Fascinating link between Hastings and Hong Kong revealed by local historian

The link is through Patrick Robertson, a Hastings MP from 1852-59 and 1865-68, who was a successful Far East businessman. When Britain won the 1839-42 Opium War, the Chinese had to hand over the island and small port at the mouth of the Shizi Ocean River that were to become today’s mega-city of Hong Kong.

The British government began to develop Hong Kong by auctioning 50 plots of key land, each with a 100 ft sea frontage. Robertson bought the largest of these plots, covering 35,000 sq feet.

Robertson came to live in Hastings in 1847, buying Halton House and its six-acre estate. He soon became interested in the 8½ acres of empty land by the seafront - the ‘America Ground’ - that had been awaiting development after being cleared of its occupants by the Crown in 1835.

He could see the forthcoming construction of Hastings railway station in the Priory Valley would move the town centre from the Old Town. So in 1850 he rented the America Ground from the Crown and created Robertson Street, Robertson Terrace, Trinity Street, Claremont, Harold Place and Carlisle Parade as we know them today. The America Ground became a highly respected heart of Hastings - thanks partly to Robertson’s major investment in Hong Kong.

Halton House, demolished in 1897, stood where Council houses are now at the east end of Hardwicke Road, with stables on the site of the Old London Road petrol station.