The
Legislative Council Building of
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
, also called the
Former Supreme Court Building (前最高法院大樓), was the home of the former
Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court was the highest court in Hong Kong prior to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in 1997 and heard cases passed on from the lower courts...
until 1985, when it was renamed and became home to the
Legislative Council of Hong KongThe Legislative Council, or LegCo , is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong.-History:The Legislative Council of Hong Kong was created in 1843 under the authority of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
. It is located in
CentralCentral , the central business district of Hong Kong, was commonly known as part of Victoria City. It is an area on the north shore of Hong Kong Island. It is located across Victoria Harbour from Tsim Sha Tsui, the southernmost point of Kowloon Peninsula...
Hong Kong, along the eastern side of
Statue SquareStatue Square is a public pedestrian square in Central, Hong Kong.-History:The square was built at the end of the 19th century. The idea of a square of statues dedicated to royalty was conceived by Sir Catchick Paul Chater.. It derives its name from the fact that it originally contained the...
, directly west of
Chater GardenChater Garden , located in the Central District of Hong Kong, is a public park directly east of the Legislative Council building. It is named after Sir Paul Chater, and one side of the garden is on Chater Road which is also named after him.-History:...
.
The Supreme Court of Hong Kong was moved to the
Supreme Court Building, Hong KongThe High Court Building of Hong Kong is located on 38 Queensway and home to the High Court. The 20 storey building was built in 1985 as the home of the then Supreme Court of Hong Kong, which was renamed in 1997....
after 1985 and remained there until 1997.
The
Legislative Council Building of
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
, also called the
Former Supreme Court Building (前最高法院大樓), was the home of the former
Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court was the highest court in Hong Kong prior to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in 1997 and heard cases passed on from the lower courts...
until 1985, when it was renamed and became home to the
Legislative Council of Hong KongThe Legislative Council, or LegCo , is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong.-History:The Legislative Council of Hong Kong was created in 1843 under the authority of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
. It is located in
CentralCentral , the central business district of Hong Kong, was commonly known as part of Victoria City. It is an area on the north shore of Hong Kong Island. It is located across Victoria Harbour from Tsim Sha Tsui, the southernmost point of Kowloon Peninsula...
Hong Kong, along the eastern side of
Statue SquareStatue Square is a public pedestrian square in Central, Hong Kong.-History:The square was built at the end of the 19th century. The idea of a square of statues dedicated to royalty was conceived by Sir Catchick Paul Chater.. It derives its name from the fact that it originally contained the...
, directly west of
Chater GardenChater Garden , located in the Central District of Hong Kong, is a public park directly east of the Legislative Council building. It is named after Sir Paul Chater, and one side of the garden is on Chater Road which is also named after him.-History:...
.
The Supreme Court of Hong Kong was moved to the
Supreme Court Building, Hong KongThe High Court Building of Hong Kong is located on 38 Queensway and home to the High Court. The 20 storey building was built in 1985 as the home of the then Supreme Court of Hong Kong, which was renamed in 1997....
after 1985 and remained there until 1997. It is now renamed the
High Court BuildingThe High Court Building of Hong Kong is located on 38 Queensway and home to the High Court. The 20 storey building was built in 1985 as the home of the then Supreme Court of Hong Kong, which was renamed in 1997....
.
The building was designed by Sir
Aston WebbSir Aston Webb, RA, FRIBA was an English architect, active in the late 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century...
, the British architect responsible for the eastern façade of
Buckingham PalaceBuckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
and the Cromwell Road frontage of the
Victoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum in London is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some and 145 galleries...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
.
It was built on
reclaimed landThis article is about Land reclamation in Hong Kong.Land is in short supply in Hong Kong and land reclamation has been conducted there since the mid-19th century.-Projects:...
, and opened on 15 January 1912. The two-storey
graniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as porphyry. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, depending on their...
building is
neo-classicalNeoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, both as a reaction against the Rococo style of anti-tectonic naturalistic ornament, and an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Late Baroque...
in style supported by
IonicThe Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
columns. It is surmounted by a blind-folded statue of Justice, represented by the Roman goddess Iustitia. This statue is a replica of the one erected on the Old Bailey of London.
