Remarkable Museum: Tai Kwun Prison

#hongkongtrip In the eastern part of Hong Kong's Hollywood Road, an impressive walled complex rises above the sidewalk, housing a former prison, a courthouse and a police station. Tai Kwun was certainly not a place that inspired joy. But recent landscaping work worth $484 million has changed the situation. The oldest buildings predated the founding of Hong Kong in just ten years. Among the honored "guests" in his prison cells was the Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh. British bureaucrats and police officers called it the Central Police Station, but Hong Kong Cantonese called it the "Big Precinct", Tai Kwun (大館). Today, you won't find any judges, police officers, or prisoners on Tai Kwun's 300,000 square foot grounds. Its murky justice facilities have since been replaced by shops, restaurants, bars, exhibition grounds and spectacular historical events, turning Tai Kwun into a "Heritage and Art Center" and an important stop for tourists visiting Hong Kong's Soho district. The existing buildings have been preserved, and some gaps have been filled with new ones. Architecture that complements the overall appearance of the site. The restored facade uses 15,000 bricks made at the same brick factory in England as the original bricks from a century ago. The buildings in Tai Kwun are surrounded by two courtyards - a larger Front Courtyard in the north and a smaller Prison Courtyard on the south side. These two courtyards are among the largest open spaces in the Center and are great places to observe people. The oldest building in Tai Kwun faces the Parade Ground. Built in 1864, the barracks block served as housing for the new Hong Kong Police Force. It now houses the Tai Kwun Heritage Gallery, a Visitor Center, and many restaurants and shops. The police headquarters is located directly across the Parade Ground from the barracks block (pictured above). Built in 1919, the Headquarters block contained facilities suited to the multinational nature of the Territory's police force, from a Sikh Gurdwara to separate canteens for Indian and Chinese officers. The mango tree, standing at the western end of the Parade Ground, was deliberately preserved because of its historical connection with ordinary police officers. The patrolmen believed that when a mango tree bears a lot of fruit, it portends a lot of increases this year.