Possession Street

[2][3] Captain Edward Belcher, who surveyed the island in 1841, wrote: "We landed on Monday, the 25th, 1841, at fifteen minutes past eight A. M., and being the bona fide first possessors, Her Majesty's health was drank with three cheers on Possession Mount.

[4] The hoisting of the Union Jack was possibly done by either William Dowell, who was a midshipman during the ceremony, or Mohammed Arab, who served in either the Bengal Volunteers or 37th Madras Native Infantry.

[5] The area was kept as an open space, and used for recreation by the local Chinese, who called it Tai Tat Tei (大笪地).

[6] The point has now disappeared from the coastline, but Possession Street and the sudden turn of Queen's Road West reveals its original location.

At the end of the 19th century, the street was full of brothels, until 1903, when they were relocated to Shek Tong Tsui[7] and the premises was replaced with housing.