Lost Hong Kong

Hong Kong's development has always been dictated by rapid changes to its built environment. Sparingly populated by settlements throughout Chinese history, the development of Hong Kong's built environment was overseen by British colonialists after the concession of Hong Kong Island in 1842 after the First Opium War, Kowloon in 1860 after the Second Opium War and the New Territories in 1898. Although Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, Britain's 150-year ownership of the city led its transformation from a group of small fishing villages inhabited by a few thousand, to a massive city with over seven million inhabitants. The period of British rule after the Second World War (1945-97) saw the rapid verticalization of Hong Kong's built environment, with its now ubiquitous skyscraping buildings taking over the island, at the expense of many what would now be considered historic structures.

Hong Kong's notable colonial architecture was dominated by various revival styles that had begin to gain popularity in the United Kingdom and were brought over to the colony. Like in the UK, these grandiose revival styles were often used for notable public buildings or corporations. During the First British Era (1841 to 1945) a number of notable buildings were constructed. Most of these buildings were demolished after World War 2 due to the need for increased density in Hong Kong's Central District. The following map tour will showcase some notable works from this time that have been demolished.

Many of Hong Kong's notable lost colonial era buildings are located within Central given its importance to the city's political and financial worlds. This is also due to Central being the location of Hong Kong's first urban settlement, then known as Victoria. The map above shows all the lots of lost buildings from the First British Era, and the names of the current buildings. Many demolition dates do not align with the current buildings as lots have seen multiple demolitions and constructions due to Hong Kong's development patterns.

Land reclamation has played a role in the demolition of many of Hong Kong's historic buildings due to their location on or proximity to city's harbor front. Buildings such as those depicted in the following section were demolished due to development requirements in Hong Kong as the city needed to reclaim land for building area. The map below depicts Hong Kong's spread of reclaimed land which line up with the city's populated areas.

As noted earlier, many of Hong Kong's older buildings were replaced in favor of newer and taller ones and due to land reclamation activities. The following section will showcase the massive changes on the lots of these previously existing buildings.

The massive changes to Hong Kong's urban fabric are made apparent when looking at the buildings that have been lost over the city's development. Much of the city's early colonial era architecture was lost in the postwar period due to the demands of a rapidly growing city that needed to both expand vertically and into the harbor. While Hong Kong is certainly now home to many notable pieces of modern architecture by starchitects such as Norman Foster (HSBC Building), I.M. Pei (Bank of China Tower) and Cesar Pelli (Cheung Kong Center), a key part of the city's architectural history has been lost to make way for it. This story map hoped to illustrate these changes so that those less familiar with Hong Kong's history can understand that it was not always the world's most vertical city.

David.  Various images. Gwulo: Old Hong Kong. N.D. https://gwulo.com/ 

Google Street View. Various photos. 2024.

Handon, Guy. "Before the bulldozers: a look back at Hong Kong’s long-lost buildings and what replaced them." South China Morning Post. July 21, 2016.  https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1987094/bulldozers-look-back-hong-kongs-long-lost 

"HKFP History: A Brief Visual History of the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower." Hong Kong Free Press. March 31, 2020.  https://hongkongfp.com/2016/02/28/hkfp-history-brief-visual-history-tsim-sha-tsui-clock-tower/ 

Lai, Olivia. "Five iconic Hong Kong buildings: Then and now." Time Out Hong Kong. March 16, 2020.  https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/attractions/five-iconic-hong-kong-buildings-then-and-now 

NASA. "HongKong boundary from space." Wikipedia. November 5, 2006.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HongKong_boundary_from_space.png .

Timothy. "Hong Kong Reclamation Map." Wikipedia. March 1, 2021.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hong_Kong_Reclamation_Map.png