Harcourt Road is a major

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, connecting

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and

Wan Chai Wan Chai is situated at the western part of the Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. Its other boundaries are Canal Road to the east, Arsenal Street to the west and Bowen Road to the south. The area n ...

. It starts at

Murray Road Murray Road () is a road in Hong Kong. It is sometimes considered a boundary between Admiralty and Central. Along with a few other places in the area, it was named after Sir George Murray, a soldier and politician from Scotland. Notable building ...

and ends at Arsenal Street. The road is 780 metres in length and has four lanes of traffic on either side. The section of Harcourt Road westbound between Rodney Street and

Cotton Tree Drive Cotton Tree Drive () is a road running from Central to Mid-Levels, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. The road is famous for the Cotton Tree Drive Marriage Registry, a hotspot for marriage registration inside Hong Kong Park. It used to be known as Ka ...

features a

frontage road A frontage road (also known as an access road, outer road, service road, feeder road, or parallel road) is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. A frontage road is often used to provide access to private drive ...

History

In the early 1840s when Hong Kong was colonized, the present-day Admiralty was planned to be of military use, the navy situated at the seafront and the army back on the hillside. That leaves in-between a rather large, elongated piece of land. In the 1870s, the

Admiralty Dock HMS ''Tamar'' () was the name for the British Royal Navy's base in Hong Kong from 1897 to 1997. It took its name from HMS ''Tamar'', a ship that was used as the base until replaced by buildings ashore. History 19th century The British Navy ...

was built on that stretch of land. Prior to its construction, the then governor, Sir Arthur Kennedy discussed the possibility of running a narrow public road through this land with the military officials but was rejected to protect military secrecy. Kennedy Road in the Mid-Levels was built as a replacement. Then for decades numerous attempts by different governors negotiating on this matter failed. After World War II, the navy strength of the British Empire in the far east diminished, hence this piece of land containing the Admiralty Dock amongst others was returned to the government. The Admiralty dock finally ceased operating in November 1959 and was demolished soon after. Due to the rapid development of Central and Wan Chai, traffic congestions occurs frequently in the area and a driving uphill to Kennedy Road is quite a detour. So after the

reclamation Reclaim, reclaimed, reclaimer, reclaiming or reclamation means "to get something back". It may refer to: * Land reclamation, creating new land from oceans, riverbeds, or lake beds * Dedesertification, reversing of the land degradation in arid ...

of parts of the dock, Harcourt Road was built and opened to public in 1961 to ease these problems. It was named after

Cecil Harcourt Admiral Sir Cecil Halliday Jepson Harcourt (translated to Chinese as zh , t= 夏慤 , j=haa6 kok3 , labels=no; 11 April 1892 – 19 December 1959) was a British naval officer. He was the ''de facto'' governor of Hong Kong as commander-in-chi ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

who received Hong Kong from Japan after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, on 7 April the same year. Harcourt Road was once a waterfront promenade. The road has serious safety problems; 13 car accidents happened at the same curve of the road within six months. Hence on 13 August 1962, a speed limit was placed that traffic cannot exceed 35 km/h when passing that curve; this happened to be the first speed limit all over Hong Kong. In January 2019, the Central–Wan Chai Bypass opened, providing a parallel expressway route to Harcourt Road, Gloucester Road,

Victoria Park Road Victoria Park Road () is a road in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Its western section between Gloucester Road and Island Eastern Corridor before the completion of Central–Wan Chai Bypass, served as a portion of Route 4. It starts at the junction o ...

and

Connaught Road Central Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Delb ...

Harcourt Road Flyover

The Harcourt Road Flyover at the western part of the road opened on 19 April 1966. To link Harcourt Road with Queen's Road East and Garden Road, the Albany Nullah was decked over and a new road built called Kapok Drive (now Cotton Tree Drive). These flyovers and slip roads opened in the late 1960s.

Events

Umbrella Revolution Harcourt Road View 20141028

From 28 September 2014 to 11 December 2014, the

Umbrella Revolution A series of sit-in street protests, often called the Umbrella Revolution and sometimes used interchangeably with Umbrella Movement, or Occupy Movement, occurred in Hong Kong from 26 September to 15 December 2014. The protests began after th ...

took place. Harcourt Road, near to the Admiralty station,

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

and

Legislative Council Complex The Legislative Council Complex (LegCo Complex) is the headquarters of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. The complex is located at 1 Legislative Council Road, Central, Hong Kong. Construction of the LegCo Complex commenced in 2008 and was ...

, transformed into

Umbrella Square Umbrella Square (), also called Umbrella Plaza, describes a large roadway in Admiralty, Hong Kong occupied by protesters during the Umbrella Movement protests in September 2014. On 11 December 2014, after 74 days of occupation, the area was clear ...

, was occupied for 79 days by pro-democracy protesters. 2019-06-12 Hong Kong demonstrators on Harcourt Road

On 12 June 2019, protesters took place on Harcourt Road to oppose the extradition bill to China.

References

External links

Google Maps of Harcourt Road
{{Coord, 22.28085, 114.16355, display=title Former Part of Route 4 (Hong Kong) Admiralty, Hong Kong Roads on Hong Kong Island

History

Harcourt Road Flyover

Events

See also

References

External links