference to the plan of the Mongkoktaui Breakwater how desirable it is to straighten out the line of frontage in this part of the Kowloon Foreshore. The lot owners have been sounded…”14 Three motives, stated in the government’s own hand: the cut’s spoil feeds the reclamation — a winding road would yield no fill and the reclamation would have to buy it; the frontage is straightened for the marine lots — the breakwater plan’s geometry; the work is remunerative — the reclaimed land pays even after compensation. The road’s width — one hundred feet — is the arterial standard named in the same sentence. The reclamation ordinance of 12 March 1909 (No. 2 of 1909) supplies the statutory frame: the Government Railway between Tsim Sha Tsui and Lo Fu Ferry “in course of construction”, the foreshore and sea bed reclaimed for it.15

6. The hills that stayed

The premise’s “removing all mountains in the peninsula” must be corrected against the record. The corpus documents one hill cut — the 1909–10 extension “through the hill which now confronts it”, a small hill at the back of the reclamation — and the peninsula’s hills remained. A district road away from the artery — the 1909 report’s Ma Tau Kok–Tai Shek Ku road — supplies the negative: “From near Kowloon City to beyond Chuk Un Village, it is practically level, but beyond this point it ascends the Kowloon range of hills with gradients varying from 1 in 4.3 to 1 in 5.26 until it reaches Shatin Pass at an elevation of about 960 feet above Ordnance Datum” — that road climbed the range, which the peninsula kept; it is not Nathan Road, and it is cited only to show the range was not removed.16 Nathan Road’s own record is the extension stopping at K.F.L. 2. The hill-removal phrases of the 1880s return no record for the road (Appendix B).

So the road-making pattern in the record is selective: the flats were taken as the road ran; the small hill that blocked the alignment was cut — and the cut was charged to both votes because its spoil filled the reclamation; the range was crossed by gradient where the district roads needed to climb. The generalisation — that the straight-cut-and-fill economics governed the whole scheme — is inference from the despatch’s logic, and is flagged as such: the corpus states the economics for the 1909–10 cut, not for the road’s original alignment.

7. Conclusion

The record answers the question with the government’s own arithmetic. The Kowloon artery was named Robinson Road from the 1860s (the first section and the frontage lots of 1861) to 1909; renamed Nathan Road 彌敦道 on 19 March 1909 because its name duplicated the island’s; extended 1908–1909 (Market Street → Waterloo Road → K.I.L. 2, $13,581.70 and $8,961.09). And the why: the road went through the hill that confronted it because “the spoil from the cutting will be used for the reclamation” — the cost split one-third road, two-thirds reclamation; the frontage was straightened for the marine lots; the work “should prove a very remunerative”; the road one hundred feet wide.17181920

What the record does not say: that all the peninsula’s mountains were removed — one hill was cut on the road’s alignment, the extension stopped at K.F.L. 2, and the range stood elsewhere (climbed by the district roads at gradients of 1 in 4.3 to 1 in 5.26); that any winding alternative was weighed and rejected — no document records it; and the 1861 “first road” claim — the modern account’s — rests on a corpus whose own record of the 1860s–70s road is thin. The despatch’s arithmetic — the spoil, the frontage, the remunerative reclamation — is the documented why; the generalisation from it is inference, flagged.2122

Appendix A: sources and method

The corpus interrogated for this paper is the hkintexts research index (Elasticsearch cluster hkintexts, indexes hkintexts_pages (text) and hkintexts_image_pages (scans)), queried read-only on 4 October 2026. The working notes (research_nathan_road_kowloon.md, Appendix A) record every query; the principal ones are itemised below. Three source families carry the story: the Gazette and its scans (the renaming notice), the Administrative Reports (the road works), and the press/directories (the name’s use). Whole documents were pulled with tools/get.py; every passage quoted was read in full; the 1909 notice was verified against the scan (image id 1473533’s uuid). No write was made to either index.

