General Post Office (Hong Kong)

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General Post Office in Central (2012)
Counter hall

The General Post Office (GPO; Chinese  郵政總局  /  邮政总局 , Pinyin Youzheng Zǒngjú , Jyutping Yau 4 jing 3 Jung 2 guk 6 ) is the seat of the post Hong Kong ( Hong Kong Post ).

Current location

The current building was built in 1976 and is located at 2 Connaught Place in the Central district on Hong Kong Island . It is located in the immediate vicinity of the Jardine House and the International Finance Center . Until 2007 the building was on the coastline, directly on the former Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier of the Star Ferry . After land reclamation , the building is now a little further inside the country. However, it is also on land that was previously won.

In 1967 the government planned a new administration building with originally 30 floors, five of which were intended for the main post office and the remaining 25 for other government offices. That plan changed when the property directly south was sold to Hong Kong Land for a record price . The government pledged not to allow any building higher than 120 feet on the site so that the view from the Connaught Center to the sea would not be impaired. The architect KM Tseng planned the building with five floors, but designed the foundation in such a way that the house could be extended by a further two floors before it would reach the permitted height. The total area of ​​the property is approx. 3700 m². As a technical innovation, the first central vacuum cleaner system in Hong Kong was installed in the building . In addition to a counter hall with 32 customer counters on the first floor, the post office also had a large machine for processing letters. This took up about half the area. There were offices on the third and fourth floors.

For some years now, the demolition of the post office has been the subject of controversial discussion. In 2017 it was decided to demolish, in particular to free up space for new office buildings in the Central district. An eight-story new building for the main post office is planned in Kowloon Bay .

Former locations

General Post Office at the intersection of Des Voeux Road Central and Pedder Street (1911)

The main post office has changed location three times after various land reclamation measures. A connection to the coast was and is enormously important for the post, as in the past in particular, mail was carried out by sea . Former locations of the General Post Office were:

  • 1841 to 1846: above St. John's Cathedral, Garden Road
  • 1846 to 1911: Queen's Road Central across from D'Aguilar Street
  • 1911 to 1976: intersection of Des Voeux Road Central / Pedder Street
  • since 1976: 2 Connaught Place

Building from 1846

In 1846 the Supreme Court, Government Treasury, and the Central Post Office were established on Dent & Co. premises . After this use, the property was auctioned off in 1921 at a price of HKD 50 per square foot. The China Building (華人 行) was completed here in 1924 .

Building from 1911

Land reclamation began in the late 1890s and the first main post office was relocated to a new building in a new section of Pedder Street at the intersection with Des Voeux Road Central. This was in the Edwardian style and consisted of granite and red brick. It was nicknamed the Old Lady of Pedder Street .

This building was demolished in 1976 to make way for the MTR underground system . At this point there is now the underground transfer area between Central and Hong Kong stations . The World-Wide House office complex was built above ground .

Joseph Ting, the former chief curator of the Hong Kong Museum of History , described the 1911 post office building as Hong Kong's most beautiful building.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Government - HK Land 'Pact' Limits New GPO'S Height. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: The Star. April 14, 1974, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on November 12, 2017 (English).
  2. ↑ a b c Under Threat: Hong Kong's General Post Office. docomomo Hong Kong, March 9, 2016, accessed on November 17, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Hong Kong post office HQ to be demolished to make way for offices in plan to transform Central harbourfront. South China Morning Post , July 21, 2017, accessed November 30, 2019 .
  4. ↑ 舊地重遊 ﹕ 開埠 至今 畢 打 街 之 建築物. (No longer available online.) In: Sing Pao. October 29, 2005, archived from the original on March 11, 2007 ; Retrieved November 17, 2017 (Chinese).
  5. ↑ Eric Cavaliero: Pedder Street was where it all happened. (No longer available online.) In: The Standard. August 13, 1998, archived from the original on May 22, 2011 ; Retrieved March 13, 1998 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thestandard.com.hk
  6. ^ Sylvia Lam: History lessons from a former museum curator. In: Hong Kong Economic Journal. November 19, 2015, accessed November 18, 2017 .

Web links

Commons : General Post Office, Hong Kong  - Collection of images

Coordinates: 22 ° 17 ′ 0.3 "  N , 114 ° 9 ′ 34.5"  E