The former Kowloon Magistracy is a historic building and former Magistrate's and District Court in

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 ...

, located at No. 38 Gascoigne Road, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon.

History

Constructed under the direction of Director of Public Works Richard McNeil Henderson in 1933, the building housed a court handling minor criminal cases at magistrate's level. During the

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 ...

, it served as the Kowloon headquarters of the Kempeitai. It later served as the Kowloon District Court which was renamed in 1957 the South Kowloon District Court. After the opening of the North Kowloon Magistracy in 1960, some cases were diverted there. The South Kowloon District Court remained in use as a district court until 1986 when it became the Judiciary Central File Repository. It has served as the Lands Tribunal () since 1997 and accommodates five courts.Antiquities and Monuments Office: Brief Information on Proposed Grade I Items, pp. 240-241
The South Kowloon Magistracy moved to a building next door (36 Gascoigne Road) where it operated until final closure in 2000.

Conservation

The former Kowloon Magistracy was listed as a Grade II historic building in 1992 and upgraded to Grade I in 2009.List of the 1,444 Historic Buildings in Building Assessment
(as of 27 December 2013)

References

Judiciary of Hong Kong Yau Ma Tei Grade I historic buildings in Hong Kong Government buildings completed in 1936 {{Kowloon-stub