Lyndhurst Terrace

Lyndhurst Terrace (Chinese: 擺花街) is a street in the Central area of Hong Kong. Built on a slope in southern Central district, the terrace links Hollywood Road and Wellington Street, at its intersection with Pottinger Street. In the middle it meets Gage Street and Cochrane Street, and also the Central-Mid-Levels escalators.

Name

The terrace was named after John Singleton Copley Lyndhurst, an Assistant Magistrate. The Cantonese name 擺花 (baai2 faa1) literally means "flower arrangement", possibly because of presence of numerous stalls in the area in the mid-19th century, selling flowers to the customers of the nearby brothels.

History

Lyndhurst Terrace and the surrounding area were the location of some of the earliest brothels established in Hong Kong, in the mid-19th century. Western prostitutes concentrated there, while Chinese brothels were located in the Tai Ping Shan area near Po Hing Fong. They gradually moved to Possession Street and relocated to Shek Tong Tsui in 1903. The name of the street appears in this context in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, published in 1939.