On 26 January 1841, British forces landed in the Sheung Wan area, at what is now Possession Street. The Antiquities and Monuments Office gives the site in two entries on its Central and Western Heritage Trail (Sheung Wan Route). The Possession Street page reads: 「水坑口原稱『大坑口』……1841年英軍於該處登陸，命名為『佔領角』。其後大水坑被填平，新闢的馬路英文名為 Possession Street，初譯為『波些臣街』，後改稱『水坑口街』。」 (the stream mouth was originally called Tai Hang Hau; the British landed there in 1841 and named it Possession Point, and the new road laid after the stream was filled in was named Possession Street, first rendered in Chinese as 波些臣街 and later as 水坑口街). The Tai Tat Tei page reads: 「該處原為濱海小山丘，1841年英軍於該處登陸，舉行升旗儀式，以示正式佔領香港島，並建置軍營。其後軍營遷往中區，該處曾作墟場供街坊擺賣，俗稱『大笪地』。今已闢為荷李活道公園。」 (the spot was originally a small hill on the shore, where British troops landed in 1841 and held a flag-raising ceremony to mark the formal occupation of Hong Kong Island, and where barracks were built; the barracks later moved to Central, the site was used as a market by local stallholders, known as Tai Tat Tei, and it is Hollywood Road Park today).
It is hard to see that morning in the copies we can find: the scans blur when you zoom in, and the printed versions in books are too small to read a place name. This article works from a chart drawn by the survey ship that was there that year, the imprint and place names quoted below are the sheet's own printed words.
What the sheet itself says: CHINA, HONGKONG, Belcher, 1841
Attribution is where old-map research starts: the imprint is the sheet's own printed source line. In the upper right of this chart, the title block prints four lines: CHINA, HONGKONG, SURVEYED BY CAPTN SIR EDWARD BELCHER, IN H.M.S. SULPHUR, and 1841. So the title is "CHINA HONGKONG", 1841 is the survey year, and the survey came from the Royal Navy vessel H.M.S. Sulphur under Edward Belcher. The labels on the sheet are the sheet's own printing; VICTORIA BAY is worth a note here. The Lands Department records that the city on the north shore was only officially named "Victoria City" on 29 June 1843, so that label reflects later usage.
The same block holds the technical notes. Three line styles mark the 4, 5 and 10 fathom depth lines. Seabed types are lettered: m for mud, r for rock, s for sand, st for stones. Two arrows give the ebb and flood directions. The last line records the rise of tide, 1 ft 9 in, which is about 53 cm.
7,450 people, and the treaty that followed
The Water Supplies Department's water-supply milestones note that Hong Kong was founded in 1841, and that in the first census the population was 7,450. A chart is mostly water because that is what it is for, so depths and seabed letters take up most of the sheet.
The Customs and Excise Department's official history states it in two dated entries: 26 January 1841, British Army occupied Hong Kong Island; and in August 1842 the Qing government signed the Treaty of Nanking, by which Hong Kong Island was officially ceded to Britain. Those two dates, beside the 1841 survey imprint, fix the moment this chart belongs to.
Reading the island: labels in the south and on the north shore
The island name is set in wide-spaced capitals, H O N G K O N G, letter by letter across the whole landmass. A chart is mostly about water, so everything beyond the shoreline carries depths and seabed letters, while village names inland are printed small.
In the south the chart prints "Aberdeen or Shekpywan", what we now call Aberdeen and Shek Pai Wan. The chart writes Shekpywan where we write Shek Pai Wan today. That difference is worth noting: the sheet preserves how a place was written in that period.
The north shore is denser. The chart marks the waterfront of Victoria with piers, blocks and buildings, labelled Government Buildings and Praya among others; across the harbour the chart labels Kowloon Point and Old Fort on the Kowloon peninsula, with older names such as East or Matheson Point Bay further out. The north shore carries denser labelling than the Kowloon side.
How to use this chart today
An old chart is not a list of street names to be matched one for one; it is a set of positions to compare. The coastline, the piers and the buildings are printed on the sheet, so a place can be matched to today's by position. Ridgelines tend to be steadier anchors; the shoreline needs care, since reclamation has moved the Central and Sheung Wan waterfront well beyond its 1841 line.
Two practical notes. Depths are in fathoms, and 1 fathom is 1.83 m, so a 4 fathom sounding marks water about 7.3 m deep. Our product is also a high-resolution restored reproduction, not the original document: the printed size differs, so the scale on the sheet describes the original only, not the canvas.
Related maps
Our canvases come in six sizes, from A4 (21 × 30 cm) to 80 × 120 cm, with a natural, black or white wooden frame if you want one. We ship within Hong Kong and overseas; preparation and packing take 3 to 14 days. Three charts from the same early years:
- 1841 Map of Hong Kong Island & Kowloon — Restored Canvas
- 1843 Hong Kong Island Map — Early Victoria City (Canvas Print)
- 1845 Hong Kong Island Map — North Shore Before Reclamation
Sources
This article draws on the public sources below, together with our own reading of the 1841 sheet (title, imprint and printed place names). Copyright remains with the cited authors and institutions. The map images are digital restorations made by us, not scans of a document we hold.
- Antiquities and Monuments Office: Central and Western Heritage Trail (Sheung Wan Route), Possession Street site (accessed 13 October 2026)
- Antiquities and Monuments Office: Central and Western Heritage Trail (Sheung Wan Route), Tai Tat Tei site (accessed 13 October 2026)
- Water Supplies Department: Water Supply Milestones (1841 first census figure) (accessed 13 October 2026)
- Hong Kong Customs: the early history chapter (entries for 1841 and 1842) (accessed 13 October 2026)