Gloucester Road, Hong Kong

Gloucester Road (/ˈɡlɒstər/) (Chinese: 告士打道) is a major highway in Hong Kong. It is one of the few major roads in Hong Kong with service roads. It was named on June 14, 1929 after Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, to commemorate his visit to Hong Kong that year.[1] The road is 2.2 kilometres in length and has a speed limit of 70 km/h.

Gloucester Road
Gloucester Road as viewed from a pedestrian footbridge
Chinese告士打道
Gloucester Road in Wan Chai
Gloucester Road in Wan Chai, near the Wan Chai Sports Ground. East-bound traffic is to the left hand side of the flyover.
Gloucester Road, near Wan Chai Police Station

Location

Gloucester Road is in the north of Wan Chai and East Point on Hong Kong Island. It connects to Harcourt Road at its western end and in the east along the west side of Victoria Park it spit-ends into both Causeway Road and the Tai Hang Road flyover.[1] It forms part of Hong Kong's Route 4 and connects to the Island Eastern Corridor via Victoria Park Road before completion of Central Wan Chai Bypass. The road is connected to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel near the Canal Road Flyover.It runs almost parallel to Lockhart Road.

History

The road was built between 1922 and 1929 by reclamation as a two-lane road on the seafront. It then only connected the Royal Naval Arsenal Yard in Admiralty and Percival Street in Causeway Bay. It was extended to Cleveland Street after World War II. A canal west of Victoria Park Road is also reclaimed to form part of Gloucester Road.

The completion of Cross Harbour Tunnel, Aberdeen Tunnel and other major thoroughfares around it increased traffic output, and thus a new road adjoined to Gloucester Road was built in the 1960s and opened in 1972, which was named "Waterfront Road"(海傍大道). The original Gloucester Road was then converted to one sided traffic heading westbound only. A number of flyovers was built. In 1980, the two roads was unified under the same name of Gloucester Road. The original Gloucester Road has been since known as "Inner Gloucester Road" or "Gloucester Road service road".

Traveling time

Vehicles traveling on Gloucester Road can choose two separate routes: North Point and Cross-Harbour Tunnel. During peak hours, the average time required to travel to Western Kowloon is 5-8 minutes; the average time required to travel to North Point is 15-20 minutes.

Landmarks
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See also

References
  1. Yanne, Andrew; Heller, Gillis (2009). Signs of a Colonial Era. Hong Kong University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-962-209-944-9.
  2. List of the Historic Buildings in Building Assessment (as of 23 November 2011) Archived December 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
Preceded by
Victoria Park Road		 Hong Kong Route 4

Gloucester Road		 Succeeded by
Harcourt Road

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