SHUTTERSTOCK
LEFT AND BELOW: Tai Kwun
former leader of Vietnam, wrote about his experiences when he was imprisoned in Hong Kong’s Victoria Gaol, also known as Victoria Prison, in the 1930s. Victoria Prison, the first and longest-running prison
“H
in Hong Kong, together with the former Central Police Station and Central Magistracy, forms the Central Police Station compound, which comprises 16 historical buildings and outdoor spaces on a 13,600 sqm site in the heart of Central. The former police headquarters and the surrounding compound have been collectively referred to as “Tai Kwun”, the local colloquial name used by police officers and the public alike, meaning “big station” in Chinese. After the Central Police Station compound was
fully decommissioned in 2006, the Hong Kong SAR government decided to conserve and revitalise the compound, and later entered into a partnership with the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which set up The Jockey Club CPS Limited through its Charities Trust to manage and operate the site. Today, the compound has been redeveloped into a brand-new cultural and art destination while keeping the name “Tai Kwun” as a reminder of its historical significance. Tai Kwun is also one of the eight projects in the government’s “Conserving Central” initiative launched in 2009 with an objective to preserve important cultural, historical and architectural features in Central while adding new life and vibrancy to the area. Some of the other projects include the revitalisation of the former Central Market, the former French Mission Building, as well as the Murray Building, which has already been transformed from a government building to the 336-room The Murray Hotel. In Tai Kwun, there are eight
heritage storytelling spaces in the
historic sites, giving visitors a glimpse of how the compound worked and became “a one-stop shop for law and order” in the past. In the Central Police Station building, you can discover
WOR D S JAC K IE C HE N bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om
the major responsibilities of the police, while in the Central Magistracy, there’s a simulated courtroom that allows visitors to experience what a case hearing was like in the past. In Victoria Prison, you can simulate the admission process of prisoners and have a mugshot taken in front of a height chart, before stepping inside one of the small prison cells for a tiny insight into the life of prisoners at that time.
DE CEMB E R 20 19
igh above one’s head was a small half- moon window covered with a grid of iron bars. By day, the light in the cell was dim. The door to the cell was solid and, at eye level, had a peephole shaped like a megaphone.” This is what Ho Chi Minh, the
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