What became of the old barracks
Barracks were among the first buildings erected by the British on the newly conquered Hong Kong Island. Parts of the former Victoria Barracks can be found today in Hong Kong Park. The Murray Barracks lay next to it, below the Lower Peak Tram terminus, right down to Queensway. In 1969 part of the barracks was replaced by a new government building of particular charm, the Murray Building directly opposite the tram station. The special feature of this house is its energy efficiency. To keep the building cool, all the windows are consistently aligned at an angle so that no direct sunlight reaches the inside of the building. After the government moved to its new premises at Tamar Park, efforts were made to preserve the architecturally interesting building and it was decided to convert it into a hotel.
In the early days of the colony, porches were used to protect the inhabitants from rain as well as the burning sun. A good example for this form of architecture is the corresponding Murray House in Stanley. The building from 1844 originally sat at the bottom of the barracks site in the Central District. In 1982 it had to give way to the new building of the Bank of China. Instead of just tearing it down, the building was taken apart carefully, all the parts were neatly numbered, and then stored at the Tai Tam Reservoir. There, some 4,000 stones and columns had to wait 16 years to be reassembled. Then, in 1998 when Stanley’s promenade was redeveloped on reclaimed land, Murray House was re-erected. (The British had generated a budget surplus that couldn’t be exported after the handover and was therefore spent on numerous cultural projects.)
Info
Address (59a) Murray Building, 22 Cotton Tree Drive, Central (59b) Murray House, Stanley Main Street, Stanley | Public Transport (59a) MTR Island Line (blue) Admiralty Station Exit B, (59b) Bus 6X or 260 from Exchange Square, Central, to Stanley Market | Tip Murray House was later joined by the Blake Pier, which was similarly dismantled and reconstructed, after having served for many years as part of the open-air theatre at Morse Park in Kowloon.
Despite the careful numbering, after completion construction workers discovered six major pillars that were left over and no obvious place where they were missing.
Ever the pragmatists, they just put them up in front.
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