In 1978, this building was severely affected by the construction of
MTRMTR, or Mass Transit Railway, is the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong. The MTR first began service in 1979 and officially merged with the Kowloon Canton Railway on 2 December 2007, still bearing the same name in English. The network includes 211.6 km of rail with 150 stations,...
; therefore, it had to undergo some restoration afterwards.
The Exterior of the Old Supreme Court is one of the 92
declared monuments of Hong KongDeclared monuments of Hong Kong are places, structures or buildings legally declared to be "protected". In Hong Kong, declaring a monument requires consulting the Antiquities Advisory Board, the approval of the Chief Executive as well as the publication of the notice in government gazette.As of 18...
.
For a time in the 1980s, the Supreme Court was moved to the
Former French Mission BuildingThe Former French Mission Building is a declared monument of Hong Kong. It is located at 1, Battery Path, Central. It currently houses the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong.-Features:...
, which was then used by the
VictoriaVictoria City, or the City of Victoria, was one of the first urban settlements in Hong Kong after it became a British colony in 1842. It was initially named Queenstown but was soon known as Victoria. The name "Victoria" is rarely used today except to refer to the Victoria Park, The Peak, the...
District CourtThe District Courts are the lower court system in Hong Kong, have both criminal and civil jurisdictions. The system is modelled after the English legal system, with indictable offences being taken up by the district court if at the hearing in the magistrate's court a criminal defendant elects for...
.
Previous homes of the Legislative Council
Before 1985, the Legco met at three other locations:
- Former French Mission Building
The Former French Mission Building is a declared monument of Hong Kong. It is located at 1, Battery Path, Central. It currently houses the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong.-Features:...
1843–1846
- Caine Road 1846–?
- Government House, Hong Kong
Government House , located on Government Hill in the Central District of Hong Kong Island, is the official residence of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong...
1855; used ballroom after 1891
- Old Central Government Offices
The old Central Government Office was home to many of Hong Kong Government's departments from 1847 to 1954. Built in 1847 as the Secretriat Building, it was also home to the territory's Legislative Council from the 1930s to 1954....
1930s until 1954
- Central Government Offices
The Central Government Offices houses the most major offices of the Hong Kong Government. Located in Central in Hong Kong, it occupies the lower level of Government Hill.- History :...
1957–1985
Prior to the handover in 1997, the
Provisional Legislative CouncilThe Provisional Legislative Council or the PLC was the interim legislature of Hong Kong from 1997 to 1998. The legislature was founded in Guangzhou and sat in Shenzhen from 1996 until the handover in 1997 and moved to Hong Kong to serves as the temporary replacement of Legislative Council of Hong...
was executing work to setup the post handover legislature. It met in
ShenzhenShenzhen is a city of sub-provincial administrative status in southern China's Guangdong province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong...
,
GuangzhouGuangzhou , in English formerly known as Canton and also known as Kwangchow, is a sub-provincial city and the capital of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China.It is a port on the Pearl River,...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
from 1996 to 1997 at the
Shenzhen Guesthouse HotelShenzhen Guesthouse Hotel is a three star hotel in Shenzhen, China and one of the conference halls housed the Provisional Legislative Council of Hong Kong from January 1996 to June 1997....
.
See also
- Central and Western Heritage Trail
The Central and Western Heritage Trail is a Heritage Trail in Hong Kong, that was designed by the by the Antiquities and Monuments Office of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department....
- List of buildings and structures in Hong Kong
- Central Government Complex, Tamar
Central Government Complex, Tamar will be the new location for the offices of the Central Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region....
- Macau Legislative Assembly Building
Macau Legislative Assembly Building is the home of the Legislative Assembly of Macau and various government offices.Construction began in 1998 and was completed in 1999 for the handover. The building is triangular in shape and overlooks Nam Van Lake and within the Cathedral Parish. The assembly's...
and Leal SenadoThe Leal Senado, Portuguese for Loyal Senate, was the seat of Macau's government during its time as a Portuguese colony. It is located at one end of the Senado Square. The title was bestowed on Macau's government in 1810 by Portugal's Prince-Regent João, who would later become King John VI of...
External links