Hong Kong City Hall and Jamia Mosque declared monuments

Three grade one historic buildings – Hong Kong City Hall and Jamia Mosque in Central, and Lui Seng Chun in Mong Kok – have been declared as monuments by the Antiquities Advisory Board on Thursday. 

Susanna Siu Lai-kuen, executive secretary for Antiquities and Monuments of the Antiquities and Monuments Office of the Development Bureau, said the 60-year-old Hong Kong City Hall is now officially the city's youngest monument. 

Lui Seng Chun is the first “tong lau”, a Chinese-style tenement building built from the 19th century to the 1960s, to become a monument. Jamia Mosque is also the first mosque to become a monument. 

Siu said much information was collected when authorities looked into City Hall, including that of a music concert staged there two days after then-Governor Robert Black officiated its opening on March 2, 1962. 

She continued that the Antiquities Advisory Board will promote the new monument using the tales behind it.  

According to documents released by the board, City Hall located at Edinburgh Place is Hong Kong's second city hall and a venue for many historical events, like inauguration ceremonies of five governors before the handover. 

The board also described the hall, comprised of the Low Block, the Memorial Garden and the High Block, as “an outstanding example of Modernist architecture which adopts a modest design that focuses on fulfilling the functions of the building.” 

As for Jamia Mosque located on Shelly Street, it was built between 1915 and 1916 with donations from Bombay merchant Haji Elias to replace the old mosque on the same site. With rich Islamic mosque architectural features, it remains Hong Kong's oldest mosque. 

On the other hand, the four-story Lui Seng Chun was built in 1931 and owned by late Lui Leung, one of the founders of KMB Ltd. The Lui family ran a Chinese medicine shop on the ground floor and lived on the upper floors. The shop closed a few years after Lui Leung passed away in 1944. 

It has been revitalized as a Chinese medicine and healthcare center, and is operated by the Hong Kong Baptist University since 2012. 

Other Antiquities Advisory Board members hoped more efforts can be put into City Hall's revitalization, as young people lack incentive to visit it due to its unclear positioning. 

Citizens want government to shoot promotional videos so that they can have a glimpse of the mosque's interior as they seldom have the chance to visit it.