QueryHitsOutcome
“Nathan Road” / “Robinson Road, Kowloon” (series aggs)10,000+ (capped) / 1,312the strata; 彌敦道 ubiquitous post-1909
same phrases by series, sorted asc—earliest press 1888-03-08 (Telegraph); earliest Nathan Road 1909-03-20 (China Mail)
the 1909 “Changes in Names of Streets” notice (text + scan)2 pagesthe schedule scan-verified (gazette p. 173)
hill-removal phrases + Kowloon, 1880s0 / 59 / 1removing/level/cut down = 0; levelling = other works; hill cut = a Humour column
“excavation” + Kowloon, 1880s42jumbled false positives
“Kowloon” + “road” + AR series, 1880s18the 1899–1900 Main Road; the 1860s survey
“Robinson Road” + AR series118AR 1908 pp. 261/262/270; AR 1909; the 1881–83 Island road
“Nathan Road” + AR series, 1900s9AR 1908 pp. 215/261/262/266/270; AR 1909 pp. 365/381/394
“Nathan Road” + hill/levelled/cutting/gradient/reclamation, 1900s240 / 4 / 15 / 1 / 34CO129-358 p. 230; AR 1908; the China Mail 1909-10; the ExCo trees FP
the land-lot index: Inland-Lot/695–70410all granted 1861
directories: Robinson Road, Kowloon / Nathan Road, Kowloon16 / 524the diff: 1889–1904 → from 1910

Corpus caution. Three stale index entries were found in this run — 1888-12 press hits whose indexed text no longer contains the phrase (the index was re-indexed between runs); every id was re-verified against the fetched document before citation.

Appendix B: evidence register

Confirmed (two or more independent documents)

  • The Kowloon road was named Robinson Road before 1909 and renamed Nathan Road 彌敦道: Gazette No. 184, 19 March 1909, p. 173 (scan-verified schedule); AR 1908 p. 261 (“Nathan Road (formerly called Robinson Road)”) and p. 270 (“Extension of Robinson Road (re-named Nathan Road)”); the directories’ diff — “Robinson Road, Kowloon” 1889–1904 → “Nathan Road, Kowloon” from 1910.
  • The road went through a hill, the spoil feeding the reclamation: the Lugard despatch (CO 129/358, p. 230) — the government’s own account of its own vote — with the AR 1908/1909 “New Roads, Kowloon” votes (the extensions).
  • The road was extended northward 1908–1909: AR 1908 p. 270 (Market Street → Waterloo Road, $13,581.70); AR 1909 (Waterloo Road → K.I.L. 2, $8,961.09).
  • The road in use from 1888: the HK Telegraph of 8 March 1888 (“his new gardens, Robinson Road, Kowloon”); the 1889 directory (the Kowloon Hotel).

Single-witness (flagged)

  • The Lugard despatch passage (the why): one CO 129/358 page (id 420340) — the despatch is the government’s own statement of its reasoning; reprinted nowhere else found; authoritative but single.
  • The road’s 100-foot width: the despatch’s “the 100-foot Nathan Road”; single witness.
  • The 1861 “first road built in Kowloon” claim: Wikipedia (modern-secondary); the corpus’s earliest press attestation is 1888; the 1860s corpus record is the survey note.
  • The naming after Hercules Robinson: Wikipedia (modern-secondary); no corpus document states the namesake.

Conflicts

  • The AR’s p. 262 renaming table vs the scan: the AR 1908 p. 262’s OCR renders the pairs misaligned (“Garden Road / Nathan Road; Robinson Road / Canton Road”); the notice’s actual scan (p. 173) shows the true pairs: Garden Road → Hankow Road; Robinson Road → Nathan Road; Macdonnell Road → Canton Road. The scan wins; the AR’s OCR table is an artefact and is not cited for any pair.
  • “Removing all mountains in the peninsula” (the premise): not supported. The corpus documents one hill cut (1909–10) on the road’s alignment and selective extensions; the hills remained elsewhere — the Ma Tau Kok–Tai Shek Ku road (a district road away from the artery) “ascends the Kowloon range of hills with gradients varying from 1 in 4.3 to 1 in 5.26”. Corrected in the report: selected hills were cut for fill and frontage; the range was crossed by gradient, not removed.
  • A considered-and-rejected winding road: no document records any winding alternative being considered; the corpus states the positive economics only. The counterfactual is not a finding.

