The Former Marine Police Headquarters Compound, completed in 1884, is located in

Tsim Sha Tsui Tsim Sha Tsui, often abbreviated as TST, is an urban area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed from the Hung Hom Bay now east of Tsi ...

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

. From 1884 to 1996, the Compound served as the headquarters for the

Marine Police Water police, also called harbor patrols, port police, marine/maritime police, nautical patrols, bay constables, river police, or maritime law enforcement or coastal police are police officers, usually a department of a larger police organizat ...

, which moved to Sai Wan Ho in 1996 The compound is a

declared monument Declared monuments of Hong Kong are places, structures or buildings legally declared to receive the highest level of protection. In Hong Kong, declaring a monument requires consulting the Antiquities Advisory Board, the approval of the Chief Exec ...

since 1994 as it is one of the four oldest surviving government buildings in Hong Kong. The Compound and the

Old Kowloon Fire Station The Old Kowloon Fire Station is a former fire station in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Together with the Former Marine Police Headquarters, it is now part of a commercial complex called 1881 Heritage. The station is located at 33 Sal ...

have been re-developed into a heritage hotel with food and beverage outlets and retail facilities in a project headed by architect Daniel Lin of A+T Design, opened in 2009. The site is now officially renamed as 1881 Heritage.

History and design

The compound was completed in 1884 and served as the headquarters of the Water Police (as they were originally known) until late 1996. The main building was originally constructed on the waterfront, and had a dedicated slip prior to the reclamation of land to create Salisbury Road. To the east, the headquarters faced a sandy beach. During the Japanese Occupation (1941–1945), the compound was used as a base for the

Japanese navy , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

. At this time, an extensive network of tunnels were constructed beneath the lawn but after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, these tunnels were blocked and the lawn was returfed for the safety of public. In the 1970s, the compound lost a large part of its gardens, when the slope to the east was levelled to make way for the construction of Kowloon Park Drive. The station was colloquially referred to as T-Lands Police Station – probably a reference to Marine Police

brevity code Brevity codes are used in amateur radio, maritime, aviation and military communications. The codes are designed to convey complex information with a few words or codes. Some terms are classified to the public. List of brevity codes * ACP-131 A ...

for a marine police station on "Land" at "

". This name is used in at least two novels set in Hong Kong: ''Soldier of Fortune'' by Ernest K. Gann, published in 1954; and ''

Dragon Flame ''Dragon Flame'' is the fourteenth novel in the long-running Nick Carter-Killmaster series of spy novels. Carter is a US secret agent, code-named N-3, with the rank of Killmaster. He works for AXE – a secret arm of the US intelligence services. ...

'' by the house author Nick Carter, published in 1966.

Redevelopment

Former Marine Police Headquarters Compound 200808

In 2002, the

Hong Kong Government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government, refers to the executive authorities of Hong Kong SAR. It was formed on 1 July 1997 in accordance with the Sino- ...

announced a competitive tender for an

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the o ...

concept for the former Marine Police Headquarters, which had been vacant since 1996; to entice tenders, the conditions included permission to create up to of floor space below the Main Building. The Government announced on 23 May 2003 that Flying Snow Limited, a subsidiary of

Cheung Kong Holdings Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, is a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates. The company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a major ...

, had won the 50-year land grant at a tendered price of million, out of six competitive proposals. The approval allowed the developer to preserve and redevelop the historical building into a heritage tourism facility. Flying Snow has transformed the building into a heritage hotel with food and beverage outlets, and retail facilities. The project was the first private sector-led preservation project in Hong Kong; under the terms of the land grant, specific furnishings and features were required to be preserved and restored. The project opened as ''1881 Heritage'' in 2009, and was criticized for removing most of the trees from what was once a grassy hill. In 2010, the ''

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

'' reported the estimated floor space in the existing buildings had not been correctly surveyed and was , instead of the originally submitted for the tender; in addition, the finished project added , an extra above the tender, for which Cheung Kong paid an additional million. Because the prevailing market rate was million per square metre, the under-counted existing floor space and below-market rate paid for the extra construction collectively were estimated to have provided an effective billion bonus to Cheung Kong Holdings.

