Hong Kong City Hall () is a building located at

Edinburgh Place Edinburgh Place is a public square in Central, Hong Kong, adjacent to the Victoria Harbour. The Hong Kong City Hall is located in the square. In addition, the Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier and Queen's Pier were also located in the square before t ...

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong, island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km ...

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 city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. Since Hong Kong is a " Special Administrative Region" and not a normal Chinese city, there is no mayor or city council; therefore, the City Hall does not hold the offices of a city government, unlike most

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

s around the world. Instead, it is a complex providing municipal services, including performing venues and libraries. The City Hall is managed by the Government's

Leisure and Cultural Services Department The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), is a department in the Government of Hong Kong. It reports to the Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau, headed by the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism. It provides leisure and cultural ...

. The

Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Servic ...

(UrbCo) managed the City Hall (through the

Urban Services Department Urban Services Department () was a government department in Hong Kong. It carried out the policies and managed the facilities of the former Urban Council. After being abolished with the Urban Council in 1999, its functions were inherited by the ...

) and held its meetings there prior to its dissolution in December 1999. Prior to its dissolution the UrbCo served as the municipal council for Hong Kong Island and

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 t ...

(including

New Kowloon New Kowloon is an area in Hong Kong, bounded in the south by Boundary Street, and in the north by the ranges of the Eagle's Nest, Beacon Hill, Lion Rock, Tate's Cairn and Kowloon Peak. It covers the present-day Kwun Tong District and Wong Tai S ...

). The UrbCo had its meeting chamber in the Low Block of the City Hall.

First generation

Hong Kong's first City Hall, which existed from 1869 to 1933, occupied the current sites of the

HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building HSBC Main Building is a headquarters building of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which is today a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based HSBC Holdings. It is located on the southern side of Statue Square near the location of the ...

(partly) and the Bank of China Building.EIA: A survey report of Historical Buildings and Structures within the Project Area of the Central Reclamation Phase III
Chan Sui San Peter for the HK Government, February 2001 It was designed by the French architect

Achille-Antoine Hermitte Achille-Antoine Hermitte (1840–) was a French architect who is known for designing the Hong Kong City Hall and the Palais du Gouverneur, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). His life is not well-documented and there is uncertainty about the date and plac ...

and was opened by Prince

Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh Alfred (Alfred Ernest Albert; 6 August 184430 July 1900) was the sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1 ...

, in a ceremony on 28 June 1869. The current site of the HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building was occupied in part by the old City Hall, and in part by the first and second generations of the HSBC building.

Second generation

The second and current City Hall complex was built in the late 1950s on a plot of land on the newly

reclaimed Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lak ...

seafront, about from the first generation building. The foundation stone laying ceremony took place on 25 February 1960 with Sir Robert Brown Black, then

Governor of Hong Kong The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. ...

, who also presided over the official opening ceremony on 2 March 1962. The City Hall was placed under the responsibility of the

. It has been listed as a Grade I historic building since 2009. On 20 May 2022, the Hong Kong City Hall was declared a monument under the

Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance The Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance, in Hong Kong Law (Cap. 53), was enacted in 1976 to preserve the objects of historical, archaeological and palaeontological interest and for matters ancillary thereto or connected therewith. It is admini ...

. At the age of 60, it is the youngest as well as the first post-WW2 building in Hong Kong being declared as a monument.

Design

It was designed between 1956 and 1958 by British architects Ron Phillips and Alan Fitch. With its clean lines and stark geometric forms, the new Hall is an example of the International style fashionable at the time. The structure was constructed using steel and concrete, and much of the equipment was of steel, glass and anodised aluminium. The two separate blocks and gardens were laid out as a cohesive whole, along a central axis. The entrance to the lower block (exhibition hall) of the City Hall formed an axis with

Queen's Pier Queen's Pier, named after Queen Victoria, was a public pier in front of City Hall in Edinburgh Place, Central, Hong Kong. For three generations it served not only as a public pier in day-to-day use but also as a major ceremonial arrival and d ...

to lend a sense of occasion to visiting dignitaries. On the façade of the Lower Block once had the old Coat of Arms of Hong Kong, which was removed before the handover in 1997. One major consideration was juxtaposing the city bustle whilst maximising public access to the surrounding area. Thus, the out-sized public areas of the ''Memorial Gardens'' and the piazza in front were conceived as a natural extension to promote the "freedom of movement and a sense of unlimited space".

Function

The most important civic function performed by City Hall was as a ceremonial location for the swearing in of successive

Governors A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

following their inauguration:Annexe B3
, EIA: A survey report of Historical Buildings and Structures within the Project Area of the Central Reclamation Phase III, Chan Sui San Peter for the HK Government, February 2001 The 24th to 28th Governors all swore their oaths of office there.

Antiquities Advisory Board The Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB) is a statutory body of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with the responsibility of advising the Antiquities Authority on any matters relating to antiquities and monuments. The AAB was establish ...