Failed verification (do not use)

  • Hill-removal phrases in the 1880s (“removing the hill”, “level the hill”, “cut down the hill”, “cutting through the hill” + Kowloon): 0 hits; “levelling” (59) is other works (the Police Launch Dock compound, the Naval Yard sea-wall); “hill cut” (1) is a Humour column.
  • The ExCo “cutting” hit (Nathan Road + cutting, 1909–12): “the cutting of trees in Nathan Road” — an ordinance schedule item about trees. Not the hills.
  • “Kowloon Robinson Road” as a phrase: 0 hits; the road’s form in the corpus is “Robinson Road, Kowloon”.

Bracketed gaps (never assert)

  • The road’s 1860s–1870s construction record: the corpus’s AR/press record for the first section is thin; the construction works and their extent are not documented in this run.
  • The original decision’s rationale (1880s): the corpus states the economics for the 1909–10 hill cut; whether the same reasoning governed the road’s original alignment is not documented — the generalisation is inference, flagged as such.
  • The Mongkoktsui Breakwater plan cited in the despatch: the plan itself is not in the corpus.
  • The compensation scheme’s outcome (the marine lot owners “have been sounded”): the despatch is the record’s edge.

Notes

  1. ↑The HK Telegraph, 8 March 1888, p. 3: “the Show will be held in his new gardens, Robinson Road, Kowloon” — the earliest corpus press attestation of the road’s name. https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/2826312 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  2. ↑Hong Kong Government, “Changes in Names of Streets,” The Hongkong Government Gazette, No. 184, 19 March 1909, p. 173: “It is hereby notified that in order to prevent confusion arising from the existence of duplicate names of streets in Hongkong and Kowloon, His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to direct that the streets in the subjoined list be re-named as shewn therein.” STREETS IN KOWLOON: Chater Street → Peking Road 北京道; Des Voeux Road → Chatham Road 漆咸道; Garden Road → Hankow Road 漢口道; Robinson Road → Nathan Road 彌敦道; Macdonnell Road → Canton Road 廣東道; Elgin Road → Haiphong Road 海防道; East Road → Hanoi Road 河內道; East Avenue → Sainam Avenue 西南道; East Terrace → Wuchow Terrace 梧州台. STREETS IN YAUMATI: Third Street → Saigon Street 西貢街; First Street → Kansu Street; Sixth Street → Jordan Road 佐敦道; Eighth Street → Bowring Street 寶靈街. F. H. May, Colonial Secretary. Schedule verified against the scan. https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1572076 ; https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1572077 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  3. ↑Method note: the documentary corpus interrogated for this paper is the hkintexts research index (Elasticsearch cluster hkintexts, indexes hkintexts_pages for text and hkintexts_image_pages for scans), queried read-only on 4 October 2026. The logged queries are itemised in Appendix A. Every passage quoted below was read in its whole document; the 1909 renaming notice was verified against the scan. No write was made to the index.
  4. ↑Nathan Road. Wikipedia (English): “The first section of the road was completed in 1861. It was the first road built in Kowloon, after the land was ceded… in 1860. The road was originally named Robinson Road, after Sir Hercules Robinson, the 5th governor of Hong Kong. To avoid confusion with the Robinson Road on Hong Kong Island, the name was changed to Nathan Road in 1909”; the 1920s northward extension; the Coronation Road section (1911) absorbed 1926. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Road (accessed 4 October 2026).
  5. ↑hkintexts_land_lots (the land-lot index), docs Inland-Lot/695–Inland-Lot/704 (Inland Lots 695–704, type inland): gazette_years 1861 — the road’s earliest frontage block, granted the year of the modern account’s “first section” (accessed 4 October 2026).
  6. ↑The HK Telegraph, 8 March 1888, p. 3: “the Show will be held in his new gardens, Robinson Road, Kowloon” — the earliest corpus press attestation of the road’s name. https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/2826312 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  7. ↑Directory & Chronicle of Hong Kong: 1889 ed., p. 352 (“Kowloon Hotel, Robinson Road, Kowloon”); 1904 ed., p. 1388 (“Oaklands, Robinson Rd.”; “2, Fairview, Robinson Road, Kowloon”) — the name listed continuously 1889–1904; and the 1910 ed., p. 1106 (“GAINS, M., Court Milliner—18, Nathan Road, Kowloon”) — the new name’s first directory attestation. https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/999418 ; https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1019816 ; https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1053513 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  8. ↑Hong Kong Government, “Administrative Report 1908,” p. 270 (the “New Roads, Kowloon” vote, estimates $30,000): “(i.) Extension of Robinson Road (re-named Nathan Road) from Market Street to Waterloo Road. This work was completed at a cost of $13,581.70, the expenditure during 1908 amounting to $4,351.94.” https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/612984 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  9. ↑Hong Kong Government, “Administrative Report 1908,” p. 261: “The kerbing and channelling of the West side of Nathan Road (formerly called Robinson