The Former French Mission Building is a declared monument located on Government Hill at 1, Battery Path, Central,

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. It housed the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong from 1 July 1997 to 6 September 2015.

Antiquities and Monuments Office The Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) is a Hong Kong government organization established in 1976 under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance to protect and preserve historic monuments. Housed in the Former Kowloon British School, the AMO ...

Former French Mission Building

Features

The building is built on a podium due to the hilly nature of Government Hill. Originally a mansion called Johnston House, the building was altered in the 1870s and 1880s to a three-storey building. The present three-storey building opened in 1917 as the result of a major renovation, also described as an "extensive rebuilding", of the previous structure. The building is probably based on a previous structure near the site known as "

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, northwest of central London and southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High Wycombe. The ...

", but it is clad in red brick rather than an all white façade. It is constructed in granite and red bricks in Neo-Classical style, dating from the

Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...

period.discoverhongkong.com
Former French Mission Building

History

The original structure on this site dated back to 1842. The first

Governor of Hong Kong The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the United Kingdom, British The Crown, Crown in British Hong Kong, Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, Executiv ...

, Sir

Henry Pottinger Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pottinger, 1st Baronet (3 October 1789 – 18 March 1856) was an Bombay Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the first governor of Hong Kong from 1843 to 1844. ...

resided there from 1843 to 1846. His successor, John Francis Davis also lived there for a while, before moving to Caine Road. The building likely served as one of the earlier homes of the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, colloquially known as LegCo, is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under People's Republic of China, China's "one country, two systems" c ...

during this period (1843–1846). The building then had several owners, including Emanuel R. Belilios, and was occupied among others by the '' tai-pans'' of

Augustine Heard and Company Augustine Heard & Co. () was a major nineteenth-century American trading firm in Qing dynasty China whose operations consisted in importing and exporting a large array of goods, including tea and opium. History and leadership Augustine Heard and ...

, a trading firm that went bankrupt in 1876. It was also used by

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

and was home to the Russian Consulate in the 1870s. The government then leased the building from 1879 and, by 1911, the Sanitary Board and Registrar-General's offices were located in the building. Former French Mission Building

In 1915, it was acquired by the

Paris Foreign Missions Society The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (, , MEP) is a Catholic Missionary order, missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular clergy, secular priests and Laity, lay persons dedicated to missionary wo ...

, which commissioned a major renovation. The architects were Leigh & Orange. In the process, a chapel topped by a cupola was added in the north-west corner, and the building was refaced with red bricks. It reopened in 1917 and became known as the "French Mission Building".Consulate General of France in Hong Kong & Macau
16 stories about Hong Kong-France relations
/ref> In 1953, it was sold back to the Hong Kong Government. From 23 August 1945 to April 1946 the building was used by the provisional Government of Hong Kong following the end of

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the governor of Hong Kong, Mark Aitchison Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of British Hong Kong, Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. His surrender occurred after Batt ...

. When the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

were expelled from Canton in 1949, it moved its St. Ignatius Language School to Hong Kong where it was housed in the top floor of the building, together with accommodation for Joseph Mallin of the Society. It was then used successively by the Education Department, the Victoria

District Court District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy. These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...

(1965–1980), the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

(1980–1983), and the Government Information Services (starting from 1987). It has been used as the Court of Final Appeal since the inception of the Court at the time of the

transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony, which began in 1841. Hong Kong was established as a specia ...

, on 1 July 1997. On 7 September 2015, the court moved to the Old Supreme Court Building.

Conservation

The building was declared a monument on September 14, 1989.Environment Protection Department
List of Declared Monuments as on 1 January 1999
(archive) It was decided in 2011 that it would be made available for

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse is the reuse of an existing building for a purpose other than that for which it was originally built or designed. It is also known as recycling and conversion. The adaptive reuse of buildings can be a viable alternative to new con ...

after the relocation of the Court of Final Appeal to the Old Supreme Court Building.Legislative Council Panel on Development
"Progress Report on Heritage Conservation Initiatives"
15 July 2011

References

External links

GIS through the years
{{coord, 22, 16, 45.75, N, 114, 9, 34.71, E, type:landmark_region:HK, display=title Buildings and structures completed in 1917 Central, Hong Kong Declared monuments of Hong Kong Government buildings in Hong Kong Government Hill Landmarks in Hong Kong Official residences in Hong Kong 1917 establishments in Hong Kong

20th-century churches in Hong Kong Neoclassical architecture in Hong Kong

Features

History

Conservation

See also

References

Further reading

External links