Jordan Road

Jordan Road, formerly known as Sixth Street, was renamed to its present name in March 1909. In May 1909, Gascoigne Road South was also merged into the road. The road is named after Sir John Jordan, then British Minister to China. The story suggested by some Chinese sources that the street was named after British pathologist G. P. Jordan, who served as Health Officer in Hong Kong for nearly thirty years, was actually a myth. In 1908, a stone obelisk was erected as a memorial to French sailors of the "Fronde" who had drowned in the 1906 typhoon. Originally located at the corner with Gascoigne Road, the monument has since been relocated to the Colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley. Prior to the opening of the Cross-Harbor Tunnel in 1972, ferries such as the ones departing from Jordan Road were the only way to transport automobiles from Kowloon to Hong Kong. Once a quiet, suburban street, since the 1950s Jordan Road and its surrounding area have become one of the most overcrowded areas in Kowloon.