Architecture and Conservation

Architecture and Conservation

Duration

30 MINS

Checkpoint

10 Checkpoints

Introduction

Since its first edifice – Magistrate’s House – was built here in 1841, the Central Police Station Compound has experienced many transformations. The site features a range of architecture from different times, built to fulfill individual requirements of the police, judiciary and prison services. This route will take you to discover the unique features of buildings and relevant conservation works around the compound.

9 Checkpoints
30 Minutes


5-1 Salvaged Floor Tiles: The Tile Tales

During the conservation of the Central Police Station Compound, existing materials were salvaged and reused wherever possible.

In public corridors like the one you are currently standing in, this was particularly difficult as many of the floor tiles were worn down by years of passing feet.  Each tile had to be carefully eased out of their bedding by hand using a flat metal scraper.

The brownish red tiles you can see at your feet are some of the original tiles. New ones closely resembling the original tiles were specially imported from Portugal to replace the damaged or unusable ones. This is to maintain the authentic character of the building.


5-2 Strengthening Staircase Balustrades

This building was originally constructed in 1919 as the Police Headquarters Block. The beautiful staircase here was considered to be of historical and aesthetic significance.

However, the height of the balustrade was less than required in the safety rules of today’s building codes and strengthening strategies had to be applied. After a lot of negotiating with the Buildings Department, it was agreed that the lovely old staircase could maintain its authenticity with subtle strengthening work applied to its balustrades.

If you look closely, you can see that every fourth baluster – the upright iron pillars – is much thicker.

Walk along the stairs and explore the history of Central Police Station in the staircase lobbies and the Heritage Storytelling Space on LG2.


5-3 The 1905 Extension: One More Floor

This building, the Barrack Block, was originally constructed in 1864 as a “principal Central Police Station” with a drill ground in front.

If you stand further away from the block and look up from the Parade Ground, you’ll see, one, two, three, four storeys.

Originally, there were only three storeys. You can see the old three-storey building in the photograph. But in 1905 a fourth storey was added to provide extra accommodation space.

The original triangular roof you see in the photograph was removed during the extension, but the new fourth floor followed the building style with verandahs, which was a special architectural feature commonly seen in Southeast Asian British colonies.


5-4 Mural, mural on the wall

The murals you can see on the walls were uncovered during preliminary conservation work. They have not been repainted, so you can see them exactly as they were.

They are believed to have been painted when this area was used as a chapel.

Originally, this 19th-century building was the Superintendent’s residence and the main entrance to Victoria Gaol. But when the main entrance was moved to Old Bailey Street, this entrance was closed and at some point, converted into a chapel.

A prison chapel was first mentioned by Guo Songtao, the first Chinese Ambassador to Britain, who visited Victoria Gaol in 1876.

The chapel has then moved several times during the history of Victoria Prison and was actually in A Hall when the prison was decommissioned in 2006.

The recurring motif you can see on the walls is known as a “cross potent”, a symbol frequently found in Roman Catholic churches.


5-5 Barbed wire and glass shards

Outside the block

As a prison in the middle of the city, security measures were especially important. The barbed wires and glass shards topped the walls of prison blocks and the prison boundary, making the institution more formidable and to deter escapes. If you look at the roof of A Hall, you can see some of these being added back after the conservation.

However, despite these precautions, some intrepid prisoners still take the risk to escape. In 1975, three prisoners were discovered to have escaped through the window in their cell. The investigation revealed that prisoners sawed through the iron bars of their cell window with a blade that was hidden in a book.

You can read about more of these escapes in the newspapers of the time, and in the Heritage Storytelling Space at B Hall.


5-6 The Radial-plan Prison

Outside the block

D Hall was built between 1858 and 1862 and is one of the oldest structures in the Central Police Station Compound. Originally it was part of a larger radial‐plan prison building. This included a central Inspection Hall and five projecting wings, which made it easier to monitor the cells as the warders could supervise multiple parts of the prison at the same time from a single point.

After several structural changes, and bombardment during World War II, D Hall is the only part of the original radial-plan prison left intact.

You can still trace the radial-plan design by following the copper studs installed on the ground. Why don’t you take a walk along the studs to get an idea of the scale of the original radial plan?


5-7 The Sally Port and Red Circle

You may have noticed most of the jail blocks in Victoria Prison had what they call a “sally port”. The name comes from Latin literally meaning a jump door. Basically it was a secure, controlled, heavily gated entry point into a place that allowed guards to sally forth without compromising the security of the building.

One at a time please

The red circle on the floor was another security feature designed to protect staff from attack. The idea was that when prisoners were queueing to get medicine from, say, the prison medical officer, the officer would sit on one side while only one prisoner at a time was allowed inside the red circle to approach the officer.


5-8 The Former Main Gate and Paint Analysis

Outside the block

This main prison gate was a familiar landmark in the neighbourhood and was featured in many Hong Kong movies and TV dramas.

Prison staff going to work would enter through this main gate, and visitors could often be seen queueing outside it.

Obviously the gate also had special significance for new prisoners, as it marked their transition from freedom to custody, or sometimes, the reverse.

In movies and old photographs, the gate was usually seen as blue and came to be known as the Blue Gate. However advanced paint analysis techniques determined that originally it was painted green, so during the conservation it has been returned to its original colour.


5-9 Dock and the underground passage

Central Magistracy Holding Cell and Underground Passage
The original Central Magistracy featured a staircase leading directly from the basement holding cell to the dock in the courtroom on the ground floor.

When closed, the trap door leading to the court was almost indistinguishable from the timber floor.

Since the design of the staircase no longer meets the modern Buildings Ordinance, it is currently not open to the public.

You can learn more about this staircase, and how it became the sensation of the gangster Limpy Ho’s case, at the Heritage Storytelling Space “The Court Rises” on the ground floor of Block 09.