Brief Information on proposed Grade I Items. Item #52
City Hall's Concert hall and theatre have been an important home to the performing arts in Hong Kong since its inauguration. A number of culture events, including the

Hong Kong Festival The Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF), launched in 1973, is a major international arts festival committed to enriching the cultural life of the city by presenting leading local and international artists in all genres of the performing arts as we ...

Hong Kong Arts Festival The Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF), launched in 1973, is a major international arts festival committed to enriching the cultural life of the city by presenting leading local and international artists in all genres of the performing arts as we ...

in 1973, Asian Arts Festival in 1976, the

Hong Kong International Film Festival The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), is one of Asia’s oldest international film festivals. Founded in 1976, the festival features different movies, filmmakers from different countries in Hong Kong. HKIFF screens around 230 films ...

in 1977, and the International Arts Carnival in 1982 were hosted there. The conference room of the former

was also at the lower building of the City Hall. The High block once housed Hong Kong's principal

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

, until a new Central library was opened in 2001; the Hong Kong art gallery (which became the

Hong Kong Art Museum The Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) is the first and main art museum of Hong Kong, located in Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. It is managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government. HKMoA has an art collection ...

in 1969) began life there on the tenth and eleventh floors. The

Hong Kong Museum of History The Hong Kong Museum of History is a museum that preserves Hong Kong's historical and cultural heritage. It is located next to the Hong Kong Science Museum, in Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The collections of the museum encompass ...

relocated in 1975, and the

Hong Kong Museum of Art The Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) is the first and main art museum of Hong Kong, located in Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. It is managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government. HKMoA has an art collection ...

also moved out of City Hall in 1991. The ''City Hall Memorial Garden'', located at the north-western quadrant between the High Block and Low Block, is a

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate ...

wherein a 12-sided

dodecagon In geometry, a dodecagon or 12-gon is any twelve-sided polygon. Regular dodecagon A regular dodecagon is a figure with sides of the same length and internal angles of the same size. It has twelve lines of reflective symmetry and rotational sym ...

Memorial Shrine commemorates soldiers and citizens who died in defence of Hong Kong during the Second World War. It is a popular spot and obligatory backdrop for photographs of couples who celebrate their marriage in the City Hall Registry. Within the Memorial Shrine are embedded memorial Roll of Honour and Plaques to combat units who fought in Hong Kong during

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(1941–1945). Inscribed on the walls of the Memorial Shrine are eight chinese characters evoking the everlasting spirit of the Brave and the Dead. The entrance gates to the City Hall Memorial Garden bear the regimental emblems of the

Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps The Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) (RHKR(V)) ()), formed in May 1854, was a local auxiliary militia force funded and administered by the colonial Government of Hong Kong. Its powers and duties were mandated by the Royal Hong Kong R ...

and

Royal Hong Kong Regiment The Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) (RHKR(V)) ()), formed in May 1854, was a local auxiliary militia force funded and administered by the colonial Government of Hong Kong. Its powers and duties were mandated by the Royal Hong Kong R ...

. The complex also incorporates a three-storey car park, with 171 car park spaces, which was also designed by architects Ron Phillips and Alan Fitch.

Facilities

The City Hall Memorial Garden Overview 2014

The City Hall Memorial Garden Memorial Shrine 2012

The second and current City Hall complex has two buildings, a garden and a three-storey car park.
''City Hall Memorial Garden'' enclosing the

(1941–1945) Memorial Shrine The High Block, a 12-storey building, is in the south-western end and houses a number of government facilities: * City Hall Public Library, an eight-storey facility, which in the past served as the central library of Hong Kong (9th – 11th floors) * Recital Hall with 111 seats (8th floor) * Exhibition Gallery, (7th floor) * Committee Rooms: two 40-seat committee rooms, each (7th floor) * Marriage Registry (1st floor) * Maxim's MX fast food restaurant, run by

Maxim's Caterers Maxim's Caterers Limited () is a Hong Kong based food, beverage and restaurant chain. It is jointly owned by Dairy Farm International Holdings Limited and Hong Kong Caterers Ltd. Founded in 1956, the company operates over 1,000 outlets in Hon ...

(ground floor) The 3-storey Low Block is at the eastern end, with the following facilities: * Exhibition Hall, (first floor) * HK Collectables Arts Shop (first floor) * Concert Hall with 1,430 seats and 60 standees (mezzanine) * Restaurants and a cafe, run by

: Chinese (City Hall Maxim's Palace),

Continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continent, the major landmasses of Earth * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' ( ...

(Deli and Wine), and European (City Hall Maxim's Café) cuisines * Theatre with 463 seats * URBTIX Box Office (foyer) * Enquiry counter (foyer)

High Block floor directory

References

External links

City Hall

"Construction of the City Hall"
meeting of the

Hong Kong Legislative Council The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's "one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Kong' ...

on 20 February 1952 {{Authority control Central, Hong Kong Public libraries in Hong Kong Landmarks in Hong Kong Music venues in Hong Kong Hong Kong, City Hall Theatres in Hong Kong Concert halls in Hong Kong Grade I historic buildings in Hong Kong