Review | Incredible images of Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak from 19th century – sedan chairs, the Peak tram – in new book

Along with a ride on the Star Ferry and a visit to the Big Buddha, a journey up Victoria Peak is high on the bucket lists of most visitors to Hong Kong.

And soon after settling in Hong Kong, many new residents quickly receive a potted history of the city’s most exclusive district – how it was first settled by the British seeking a respite from the summer heat, and how its upper-class inhabitants were originally hauled up the steep, winding paths in sedan chairs and rickshaws.

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Now, The Peak’s evolution from an isolated summer getaway for the colony’s elite to the top tourist attraction has been charted in The Peak – An Illustrated History of Hong Kong’s Top District by Richard J. Garrett, a historian, civil engineer and long-term resident of the exclusive enclave.

The Peak, like much of Hong Kong, was very much the “barren rock” described by then British foreign secretary Lord Palmerston when the colony was established in 1841. It was left untouched until 1860, when a signal station was built to signal the arrival of the mail and other shipping, and a small military sanatorium followed in 1862.

Several years later, the government converted the failed sanatorium into Mountain Lodge – “for the use of His Excellency the Governor and the officers of the Government” – and governor Richard MacDonnell became a regular visitor from 1867.

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Garrett writes: “Obviously, if The Peak was good enough for the governor, it was good enough for lesser mortals, and following his example businessmen and other officials were soon wanting their own summer house on the hill.”