'Roman arches' discovery halts Bishop Hill construction

Michael Shum, Erin Chan and Mandy Zheng

A Romanesque cistern with 100 pillars has been unearthed at Bishop Hill in Shek Kip Mei, causing authorities to halt demolition work.

The massive, 111-year-old underground structure features arches, pillars and water pipes in a 4,300-square-meter site.

It was found while workers were demolishing the cistern because it is unsafe.

Citizens amazed by the splendid architecture tried to stop workers from continuing the excavation.

They also alerted district councilors, who headed to the site yesterday. They included Sham Shui Po District Council chairman Yeung Yuk; Kalvin Ho Kai-ming and Howard Lee Hon-ting.

The councilors found the year 1909 was written on a water pipe. They will petition the Water Supplies Department to preserve the cistern as it is an eye-catching structure.

The department had alerted district councilors back in 2014, saying the cistern should be demolished because of safety concerns.

The break pressure tank was built before 1930 and was in use until the 1970s. It was a device to protect pipelines from bursting due to high pressure from the water they contain. The tank was usually at the highest elevation of the pipelines.

Cracks appeared and tree branches penetrated the underground tank, making it structurally unsafe.

The department planned to tear down the structure and backfill the land, which would be handed over to the Lands Department for other use. Demolition work, expected to last 10 months, started last June.

Ho said: "The government said it is dangerous, therefore we cleared out the site to cater for their construction work. But it turns out to be a valuable historical site. Please stop the demolition immediately."

He said he would write to the Antiquities and Monuments Office hoping the structure can be preserved.

The lawmaker for the architectural, surveying, planning and landscape sector, Tony Tse Wai-chuen, urged the Development Bureau yesterday to promise to stop construction work and send staffers to inspect the structure. Pictures of the Romanesque-style cistern was posted earlier this week by Hong Kong Heritage Exploration, a page which discusses the city's heritage.

The page says it was rare to see cisterns built in the pre-war period, as reservoirs in Hong Kong were built after World War II with reinforced concrete.

Citizens flocked to the site to see the spectacle and take pictures while the eagle-eyed spotted soda cans and toy guns believed to have been left behind for years.

A resident nearby criticized the department for closing the area about a decade ago, hiding the monument behind fences.

She put herself in front of a bulldozer last Sunday to stop the construction workers from further demolishing the structure, while also sharing pictures.

Sham Shui Po District councilors from the Democratic Party, Ramon Yuen Hoi-man and Zoe Chow Wing-heng, yesterday wrote to the Antiquities Advisory Board, demanding the board grade the monument and the department halt demolition.

In a reply to The Standard, the Water Supplies Department confirmed it has halted demolition and reached out to the Antiquities and Monuments Office.

"Staffers from the Antiquities and Monuments Office have already inspected the site, while they will conduct an in-depth study and assessment with respect to the established mechanism before deciding on follow-up actions," it wrote.