Road) was completed during the year and the macadamizing of a portion of the surface was extended to and carried along Austin Road, Austin Avenue and Kimberley Road”; also “the progress of the railway works on the East side of the Peninsula and the raising of the roads in that district”. https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/612975 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  10. ↑Hong Kong Government, “Changes in Names of Streets,” The Hongkong Government Gazette, No. 184, 19 March 1909, p. 173: “It is hereby notified that in order to prevent confusion arising from the existence of duplicate names of streets in Hongkong and Kowloon, His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to direct that the streets in the subjoined list be re-named as shewn therein.” STREETS IN KOWLOON: Chater Street → Peking Road 北京道; Des Voeux Road → Chatham Road 漆咸道; Garden Road → Hankow Road 漢口道; Robinson Road → Nathan Road 彌敦道; Macdonnell Road → Canton Road 廣東道; Elgin Road → Haiphong Road 海防道; East Road → Hanoi Road 河內道; East Avenue → Sainam Avenue 西南道; East Terrace → Wuchow Terrace 梧州台. STREETS IN YAUMATI: Third Street → Saigon Street 西貢街; First Street → Kansu Street; Sixth Street → Jordan Road 佐敦道; Eighth Street → Bowring Street 寶靈街. F. H. May, Colonial Secretary. Schedule verified against the scan. https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1572076 ; https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1572077 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  11. ↑China Mail, 20 March 1909, p. 1 (the notice reprinted in the press; the same issue still carrying a “No. 2, Robinson Rd, KOWLOON” advertisement — the change days old; the first “Nathan Road” press hits). https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1931883 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  12. ↑Directory & Chronicle of Hong Kong: 1889 ed., p. 352 (“Kowloon Hotel, Robinson Road, Kowloon”); 1904 ed., p. 1388 (“Oaklands, Robinson Rd.”; “2, Fairview, Robinson Road, Kowloon”) — the name listed continuously 1889–1904; and the 1910 ed., p. 1106 (“GAINS, M., Court Milliner—18, Nathan Road, Kowloon”) — the new name’s first directory attestation. https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/999418 ; https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1019816 ; https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1053513 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  13. ↑Sir F. D. Lugard, Governor of Hong Kong, despatch, in CO 129/358 — Governor Sir Lugard — 1909 [10–11], p. 230: “$40,000 is now included in the Estimates for 1910 and a further sum of $15,000 will be spent out of the vote for ‘New Roads, Kowloon’ in extending the 100-foot Nathan Road through the hill which now confronts it. This small hill lies immediately at the back of the proposed reclamation, and since the spoil from the cutting will be used for the reclamation, I have thought it proper to charge the road vote with one-third and the Reclamation with two-thirds of the cost. … This Reclamation should prove a very remunerative work even after the lot owners have been satisfied in money or kind, and it will further be seen on reference to the plan of the Mongkoktaui Breakwater how desirable it is to straighten out the line of frontage in this part of the Kowloon Foreshore. The lot owners have been sounded…” https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/420340 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  14. ↑Sir F. D. Lugard, Governor of Hong Kong, despatch, in CO 129/358 — Governor Sir Lugard — 1909 [10–11], p. 230: “$40,000 is now included in the Estimates for 1910 and a further sum of $15,000 will be spent out of the vote for ‘New Roads, Kowloon’ in extending the 100-foot Nathan Road through the hill which now confronts it. This small hill lies immediately at the back of the proposed reclamation, and since the spoil from the cutting will be used for the reclamation, I have thought it proper to charge the road vote with one-third and the Reclamation with two-thirds of the cost. … This Reclamation should prove a very remunerative work even after the lot owners have been satisfied in money or kind, and it will further be seen on reference to the plan of the Mongkoktaui Breakwater how desirable it is to straighten out the line of frontage in this part of the Kowloon Foreshore. The lot owners have been sounded…” https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/420340 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  15. ↑Hong Kong Government, “The Hung Hom Bay Reclamation Ordinance 1909,” No. 2 of 1909, assented 12 March 1909: “WHEREAS a Government Railway is in course of construction in the Colony between Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon and Lo Fu Ferry in the New Territories and it is necessary for the purposes of such construction that certain Crown foreshore and sea bed should be reclaimed.” Gazette scan p. 155. https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/image-page/1473514 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  16. ↑Hong Kong Government, “Administrative Report 1909”: the “New Roads, Kowloon” vote — “(ii) Continuation of Nathan Road from Waterloo Road to K.F.L. 2.