The Ultimate Hong Kong Blog | Me, Jamie, 49 years living in Hong Kong - I know the culture
The Ultimate Hong Kong Blog
The oldest British Colonial Building in Hong Kong
and it is not Flagstaff House in Hong Kong Park!
For as long as I have been in Hong Kong I have always held the belief that Flagstaff House in Hong Kong Park, Central | Admiralty was the oldest British Colonial Building in Hong Kong still standing having being completed in 1846 I have | had never any doubt that this information was 100% accurate particularly when all the Government websites state the same fact..
I would like to suggest that this information is inaccurate…… and in fact the oldest British or Western style colonial building still standing is in fact a Church | Chapel in Hong Kong Cemetery in Happy Valley which was completed in 1845
The Church is not a shed, as you can see from the image it is quite a substantial building, when I visited it in April 2021 it was closed and it looks like it had had a recent lick of paint and some renovation work was ongoing.
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Tours Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | J3 Consultants Hong Kong | 2010 - 2021. All rights reserved.
It all started in early April 2021 when I got a message from my friend Virginia, owner of the awesome food tour company Humid with a Chance of Fishballs, quite simply she was looking for some advice on whether this Church was in fact the oldest Colonial building still standing in Hong Kong and she sent through some very basic info she had gleaned.
To be honest I was unsure, even though the answer was on my Flickr Images site in my album of Hong Kong Cemetery images, the description I used mentioned that the cemetery was established in 1845 and yet my brain was telling me that it must be Flagstaff House!.
So me being me (like a dog with a bone) set to work and I have to say it was very frustrating but ultimately a very interesting project.
The Antiquities and Monuments Office of the Hong Kong Government - the information is quite clear
The first source I checked was the AMO site, see image above…. I then went to the Wikipedia search results, see image below
The Wikipedia Search result is also pretty clear
I then had the idea to do a search in the GWUILO site - this is probably the best reference site about old Hong Kong although I find the site to be hokey and very hard to navigate, still it is an excellence source and I came up with this reference regarding the Church | Chapel and the Cemetery
Gwuilo Hong Kong - Old Hong Kong Information, seems pretty clear to me
I absolutely believe this information to be 100% correct and it means the Hong Kong Cemetery Church | Chapel is the oldest surviving British Colonial Building in Hong Kong, completed in 1845 about a year earlier than Flagstaff House.
I spent many, many hours of research on this project and I simply could not find any other information to contradict this information, it has been and was suggested that Victoria Prison on Hong Kong Island was completed in 1841 which is absolutely correct, I found this incredibly detailed PDF file detailing the entire project including architectural drawings and such, there was just one flaw in the argument, the original prison was demolished in 1858 to make way for a much, much larger prison and compound, the original building simply no longer exists.
In the overall scheme of things this is hardly the revelation of the century but to me and my friends ( Private Tour Guides ) this is a very important fact as you have millions and millions of tourists who where given factually incorrect information and trust me we live for stuff like this.
I also enjoyed visiting the Cemetery again, I am not a frequent visitor but I spent 4 hours wandering around taking photos and reading gravestones and I also just sat for an hour taking in the solitude of the place, I am glad I went.
Naturally I have thought about writing to the Government about this new information but I doubt they would agree even though the evidence cannot be faulted, it would simply be too much trouble to change all the books and reference sources and they would probably spin it to make sure that Flagstaff House still retained the honour given it is easy for Tourists to visit and it is so much more photogenic!
Now you know.
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Tours Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | J3 Consultants Hong Kong | 2010 - 2021. All rights reserved. It is actually quite a lovely Church | Chapel
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