On Walkabout At: The Historic Buildings of Central Hong Kong

Prior Posting: Central Hong Kong – Part 1

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After visiting the observation platform on the top of the Bank of China Tower my wife and I then proceeded to walk over to St. John’s Cathedral which was located just a short walk from the Bank of China Tower:

St. John’s is the oldest Anglican cathedral in the Far East with it being constructed in 1849. The church’s construction was completed just eight years after the first British naval officers landed on Hong Kong island in order to not only provide religious services for the British colonists but to spread Christianity in the new territory as well.  Here is how the church looked before the current metropolis of Hong Kong was built around it:

The building is constructed in the classical cross shape and serves as the Diocesan cathedral for the Diocese of Hong Kong Island.  The most famous leader of the church would be Reverend Alaric P. Rose who conducted the morning service in St. John’s despite the fact that the Japanese were bombing Honk Kong during World War II and artillery shells were landing outside the cathedral.  The British after a nearly three week fight to defend Hong Kong, eventually surrendered to the Japanese and Hong Kong remained occupied for four years until liberation.  Reverend Rose would spend those four years in an internment camp with other allied prisoners before being liberated and returning to St. John’s.  He other church clergy restored the cathedral and began to rebuild its congregation after the war.  September 9th, 1945 was when the first Sunday church service was held after the liberation of Hong Kong.

I found the shutters on the side of the church to be quite nice:

The inside of the cathedral is really beautiful and has remained little changed from when the cathedral was first constructed:

I could find no information about the congregation of the church but from what I could see while visiting the cathedral, most of the people that were worshiping there were ethnic Chinese with a few caucasian people.  Looking at the church’s website most of its services are in English with a few in Chinese and even one in Filipino due to the high number of Filipinos that work in Hong Kong.  1/5 of the non-Chinese that live in Hong Kong are in fact Filipinos.

Across a small park from St. John’s Cathedral is another piece of historic architecture, the Former French Mission Building:

The current structure was constructed in 1917 over the original structure that served as the home for the first British governor of Hong Kong back in 1843.  A few years later the building served as the home for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong before being bought by the French Mission who renovated the building into the one seen today:

What the building looked like before the renovation can be seen in the prior historic picture of St. John’s Cathedral above that shows the Former French Mission building adjacent to it.  The French Mission owned and operated the building until it sold the structure back to the Hong Kong government in 1953.  To this day, all around the building evidence of its former owners can still be seen:

After the sell of the building the Hong Kong government used it as the headquarters for their education department, the district court, and now finally the Court of Final Appeal.  Both of these buildings are quite historic with interesting histories that are definitely worth checking out if in Central Hong Kong.  How the old blends so well with the new in Hong Kong is really one of the greatest strong points of this great city.

Next Posting: Sheung Wan Neighborhood

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