Blackhead Point (), also known as Tai Pau Mai () indigenously, or by the names Tsim Sha Tsui Point and Signal Hill (), was a

cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment of any length that hangs loosely and connects either at the neck or shoulders. They usually cover the back, shoulders, and arms. They come in a variety of styles and have been used th ...

before any

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

took place in

Tsim Sha Tsui Tsim Sha Tsui ( zh, c=尖沙咀), often abbreviated as TST, is an list of areas of Hong Kong, area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed ...

Kowloon Kowloon () is one of the areas of Hong Kong, three areas of Hong Kong, along with Hong Kong Island and the New Territories. It is an urban area comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. It has a population of 2,019,533 and a populat ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. It currently remains a small hill near the coast. Signal Hill is about high and measures approximately from east to west, and from north to south. It is the site of Signal Hill Garden and features the Signal Hill Tower as well as remains of military structures.

Etymology

Blackhead Point was named after a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

businessman in Hong Kong named Friedrich Johan Berthold Schwarzkopf, who naturalised as a British citizen and

anglicise Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

d his name as 'Blackhead'. The name used by local residents for the Hill was Tai Pau Mai () because it was believed that the hill resembled a large bag of rice.

Signal Hill Tower

The Signal Hill Tower () was built in the

Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...

style in 1907 at the top of the hill. It was originally a three-storey building. The tower stood at 12.8 metres (42 feet) tall, with a red brick facade. Then, another storey was added to the structure in 1927 for clearer view of the tower from incoming vessels, this heightened it to 18.9 m (62 ft). The windows of the added storey features round windows whereas the original floors have square windows. Prior to the addition, the roof of the building was flat. A dome-shaped roof painted light green was built in replacement. There was a mast which used to contain the time ball atop the building. The purpose of the tower was to house a

time ball A time ball or timeball is a time-signalling device. It consists of a large, painted wooden or metal ball that is dropped at a predetermined time, principally to enable navigators aboard ships offshore to verify the setting of their marine chron ...

apparatus of the

Hong Kong Observatory The Hong Kong Observatory is a weather forecast agency of the government of Hong Kong. The Observatory forecasts the weather and issues warnings on weather-related hazards. It also monitors and makes assessments on radiation levels in Hong ...

previously located in the nearby Marine Police Headquarters Compound. The apparatus operated in the building from January 1908 to June 1933, dropping once daily from 1908 to 1920, and twice a day from 1920 to 1933. The dropping of the time ball ceased on 30 June 1933 as the building itself was in disrepair, short of staff, and the method used to check the

marine chronometer A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and the time at t ...

s had become obsolete, in comparison with radio-telegraphy and telephony. During World War II, Signal Hill Tower was used as a temporary ammunition store. The

Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Services ...

restored the tower in the 1970s. The building was designated a Grade II historic building in 1981Brief Information on Proposed Grade I Items. Item #47
and was upgraded to a

Grade I historic building Grade most commonly refers to: * Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.) * A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...

on 18 December 2009. On 23 October 2015, the tower was also declared a monument.

Signal Hill Battery

Removed cannon in Signal Hill Garden 202007

Anti-aircraft guns may have been located at the south side of the hill. Later, four British 25-pound cannons used for ceremonial salute were located in concrete gun emplacements facing

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbor, harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. It acts as both a major trading hub and tourist attraction of Hong Kong in general. Lying in ...

Today

The site was allocated to the Urban Council in 1973 and made a park, called the Signal Hill Garden (), which was officially opened on 20 August 1974. Signal Hill Tower is still standing and is now a declared a monument. A small building in the park, now repurposed as a toilet, was where typhoon signals were hoisted in Hong Kong as it was located on the highest hill near the middle of

. The entrance of the park is at

Minden Row Minden Row () is a street in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It junctions Mody Road to the North and ends at Middle Road, Hong Kong, Middle Road to the South. A short alley called Minden Avenue () junctions the middle of the street. Name The ...

. The Signal Hill Garden is adjacent to the Middle Road Children's Playground. However, the two parks are not contiguous and one cannot walk to the other without first exiting to the street. Note that the opening hours (for 2019) for the Tower are: 9:00 am - 11:00 am and 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm daily.

Gallery

File:Timeballs on Blackhead Point.jpg, Signal Hill Tower and the timeball before the additional storey was added. File:1908 Time Ball Tower.jpg, The time ball tower in 1908. File:Signal Tower Interior 202007.jpg, Interior of Signal Tower in 2020

References

External links

Antiquities Advisory Board The Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB) is a statutory body of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with the responsibility of advising the Secretary for Development, Antiquities Authority on any matters relating to antiquities and monum ...

Heritage Appraisal of the Signal Tower. Blackhead Point (Tai Pau Mai), Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

Cultural Heritage Structures, Sites and Objects on Signal Hill
{{coord, 22, 17, 46, N, 114, 10, 27, E, source:zhwiki, display=title Tsim Sha Tsui Capes of Hong Kong Mountains, peaks and hills of Hong Kong Urban public parks and gardens in Hong Kong Time balls