Central Police Station and Victoria Prison in Hong Kong

I first moved to Hong Kong in 1987 - it was a long way from where I grew up and seemed really fascinating. I didn't have a job, but thought I could make something of the place. It was alive and endlessly fascinating. My first job was working in a small company that had an office on Old Bailey Street, one of the very steep streets going up the mountain from Hollywood Road towards Caine Road and "Mid Levels". Across the street from my office was the Central Police Station, a mish mash of 25-30 old buildings some as old as 150 years and reprsenting some of the frist building put up by the British at the founding of the colony. Attached to this sprawling complex was the Victoria Prison, where I could see the prisoners every day hanging out their washing on the lines in one corner of the yard. One day I had to go and pay a traffic fine at the reportong office in the Police Station (speeding on a bicycle, but that is another story) - and can remember the wooden floors and old fans inside.

All that is gone. The complex sat idle for more than 10 years while the Government decided what to do with it, and it fell into ruin. Luckily it survived the greedy and rapacious property developers in Hong Kong and was not demolished, but it is now being "refurbished" for uses unknown. I was lucky enough to spend a day with almost free run of the whole complex so I could photograph it inside. I didn't brng enough film with me at the time, so I didn't get even close to the number of photos I should have. Here is my little tribute to this amazing collection of buildings with a very long history.