Memory lane

This postcard of Queen's Road in Hong Kong (c. 1951) pre-dates my childhood life there, which began in 1966-7, at the time of the Cultural Revolution in China. But this and the one below are reminiscent of areas of the colony that were familiar to me, but which began to change rapidly in the 1970s, and has never really stopped, making it a first world and international city of extraordinary energy and wealth.

Edward Seago

The British artist Edward Seago painted many scenes of Hong Kong, including this of Queen's Road (West), and a number of panoramic scenes of the famed Hong Kong harbour, which are held in a private collection in Hong Kong, and are truly breathtaking, and evocative of the time. The postcard below (of Queen's Road Central, c. 1955), is extraordinary because of the lack of people, in a city now bursting at the seams, but it was pre Cultural Revolution and therefore prior to the major influx of refugees from the Mainland.

Seago was a friend of Queen Elizabeth, and painted this below, (a canal in Chioggia), as a gift for her. As a result of this royal provenance, these pictures are extremely expensive.

This below, although not in the Royal Collection, is of Windsor Castle c.1955.