—This work was completed at a total cost of $8,961.09 of which $446.73 was expended during the year”; and the Ma Tau Kok–Tai Shek Ku road: “From near Kowloon City to beyond Chuk Un Village, it is practically level, but beyond this point it ascends the Kowloon range of hills with gradients varying from 1 in 4.3 to 1 in 5.26 until it reaches Shatin Pass at an elevation of about 960 feet above Ordnance Datum.” https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/613393 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  17. ↑Sir F. D. Lugard, Governor of Hong Kong, despatch, in CO 129/358 — Governor Sir Lugard — 1909 [10–11], p. 230: “$40,000 is now included in the Estimates for 1910 and a further sum of $15,000 will be spent out of the vote for ‘New Roads, Kowloon’ in extending the 100-foot Nathan Road through the hill which now confronts it. This small hill lies immediately at the back of the proposed reclamation, and since the spoil from the cutting will be used for the reclamation, I have thought it proper to charge the road vote with one-third and the Reclamation with two-thirds of the cost. … This Reclamation should prove a very remunerative work even after the lot owners have been satisfied in money or kind, and it will further be seen on reference to the plan of the Mongkoktaui Breakwater how desirable it is to straighten out the line of frontage in this part of the Kowloon Foreshore. The lot owners have been sounded…” https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/420340 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  18. ↑Hong Kong Government, “Changes in Names of Streets,” The Hongkong Government Gazette, No. 184, 19 March 1909, p. 173: “It is hereby notified that in order to prevent confusion arising from the existence of duplicate names of streets in Hongkong and Kowloon, His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to direct that the streets in the subjoined list be re-named as shewn therein.” STREETS IN KOWLOON: Chater Street → Peking Road 北京道; Des Voeux Road → Chatham Road 漆咸道; Garden Road → Hankow Road 漢口道; Robinson Road → Nathan Road 彌敦道; Macdonnell Road → Canton Road 廣東道; Elgin Road → Haiphong Road 海防道; East Road → Hanoi Road 河內道; East Avenue → Sainam Avenue 西南道; East Terrace → Wuchow Terrace 梧州台. STREETS IN YAUMATI: Third Street → Saigon Street 西貢街; First Street → Kansu Street; Sixth Street → Jordan Road 佐敦道; Eighth Street → Bowring Street 寶靈街. F. H. May, Colonial Secretary. Schedule verified against the scan. https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1572076 ; https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/1572077 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  19. ↑Hong Kong Government, “Administrative Report 1908,” p. 270 (the “New Roads, Kowloon” vote, estimates $30,000): “(i.) Extension of Robinson Road (re-named Nathan Road) from Market Street to Waterloo Road. This work was completed at a cost of $13,581.70, the expenditure during 1908 amounting to $4,351.94.” https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/612984 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  20. ↑Hong Kong Government, “Administrative Report 1909”: the “New Roads, Kowloon” vote — “(ii) Continuation of Nathan Road from Waterloo Road to K.F.L. 2.—This work was completed at a total cost of $8,961.09 of which $446.73 was expended during the year”; and the Ma Tau Kok–Tai Shek Ku road: “From near Kowloon City to beyond Chuk Un Village, it is practically level, but beyond this point it ascends the Kowloon range of hills with gradients varying from 1 in 4.3 to 1 in 5.26 until it reaches Shatin Pass at an elevation of about 960 feet above Ordnance Datum.” https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/613393 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  21. ↑Hong Kong Government, “Administrative Report 1909”: the “New Roads, Kowloon” vote — “(ii) Continuation of Nathan Road from Waterloo Road to K.F.L. 2.—This work was completed at a total cost of $8,961.09 of which $446.73 was expended during the year”; and the Ma Tau Kok–Tai Shek Ku road: “From near Kowloon City to beyond Chuk Un Village, it is practically level, but beyond this point it ascends the Kowloon range of hills with gradients varying from 1 in 4.3 to 1 in 5.26 until it reaches Shatin Pass at an elevation of about 960 feet above Ordnance Datum.” https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/613393 (accessed 4 October 2026).
  22. ↑Sir F. D. Lugard, Governor of Hong Kong, despatch, in CO 129/358 — Governor Sir Lugard — 1909 [10–11], p. 230: “$40,000 is now included in the Estimates for 1910 and a further sum of $15,000 will be spent out of the vote for ‘New Roads, Kowloon’ in extending the 100-foot Nathan Road through the hill which now confronts it. This small hill lies immediately at the back of the proposed reclamation, and since the spoil from the cutting will be used for the reclamation, I have thought it proper to charge the road vote with one-third and the Reclamation with two-thirds of the cost. … This Reclamation should prove a very remunerative work even after the lot owners have been satisfied in money or kind, and it will further be seen on reference to the plan of the Mongkoktaui Breakwater how desirable it is to straighten out the line of frontage in this part of the Kowloon Foreshore. The lot owners have been sounded…” https://hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/420340 (accessed 4 October 2026).

