The heady heights of Peakdom

SIR WILLIAM Des Voeux, who could never be called the most cheerful of Hongkong's Governors, was in a particularly despondent mood one day early in 1888.

Sitting in Mountain Lodge, the long-demolished summer residence of Governors and situated on The Peak, Sir William bemoaned his ''miserable'' life there ''. . . the fog was as dense as the worst that afflicts London in November . . . the damp inside the house was such that water ran down the walls in streams and collected in pools on the polished floors . . .'' On writing paper doubtless as damp as a bathroom sponge, he continued: ''At such times one seemed entirely cut off from the world, the existence of which was revealed only at rare intervals by the arrival of a Government messenger with papers.'' And quite right, too, modern Peakites would chorus; the modern mountain dwellers want nothing more than to be cut off from the hoi polloi massed on the teeming streets of Hongkong far below now air-conditioners and dehumidifiers can keep them mildew-free.

Forget about the rise of the middle classes, democratically-elected Legislative Councillors and the explosion in housing developments over the past two decades.

With a few notable exceptions - including the Governor, ironically - The Peak is still the province of those who have reached the pinnacle of social mountaineering, or at least those who have scaled close to its upper reaches, or else executives blessed with a bounteously generous housing allowance.

For the first 50 years of Hongkong's existence The Peak was reached only through the sweaty exertions of chair-coolies. According to author Nigel Cameron's An Illustrated History of Hongkong, a small number of wealthy families had made the area their home before The Peak Tram opened in 1888, but that event initiated a headlong rush of development and mock-Gothic, Italianate and whitewashed villas and mansions for the rich.

During a malaria scare in 1904 the Governor reserved the area for Europeans and ''Chinese of good standing''. With this gesture of social apartheid the tag of exclusivity settled on The Peak like a winter mist.