Noonday Gun

Noel Coward made the so-called Noonday Gun famous with his satirical song ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ (1924), about colonials who braved the fierce heat of the midday sun while the local people sensibly remained indoors: ‘In Hong Kong/they strike a gong/And fire off a noonday gun/To reprimand each inmate/Who’s in late.’ Apparently when Coward was invited to pull the lanyard, he was late and it didn’t go off until 12.03pm. Built in 1901 by Hotchkiss of Portsmouth, this recoil-mounted 3lb cannon is one of the few vestiges of the colonial past in Causeway Bay and is its best-known landmark. The original six-pounder was lost during WWII; its replacement was deemed too noisy and was exchanged for the current gun in 1961. The gun stands in a small garden opposite the Excelsior Hotel on Gloucester Rd – the first plot of land to be sold by public auction in Hong Kong (1841) – and is fired at noon every day. Eight bells are then sounded, signalling the end of the forenoon watch. The gun also welcomes the New Year at midnight on 31 December. Exactly how this tradition started remains a mystery. Some people say that Jardine Matheson fired the gun without permission to bid farewell to a departing managing director or to welcome one of its incoming ships. The authorities were so enraged by the company’s insolence that, as punishment, Jardine’s was ordered to fire the gun every day. A more prosaic explanation is that, as at many ports around the world (including London), a gun was fired at noon daily so that ships’ clocks – crucial for establishing longitude and east-west distances at sea – could be set accurately. The Noonday Gun is accessible via a tunnel through the basement car park in the World Trade Centre, just west of the Excelsior Hotel. From the taxi rank in front of the hotel, look west for the door marked ‘Car Park Shroff, Marina Club & Noon Gun’. It’s open from 7am to midnight daily.