The General Post Office (GPO) is the headquarters of

Hongkong Post Hongkong Post is a government department of Hong Kong responsible for postal services, though operated as a trading fund. Founded in 1841, it was known as ''Postal Department'' or ''Post Office'' () before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 ...

. Built in 1976, it is located at Connaught Place,

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 a ...

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 Delta i ...

. The office was adjacent to the former Star Ferry Pier, and it is adjacent to

Jardine House Jardine House (), formerly known as Connaught Centre (), is an office tower in Hong Kong. The building is located at 1 Connaught Place, Central on Hong Kong Island. It is owned by Hongkong Land Limited, a subsidiary of Jardines. At the time ...

and the International Finance Centre. The current building occupied a seafront location until 2007, since when reclamation works have led to it becoming inland. As of 2018, the building is scheduled for demolition, although there are efforts to preserve it as a historical landmark.

Past locations

The GPO has been moved three times after several reclamations as it was essential to locate the office near the shore for receiving letters from

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). C ...

s. Past locations of the GPO were: * 1841–1846: Above St. John's Cathedral, Garden Road (current

Former Central Government Offices The Former Central Government Offices (also the Government Headquarters), now called Justice Place, is an office building complex that formerly housed most of the major offices of the Hong Kong Government. The complex is located in Cent ...

) * 1846–1911:

Queen's Road Central Queen's Road is a collection of roads along the northern coast of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong, within the limit of Victoria City. It was the first road in Hong Kong, constructed by the British between 1841 and 1843, spanning across Victori ...

, opposite

D'Aguilar Street D'Aguilar Street (, formerly ) is a street in Central, Hong Kong. It is named after George Charles d'Aguilar (1784–1855), Major General and Lieutenant Governor of Hong Kong from 1843 to 1848. Location D'Aguilar Street is an L-shaped str ...

* 1911–1976: Junction of

Des Voeux Road Central Des is a masculine given name, mostly a short form (hypocorism) of Desmond. People named Des include: People * Des Buckingham, English football manager * Des Corcoran, (1928–2004), Australian politician * Des Dillon (disambiguation), seve ...

and Pedder Street (rebuilt into

World-Wide House World-Wide House is an office building in Central, Hong Kong. It is located between Connaught Road Central, Pedder Street and Des Voeux Road Central. History The site is situated on land reclaimed at the turn of the 20th century. WWH was co ...

) * 1976–present: 2 Connaught Place, Central

1846 GPO

In 1846 premises which had belonged to Dent & Co. were transformed into Government Treasury (),

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

and General Post Office. This land was auctioned in 1921, when it achieved a price of HK$50 per square foot. The resulting China Building () was completed in 1924.Feature: Buildings for Pedder Street since colonialisation
, Sing Pao, 29 October 2005

1911 GPO

Reclamations had taken place in the meantime in the late 1890s, and the first General Post Office was relocated in 1911 into new premises on the newly reclaimed section of Pedder Street. It was a typical Edwardian municipal construction of granite and red brick, and was known as "the Old Lady of Pedder Street".Eric Cavaliero
Pedder Street was where it all happened

The Standard The Standard may refer to: Entertainment * The Standard (band), an indie rock band from Portland, Oregon * ''The Standard'' (novel), a 1934 novel by the Austrian writer Alexander Lernet-Holenia * ''The Standard'' (Tommy Flanagan album), 1980 * ...

, 13 August 1998 This old General Post Office building was demolished in 1976, and was functionally relocated to Connaught Place to make way for the construction of the

Central station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

of the MTR below ground. Below the building is the interchange of

Hong Kong station Hong Kong () is a station of the MTR metro system in Hong Kong. It is the eastern terminus of the and . It is situated between Man Cheung Street and Harbour View Street, Central, Hong Kong Island, and sits underneath the International Finan ...

and Central station of MTR.

, an office block, was constructed above ground. Joseph Ting, former chief curator of 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 ...

, regarded the 1911 General Post Office as Hong Kong's most beautiful building.

1976 GPO

The building was constructed on

reclaimed land 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 ...

. In 1967, the Government had planned for a 30-storey block, with 5 floors for the GPO, and 25 for government offices. The site directly to its south was secured by

Hongkong Land Hongkong Land (HKL) is a property investment, management and development group with commercial and residential property interests across Asia. It owns and manages some 850,000 sq. m. of office and retail property in Asia, principally in Hong K ...

at a record price. In exchange, the Government was obliged to accede to a stipulation that no building directly to the north of Connaught Centre, now

, would obstruct its views, thus the maximum height of the GPO building was limited to 120 feet. The GPO was designed by architect K. M. Tseng, as a 5-storey building, and the foundation to support another 2, up to the maximum permitted height of 120 feet. The building houses the first central vacuum-cleaning system in Hong Kong, without the need to change bags.

Gallery

File:QRC court 1880.jpg, Courthouse (centre) and the 2nd GPO (left), c.1880 File:Post Office Pillars - Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden - Hong Kong - 0504181552a.jpg, Pillars of the 1911 GPO, now displayed in the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden File:City Hall and General Post Office.jpg, The General Post Office, the City Hall and the surrounding office buildings File:Philatelic datestamp of General Post Office.JPG, Philatelic datestamp of General Post Office

References

{{Authority control Central, Hong Kong Post office buildings in Hong Kong 1976 establishments in Hong Kong Government buildings completed in 1976 Brutalist architecture