Duddell Street Steps and Gas Lamps

At nightfall, four flames light up over this stairway. They are the only gas lamps still working in Hong Kong since the city electrified its street lighting in 1967. The granite steps were built between 1875 and 1889; the lamps, Rochester models by the London firm William Sugg, arrived in the early 20th century. Both have been a monument since 1979.

1The man behind the street

The street is named after the brothers George and Frederick Duddell, who came from Macau in the colony's early years. George was an auctioneer and a major landowner in this area. And his name turns up in one of Hong Kong's great mysteries.

2The poisoned bread

On 15 January 1857, in the middle of the Second Opium War, between 300 and 500 European residents fell ill after eating bread from the Esing Bakery. The bread contained huge amounts of arsenic. Nobody died on the spot, perhaps because the dose was so high that it made people vomit. The owner, Cheong Ah-lum, was tried and acquitted by a jury, but ended up banished. George Duddell took over the colony's bread supply, and a few weeks later his warehouse was hit by arson.

Nobody ever found out who added the arsenic: an agent of the war, a business rival, or an accident.

A piece of the poisoned bread was kept in the Chief Justice's office until the 1930s.

3What to look for

• The four lamps, each with two lights, on their pillars.
• The granite steps, worn by a century and a half of footsteps.
• The balustrades, repaired after Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018.