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Hong Kong Government. The Hongkong Government Gazette: “Changes in Names of Streets,” No. 184, 19 March 1909, p. 173 (the renaming schedule, scan-verified: Robinson Road → Nathan Road 彌敦道; Garden Road → Hankow Road; Macdonnell Road → Canton Road; Yaumati Third Street → Saigon Street 西貢街); “The Hung Hom Bay Reclamation Ordinance 1909,” No. 2 of 1909, assented 12 March 1909. Public viewer links as in the notes (hkintexts.histsyn.com/page/{id}), accessed 4 October 2026.
  • Hong Kong Government. Administrative Reports: “Administrative Report 1908” (the kerbing of “Nathan Road (formerly called Robinson Road)”; the “New Roads, Kowloon” vote — “Extension of Robinson Road (re-named Nathan Road) from Market Street to Waterloo Road”); “Administrative Report 1909” (“Continuation of Nathan Road from Waterloo Road to K.I.L. 2”; the Ma Tau Kok–Tai Shek Ku road’s gradients).
  • Sir F. D. Lugard, Governor of Hong Kong. Despatch, CO 129/358 — Governor Sir Lugard — 1909 [10–11], p. 230 (the hill cut’s spoil for the reclamation; the frontage straightening; the 100-foot road).
  • The HK Telegraph, 8 March 1888, p. 3 (“his new gardens, Robinson Road, Kowloon”). China Mail, 20 March 1909, p. 1 (the notice reprinted).
  • Directory & Chronicle of Hong Kong, 1889–1910 editions (the Kowloon Hotel on Robinson Road; “GAINS, M., Court Milliner — 18, Nathan Road, Kowloon”).
  • hkintexts_land_lots (the land-lot index), Inland Lots 695–704 (gazette years 1861). Accessed 4 October 2026.

Secondary sources

  • Nathan Road. Wikipedia (English). The 1861 “first section” and “first road built in Kowloon” claim; the naming after Sir Hercules Robinson; the 1909 renaming; the 1920s northward extension. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Road (accessed 4 October 2026).
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