MacDonnell Road

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Street in Hong Kong

title: "MacDonnell Road" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mid-levels", "roads-on-hong-kong-island"] description: "Street in Hong Kong" topic_path: "general/mid-levels" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacDonnell_Road" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Street in Hong Kong ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Macdonnell_Road_near_Garden_Road.jpg" caption="Garden Road]]. The building on the right is St. John Tower, which houses the headquarters of [[Hong Kong St. John Ambulance]]."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/HK_中環_Central_麥當勞道_Macdonnel_Road_building_near_Garden_Road_YMCA_HQ_April_2020_SS2_12.jpg" caption="[[YWCA]] Hong Kong headquarters at No. 1 MacDonnell Road."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/HK_中半山_Mid-levels_麥當勞道_MacDonnell_Road_Petrol_Station_residential_buildings_Sept-2010.JPG" caption="Garden Road]]."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Macdonnel_Road_202105.jpg" caption="View of MacDonnell Road near MacDonnell Road Bridge."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/First_Church_of_Christ_Scientist_2021.jpg" caption="First Church of Christ, Scientist]] along MacDonnell Road."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/St._Paul's_Co-educational_College_2021.jpg" caption="Entrance of [[St. Paul's Co-educational College]] on MacDonnell Road."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/MacDonnell_Road_(Peak_Tram)_02.jpg" caption="MacDonnell Road crosses the tracks of the [[Peak Tram]] at MacDonnell Road Bridge, near [[MacDonnell Road stop]]. The current bridge was built in 1938, replacing an older one."] ::

MacDonnell Road (, formerly ) is a street in the Mid-Levels area of Hong Kong Island.

MacDonnell Road is one of the most expensive roads in Central Mid-Levels, together with Old Peak Road, Magazine Gap Road, Tregunter Path, Bowen Road, Borrett Road, and May Road.

Location

Starting at Garden Road, the road runs westward through the Mid-Levels before terminating at Kennedy Road.

Name

MacDonnell Road is named after former Hong Kong Governor Richard Graves MacDonnell, who was in office from 1866 to 1872. MacDonnell developed Victoria Peak during his tenure.

Several streets in Kowloon, built in the second half of the 19th century, were given names that were duplicates of street names on Hong Kong Island. To avoid confusion, their names were changed in 1909, and MacDonnell Road in Kowloon was renamed Canton Road.

The 1904 book English Made Easy written by Mok Man Cheung, and published in Hong Kong, listed MacDonnell Road as 'Mac Donald Road'.

The Chinese name for the fast food chain McDonald's () is identical to the Chinese transliteration of this road (), where "" means "Road". The first McDonald's restaurant was opened in Hong Kong in January 1975, and the name was chosen because it represented a "well-known local street".

History

Construction of MacDonnell Road started in 1891 and its first section was completed the following year. The road was extended eastward in 1899, where it formed a junction with Bowen Road at its eastern end.

Crown land lots at MacDonnell Road were let by public auction for 999-year leases as early as 1896. The colonial government ceased offering such long leases after May 1898, and only a limited number of plots on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon have a lease term of 999 years.

In 1903, parts of MacDonnell Road were infested with anopheles, and malaria was rife there. Nullahs in the area were cleared as a preventive measure.

Before World War II, the area below Victoria Peak was home to people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Wealthy Japanese were living as high up as MacDonnell Road.

During the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941, the headquarters of the 2/14th Battalion, Punjab Regiment was located on MacDonnell Road. The 2/14 Punjab were part of the West Brigade, and their tactical area of responsibility stretched along the northwestern shore of Hong Kong Island from Causeway Bay to Belcher's Point, including the defence of the Governor's House and of Major General Maltby's headquarters.

In April 1957, the Chinese name of the road was changed from "" to "", likely because of the negative connotation of "" meaning "slave". Since 2023, it became a point of interest for Chinese tourists, posing in front of the street sign with food purchased from McDonald's, as both share the same Chinese name.

Features

Features along the road include:

Notable residents

  • Stanley Ho (1921–2020), Hong Kong-Macau billionaire businessman. Ho grew up in a two-house residence on MacDonnell Road, "with two gardens that ran for half a mile".
  • Lee Shau-kee (1928-2025), Hong Kong business magnate. Lee and his family lived in the penthouse at Eva Court () at 36 MacDonnell Road from 1984 to the 2010s. The 22-storey residential building had been developed for the Lee family, and was named after Lee Shau-kee's ex-wife, Lau Wai-ken. In 2010, Lee spent HK$1.82 billion for a plot of land on The Peak to build his new home. The newly acquired plot was the most expensive residential site in the world at the time on a per square foot basis.
  • Kenny Bee (born 1953), Hong Kong singer, musician, and actor. He released an autobiography in December 2007, titled ** (MacDonnell Road), named after the street he grew up on.

Cited buildings

Several buildings along MacDonnell Road have been cited in books and research articles. They include:

  • Cases involving several buildings along MacDonnell Road have contributed to the clarification of the legal definition of "immediate neighbourhood " in Hong Kong. They include the No. 3 MacDonnell Road Case and Nos. 16-18 MacDonnell Road Case.
  • Joyce Symons' granduncle, E.H. Ray, lived on MacDonnell Road before World War II. His house was commandeered by the military during the Battle of Hong Kong.
  • Noel Croucher bought and redeveloped the property at No. 6 MacDonnell Road in the 1950s. He owned it for many years.

