The City of Victoria, (, or ) often called Victoria City or simply Victoria (), is an area in Hong Kong de jure It was initially named Queenstown but was soon known as Victoria. It was one of the first urban settlements in Hong Kong and its boundaries are recorded in the laws of Hong Kong. the name Victoria has been eclipsed by Central in popular usage. However, the name is still used in places such as Victoria Park, Victoria Peak, Victoria Harbour, Victoria Prison, and a number of roads and streets. It is also retained in the names of various organisations such as the Victoria City District of the Hong Kong Scout, and the Victoria Junior Chamber. The name Victoria District Court had been used into the 1980s, when it was moved to the Wanchai Tower and later on combined with other district courts in the territory.
History
"City of Victoria" had appeared on the statute books early in the 1845, although names such as "Town of Victoria" can be found as well. Letters patent that formally confers the city status and creates the City of Victoria was made on 11 May 1849.
In the 1890s, Victoria extended west to east along the coastal strip. Buildings were made of granite and brick. Buses and the new tramway would become the main form of transport in the area.
The city is centred in present-day Central, and named after Queen Victoria in 1843. It occupies the areas known in modern times as Central, Admiralty, Sheung Wan, Wan Chai, East Point, Shek Tong Tsui, the Mid-levels, the Peak, Happy Valley, Tin Hau, and Kennedy Town, on Hong Kong Island.
Boundaries
thumb|250x250px|Map of Victoria City with location of boundary rocks marked in red
The city boundaries are defined in the laws of Hong Kong as follows:
Three additional boundary stones were found in 2021, adding the total of discovered stones to 10, including the one disappeared in June 2007.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Boundary stones of Victoria from west to east
!No.
!
!Location
!Region
!Notes
|-
|1
|100px
|Sai Ning Street
|Kennedy Town
|Re-erected in Kennedy Town Temporary Playground a few metres away from original location in 1970s
|-
|2
|100px
|Slope of Mount Davis, south of Victoria Road
|Mount Davis
|Discovered on 12 December 2021
|-
|5
|100px
|Hatton Road, near Kotewall Road
|
|-
|6
|100px
|Old Peak Road, near Tregunter Path
| rowspan="4" |Mid-Levels
|
|-
|7
|100px
|Magazine Gap Road
|Removed in June 2007, whereabouts unknown
- Shek Tong Tsui
- Sai Ying Pun
- Taipingshan, a neighborhood near Sheung Wan that shared its name with Victoria Peak
- Sheong Wan
- Choong Wan North and South, known in modern times as Central in English
- Ha Wan, today's Admiralty and Wan Chai
- Wan Chai
- Bowrington, between today's Wan Chai and Causeway Bay, known also as Ngo Keng
- So Kun Poo.
Other places that might be considered as yeuks include:
- Kennedy Town
- Happy Valley
- Causeway Bay
Territorial designation
On 21 May 1982, Sir Crawford Murray MacLehose was made a life peer, weeks after the end of his governorship in Hong Kong. His peerage was announced on 31 December 1981 in the 1982 New Years Honours. He was therefore styled as Baron MacLehose of Beoch, of Maybole in the District of Kyle and Carrick, and of Victoria in Hong Kong. Victoria was listed as the barony's territorial designation, alongside MacLehose's hometown Maybole. The barony went extinct on 27 May 2000 when MacLehose died.
See also
- History of Hong Kong
- List of buildings, sites and areas in Hong Kong
- List of places named for Queen Victoria § Hong Kong, for a list of places named after Queen Victoria
- Praya
- British overseas cities
- George Town, Penang
- City of Singapore (historical entity)
References
External links
- Boundary of the City of Victoria as defined in Hong Kong Laws, Cap 1 SCHED 1 of Hong Kong Law
- Article on history of Hong Kong
- Photos of the 1903 boundary stones
- (Adobe PDF format)
- Another article on "four wans and nine yeuks"
- A photographic panorama of the water-front and city of Victoria, taken sometime after 1906, in Cambridge Digital Library