Whitfield Barracks

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Kowloon West II Battery

Whitfield Barracks ( Chinese 威菲 路 兵 房 ) were barracks in Tsim Sha Tsui (now Yau Tsim Mong District ), Kowloon , Hong Kong . They were named after Henry Wase Whitfield , the commander of the United Kingdom's Armed Forces in China , Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements . Kowloon Park , a popular recreation area in Hong Kong, is now located on the site of the barracks . Of the numerous buildings, only four remain.

history

The site that housed Whitfield Barracks (and now Kowloon Park) was declared a military area in 1864. In the 1890s barracks began to be built for the British Indian garrison stationed in Hong Kong. In 1906 the first 25 buildings were completed, in 1910 there were a total of 85. The first troops to move in were Indian soldiers from the Hong Kong regiment, who until then had been housed in tents and sheds.

The Kowloon West II Battery artillery battery , which had been on the site of the barracks since 1878/1880, played an important role in defending the port of the Crown Colony. The battery's cannons, located on a small hill, controlled the entrance to Victoria Harbor from the west between Green Island and Stonecutters Island .

A mosque was built for the Muslim soldiers of the British-Indian garrison, who mainly came from what is now Pakistan. The area for the Kowloon Mosque is on the southeast edge of the barracks. It is referred to as the largest mosque in Hong Kong today and is also known as the Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Center, Kowloon, Hong Kong . The site was made available for this purpose by Colonel Edmund George Barrow , and the mosque was completed in 1896.

During the Japanese occupation in World War II 1941-1945, the barracks were apparently used as an internment camp. After the end of the war, the Japanese units were concentrated in Kowloon, especially in Whitfield Barracks, and the barracks temporarily became a camp for prisoners of war. In 1967 the Army handed the Whitfield Barracks over to the civilian government, which began converting it into a park in 1970.

Whitfield Barracks today

After the city government decided in 1970 to redesign the Whitfield Barracks site, most of the buildings were demolished. A park was created as a recreational area, on the adjacent streets such as Nathan Road or Haiphong Road shopping streets . The Kowloon West II Battery has been largely redesigned into a children's adventure playground, with some cannons being replaced with replicas.

In addition to the Kowloon Mosque, which continues to serve its original purpose as a house of prayer, only four of the 85 buildings that previously existed have survived:

  • Building complex Block S61 (formerly Block D):
Between 1983 and 1998 the Museum of History was temporarily housed here; after a renovation, the building has served as the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Center since 2005 . It offers space for the main reception hall, library and various offices of the facility.
  • Building complex block S62:
The Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Center has maintained rooms here for conferences and other events since 2005.
  • Building complex Block S4 (formerly Block G):
Today it offers showrooms for the Health Education Center, among other things .
  • Building complex Block 58 (formerly Block A):
There are only storage rooms in the building and it is not open to the public.

All four were built in the 1890s and are among the first buildings in the Whitfield Barracks barracks complex. The colonial, neoclassical style that was used for the barracks of the time is typical for all of them: it is a long, two-story block with originally open verandas at the stairs.

While the Kowloon West II Battery has been on the list of listed buildings as a "Grade I historic building" since 1997, the other four remaining buildings have also been listed there since 2009.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Introduction to 1444 Historic Buildings , an overview of the Antiquities Advisory Board , a facility of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , Block S61, online at: aab.gov.hk/…40 , page 40
  2. ↑ a b Historic Building Appraisal , an overview of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government, Block S61, online (archived) at: web.archive.org/…/lcsd.gov.hk/…78 , # 43 / page 78
  3. ↑ a b c Historic Building Appraisal , an overview of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government, Block S62, online (archived) at: web.archive.org/…/lcsd.gov.hk/…80 , # 44 / page 80
  4. ↑ Introduction to 1444 Historic Buildings , an overview of the Antiquities Advisory Board , a facility of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , Kowloon West II Battery, online at: aab.gov.hk/…126 , page 126
  5. ↑ a b Historic Building Appraisal , an overview of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government, Kowloon West II Battery, online (archived) at: web.archive.org/…/lcsd.gov.hk/…246 , # 133 / Page 246
  6. ↑ Syed Minhaj ul Hassan: The Muslims of Hong Kong and their Religious Symbols , in: Peshawar Islamicus , Vol: 7, Issue 1, January-June 2016, online at: journals.uop.edu.pk/…
  7. ↑ Wai-Yip Ho: Islam and China's Hong Kong: Ethnic Identity, Muslim Networks and the New Silk Road , Routledge, Oxon 2013, page 31, online at: books.google.de/…
  8. ↑ Introduction to 1444 Historic Buildings , an overview of the Antiquities Advisory Board , a facility of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , Block S62, online at: aab.gov.hk/…41 , page 41
  9. ↑ Historic Building Appraisal , an overview of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government, Block S4, online (archived) at: web.archive.org/…/lcsd.gov.hk/…88 , # 48 / page 88
  10. ↑ Historic Building Appraisal , an overview of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government, Block 58, online (archived) at: web.archive.org/…/lcsd.gov.hk/…94 , # 51 / page 94
  11. ↑ List of the 1,444 Historic Buildings with Assessment Results (as of 6 September 2018) , a government list ( Antiquities Advisory Board ) of listed objects, online at: aab.gov.hk/

Web links

Commons : Whitfield Barracks  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 22 ° 17 ′ 57.6 "  N , 114 ° 10 ′ 11.2"  E