Conservation

The western half of MacDonnell Road is part of the Central Route of the Central and Western Heritage Trail of the Hong Kong Tourist Association. The Route includes the First Church of Christ Scientist Hong Kong and St. Paul's Co-educational College.

Transportation

MacDonnell Road is served by a Peak Tram stop and two bus routes: Citybus Route 12A running from Admiralty, and public light bus Route 1A running from Star Ferry in Central.

References

References

  1. (2009). "Signs of a Colonial Era". [[Hong Kong University Press]].
  2. (19 March 1909). "Changes in Names of Streets". [[Hong Kong Government Gazette]].
  3. Bard, Solomon. (2002). "Voices from the past: Hong Kong, 1842-1918". [[Hong Kong University Press]].
  4. (1987). "A Middleman for All Seasons: Snapshots of the Significance of Mok Man Cheung and His "English Made Easy"". Journal of the [[Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch]].
  5. Watson, James L.. (1997). "Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia". [[Stanford University Press]].
  6. (13 January 1892). "Surveyor's General Department. Report for the Year 1891". Hong Kong Government Sessional Papers.
  7. (13 January 1892). "Report of the Director of Public Works for 1892". Hong Kong Government Sessional Papers.
  8. (9 April 1900). "Report of the Director of Public Works for 1899". Hong Kong Government Sessional Papers.
  9. (27 June 1896). "Land Sale, MacDonnell Road". [[Hong Kong Government Gazette]].
  10. (25 July 1896). "Land Sale, MacDonnell Road". [[Hong Kong Government Gazette]].
  11. "Land tenure system in Hong Kong". [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong]].
  12. (25 July 1903). "Memoranda. Parturition Complicated by Malaria Fever". [[The British Medical Journal]].
  13. (17 September 1903). "Hansard / Votes and proceedings (LegCo Sittings 1903 Session)". [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong]].
  14. Horne, Gerald. (2004). "Race War!: White Supremacy and the Japanese Attack on the British Empire". [[New York University Press]].
  15. Lai, Benjamin. (2014). "Hong Kong 1941–45: First strike in the Pacific War". [[Bloomsbury Publishing]].
  16. (2017-08-04). "考考你正字！ 麥當勞道係「勞」定「奴」？".
  17. (2018-03-23). "【真本土】拆牌改街名？馬冠堯：街道名字代表了整個香港的歷史".
  18. "【另類打卡】内地游客帶外賣麥當勞道打卡 拆解麥當勞道成打卡熱點之謎 - 香港經濟日報 - TOPick - 休閒消費".
  19. . ["Our Locations"](https://www.stjohn.org.hk/en/contact-us/our-locations). *[[Hong Kong St. John Ambulance]]*.
  20. Poon, Ka-po. (April 2005). "An empirical study of the determinants of serviced apartmentrent in Hong Kong". [[University of Hong Kong]].
  21. Yu, Helen. (28 May 2020). "The Most Luxurious Serviced Apartments In Hong Kong". [[Asia Tatler]].
  22. (8 August 1938). "Tenders invited for reconstruction of Macdonnell Road Bridge". [[Hong Kong Government Gazette]].
  23. (8 August 1938). "Report of the Director of Public Works for the Year 1938". Hong Kong Government Administrative Report.
  24. [[Antiquities Advisory Board]]. Historic Building Appraisal. [http://www.aab.gov.hk/historicbuilding/en/531_Appraisal_En.pdf First Church of Christ, Scientist. No. 31 MacDonnell Road, Central]
  25. [[Antiquities and Monuments Office]]. [[Central and Western Heritage Trail]]. [https://www.amo.gov.hk/en/trails_central2.php?tid=17 First Church of Christ Scientist Hong Kong]
  26. [[Antiquities Advisory Board]]. [http://www.aab.gov.hk/form/AAB-SM-chi.pdf List of the 1,444 Historic Buildings with Assessment Results] {{Webarchive. link. (2018-06-18)
  27. [[Antiquities Advisory Board]]. Historic Building Appraisal. [https://www.aab.gov.hk/historicbuilding/en/408_Appraisal_En.pdf School building of 1927, St Paul's Co-educational College, No. 33 MacDonnell Road] {{Webarchive. link. (2021-06-06)
  28. (26 May 2020). "Stanley Ho, patriarch of Asia's largest casino empire and the 'King of Gambling' for more than half a century, dies at 98". [[South China Morning Post]].
  29. Liu, Yvonne. (19 May 2010). "Lee pays HK$1.82b for site on Peak". [[South China Morning Post]].
  30. (21 March 2019). "Lee Shau-kee To Retire: 5 Things To Know About Hong Kong's Second Richest Man". [[Asia Tatler]].
  31. "麥當勞道".
  32. (December 2007). "麥當勞道". 世界出版社 (World Publishing Co.).
  33. (2000). "Planning Buildings for a High-Rise Environment in Hong Kong: A Review of Building Appeal Decisions". [[Hong Kong University Press]].
  34. Lee, Vicky. (2004). "Being Eurasian: Memories Across Racial Divides". [[Hong Kong University Press]].
  35. England, Vaudine. (1998). "The Quest of Noel Croucher: Hong Kong's Quiet Philanthropist". [[Hong Kong University Press]].
  36. [[Antiquities and Monuments Office]]. [https://www.amo.gov.hk/en/trails_central_map.php Map of Central and Western Heritage Trail]
  37. [[Antiquities and Monuments Office]]. [[Central and Western Heritage Trail]]. [https://www.amo.gov.hk/en/trails_central2.php?tid=18 St. Paul's Co-educational College]

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