The Praya Reclamation Scheme () was a large scale
land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...
project carried out by the
Hong Kong Land
Hongkong Land (HKL) is a property investment, management and development group with commercial and residential property interests across Asia. It owns and manages some 850,000 sq. m. of office and retail property in Asia, principally in Hong K ...
company in
Colonial Hong Kong under
Sir Catchick Paul Chater and
James Johnstone Keswick
James Johnstone Keswick (1845–1914) was a Scottish businessman in China and Hong Kong. He was the tai-pan of the Jardine Matheson & Co.
Biography
He was the son of the Thomas Keswick, and younger brother of William Keswick, who was the founder ...
.
Early proposal
The project was first proposed in 1855 but many merchants with private piers on the waterfront objected to the scheme.
The first reclamation project eventually began in 1868 and was completed in 1873. It added significant land to
Praya Central, which later became present-day
Des Voeux Road
Des Voeux Road Central and Des Voeux Road West are two roads on the north shore of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. They were named after the 10th Governor of Hong Kong, Sir William Des Vœux. The name was sometimes spelt with the ligature œ i ...
.
Second reclamation scheme
The second project was revived by the
Tai-pan
A tai-pan (,Andrew J. Moody, "Transmission Languages and Source Languages of Chinese Borrowings in English", ''American Speech'', Vol. 71, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 414-415. literally "top class"汉英词典 — ''A Chinese-English Dictionary' ...
of
The Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company in July 1887.
["A Historical and Architectural Appraisal of Queen’s Pier, Central (Annexe B3)]
, Antiquities and Monuments Office, Government of Hong Kong SAR, accessdate=2007-12-15 It did not commence until February 1890,
and as it was significantly larger than the first, the completion was between 1903 and 1904.
[ There were discrepancies in the number of acres actually gained from the entire project: some sources claimed it added of land to ]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 Delt ...
's 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 ...
waterfront and Statue Square
Statue Square (; lit. "Empress' Statue Square") is a public pedestrian square in Central, Hong Kong. Built entirely on reclaimed land at the end of the 19th century, Statue Square consists of two parts separated by Chater Road into a nort ...
,ton
Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses.
Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean
* the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds
...
s.
See also
* The Hongs
A ''hong'' () originally designates both a type of building and a type of Chinese merchant intermediary in Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton), Guangdong, China, in the 18–19th century, specifically during the Canton System period.
Guangz ...
* Land reclamation in Hong Kong
The reclamation of land from the ocean has long been used in mountainous Hong Kong to expand the limited supply of usable land with a total of around 60 square kilometres of land created by 1996. The first reclamations can be traced back to the e ...
* Praya East Reclamation Scheme
Praya East Reclamation Scheme () was a large scale land reclamation project in Colonial Hong Kong lasting from 1921 to 1931 under Sir Catchick Paul Chater.
* Prince's Building
Prince's Building is an office tower with a six-level shopping centre, known as Landmark Prince's. Located along the western side of the southern section of Statue Square in Central, Hong Kong near Central station, the building is connected to ...
References
{{Central, Hong Kong
Coastal construction in Hong Kong
Land reclamation