Buildings

The original Marine Police Headquarters comprises the Main Building, Stable Block and Signal Tower. The redevelopment into 1881 Heritage added the nearby

and the Fire Station Accommodation Block to the campus.

Main Building

The ''Main Building'' was originally a two-storey structure; an extra storey was added to the Main Building in the 1920s, and an ancillary building was added to the north. The south-east and south-west wings of the main building served as married quarters, while the top floor of the west wing was the residence for the Superintendent of the Water Police. The Main Building also includes a small jail and

carrier pigeon The homing pigeon, also called the mail pigeon or messenger pigeon, is a variety of domestic pigeons (''Columba livia domestica'') derived from the wild rock dove, selectively bred for its ability to find its way home over extremely long distan ...

coops on the walls of the courtyard to the north. After the 2003–09 renovation, the Main Building was renamed to ''Hullett House'' to honour

Richmond William Hullett Richmond William Hullett (15 November 1843 – 1 January 1914) was an English 19th century headmaster, explorer and plant collector. He was often associated with Singapore than Hong Kong. His fields of influence include language and education, con ...

. It included a small boutique hotel offering ten suites and five restaurants and bars; each of the ten suites had a unique theme, and the Mariner's Rest bar allowed patrons to drink in a former jail cell. In 2017,

Harbour Plaza Hotels and Resorts Harbour Plaza Hotel Management () is a Hospitality industry, hospitality management company in Hong Kong. It is owned by Cheung Kong Property Holdings. The company currently manages 9 hotels in Hong Kong alone, Mainland China, China and the ...

assumed the management of Hullett House. FWD Group leased the hotel and renamed it ''House 1881'' in 2019; FWD renovated the ten suites, ranging in size from , and five dining concepts.

Stable Block

The Stable Block is immediately north of the Main Building.

Signal Tower

The ''Signal Tower'' (), also known as the ''Time Ball Tower'' or ''Round House'', was constructed to provide time signals to ships in the harbour. A ball was hoisted each morning and dropped precisely at 1 PM. Its use diminished in 1907 when the

time ball A time ball or timeball is a time-signalling device. It consists of a large, painted wooden or metal ball that is dropped at a predetermined time, principally to enable navigators aboard ships offshore to verify the setting of their marine chron ...

apparatus was removed to Signal Hill, Kowloon.

Old Kowloon Fire Station

The ''Old Kowloon Fire Station'', also known as the ''Former Tsim Sha Tsui Fire Station'', was originally completed in 1920; a charity shop selling handcrafts occupied the space starting in 1986 until the 2003–09 renovations.

Fire Station Accommodation Block

The Fire Station Accommodation Block is immediately north of the Old Kowloon Fire station, and was completed in 1922.

Gallery

File:1881 Heritage Main Building Corridor 201007.jpg, Hullett House Corridor File:1881 Heritage Overview 201402.jpg, The Former Marine Police Headquarters Compound together with the

One Peking Road One Peking Road is a prominent 30-floor office building in Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. History The developer for the project was Glorious Sun Group who paid HK$1.24 billion for the site at a government auction in April 1998. ...

office building behind it File:HK TST 1881 mall main building Watewrfall Escalators.JPG, Stairs and waterfalls in front of the main building File:Former Marine Police Headquarters Compound Artillery battery.jpg, Artillery battery at Former Marine Police Headquarters Compound File:Kowloon Fire Station 201007.jpg, Old Kowloon Fire Station after renovation File:1881 Heritage Shelter Tunnel 2011.jpg, Shelter Tunnel File:1881 Heritage Shopping Arcade L2.jpg, The shopping arcade File:1881 Heritage Canton Road Shops View 201506.jpg, The shopping arcade viewed from Canton Road File:1881 Heritage Night view2 2014.jpg, Partial view of the courtyard of the Former Marine Police Headquarters Compound.

References

External links

1881 Heritage official websiteFormer Marine Police Headquarters Compound — Antiquities and Monuments OfficeDescription and picture

Description and picture
{{Heritage conservation in Hong Kong , state=collapsed Government buildings completed in 1884 Infrastructure completed in 1884 Declared monuments of Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui Marine Police Headquarters Police headquarters Defunct police stations