Wellington Barracks () was a

military barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

located to the east of Garden Road in

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

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 ...

. One of many military complexes constructed by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in the area, the land was returned to 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 (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong Special administrative regions of China, ...

in the 1970s and gradually reverted to civilian use. As a result, the barracks was closed at the end of that decade, demolished in the mid-1980s and replaced with

Harcourt Garden Harcourt Garden () is a small urban park in Admiralty, Hong Kong, constructed in the mid-1990s.

History

Original hospital (1841)

During the

First Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

, the British occupied Hong Kong in 1841 and one year later,

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 ...

was ceded to them in the

Treaty of Nanking The Treaty of Nanjing was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later termed the Unequal Treaties. In the ...

. The new administration chose the site between the bottom of

Government Hill The Government Hill is a hill in Central, Hong Kong, bounded by upper section of Upper Albert Road on the south, Queen's Road Central north, Garden Road east, and Glenealy, west of Hong Kong Island. The hill has been the administrative ...

and

Wan Chai Wan Chai is situated at the western part of the Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. Its other boundaries are Canal Road, Hong Kong, Canal Road to the east, Arsenal Street to the west and Bowen Road to th ...

as land for military use. The

erected the Naval and Military Hospital in a matshed in January (or April) 1841. However, it was obliterated just six months later when a

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

struck Hong Kong.

Wellington Battery

As early as 1842 a "Battery of 5 Guns" appeared on maps at the site which later became Harcourt Garden. Starting in 1854, it began being marked as "Wellington Battery", named after

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister o ...

. Starting from the 1900s, the battery ceased to appear on maps.

Barracks

The new barracks was just one of several military buildings constructed by the British Army in Admiralty. These included

Murray Barracks Murray Barracks () was a barracks for the British Army garrisoned in Admiralty, Central in Hong Kong. It was named after Sir George Murray, the Master-General of the Ordnance at the time of construction. Location It was situated between present ...

, Victoria Barracks and

Admiralty Dock HMS ''Tamar'' () was the name for the British Royal Navy's base in Hong Kong from 1897 to 1997. It took its name from HMS ''Tamar'', a ship that was used as the base until replaced by buildings ashore. History 19th century The British Navy ...

. Located to the east of Garden Road, Wellington Barracks was previously situated on

's waterfront with

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea were instrumental i ...

, with a

seawall A seawall (or sea wall) is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation ...

running to the north of the barracks (however, the site is located much farther inland now due to the amount of

land reclamation 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 land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

that has been undertaken since). It was connected with Victoria Barracks by a set of cables that ran across Queensway and was used to transport ammunition between the two sites. The Golden Clock In 1890 a clock was installed in the top center of the main building to keep time at the military base. It was this very clock that gave Wellington Barracks its Chinese name "Gum Jung Ping Fong" and Admiralty MTR station its name in Chinese (金鐘; "Golden Clock"). Electricity was first supplied to the Wellington Barracks in 1910. On 7 September 1945, following the end of the

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong The Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the Governor of Hong Kong, Mark Aitchison Young, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of British Hong Kong, Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. The surr ...

at the end of World War II, the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

re-established their naval base, at Wellington Barracks, vacated by the British Army. As Hong Kong began to expand over the years, the presence of the barracks proved to be problematic. This was because it divided

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 ...

and Wan Chai, since development on the site of the barracks was not permitted. This forced developers to construct commercial and residential complexes solely to the east of the barracks in

Queen's Road East Queen's Road East is a street in Wan Chai, in the north of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, connecting Admiralty, Hong Kong, Admiralty in the west to Happy Valley, Hong Kong, Happy Valley in the east. Queen's Road East is one of the four ...

. As a result, the

Government of Hong Kong 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-Br ...

repeatedly attempted to obtain the site from the military to unite the two districts, but to no avail. In 1959, the Hong Kong Government paid HK$24 million to the War Department for the release of the land of the Wellington Battery area. Eventually, the military relented and handed back the land to the government in the late 1970s. Both the Wellington and Victoria Barracks were demolished in the mid-1980s. The new Pacific Place was built on a fraction of the land previously occupied by Victoria Barracks, opening in 1990. The site of Wellington Barracks was replaced by

Harcourt Garden Harcourt Garden () is a small urban park in Admiralty, Hong Kong, constructed in the mid-1990s.

References

External links

Wellington Barracks entry of Gwulo

Picture of Wellington Barracks
{{Portal bar, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, War, British Empire Admiralty, Hong Kong Barracks in Hong Kong Former buildings and structures in Hong Kong Military of Hong Kong under British rule