Hong Kong City Hall () is a building located at Edinburgh Place, Central, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong.
In the 19th century, the British founded City of Victoria in the present-day Central after the establishment of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong. The Crown Colony (including City of Victoria) was governed by a Governor and Urban Council, there was no mayor or city council, therefore, the City Hall does not hold the offices of a city government, unlike most city halls around the world. Instead, it is a complex providing municipal services, including performing venues and libraries.
The City Hall is managed by the Government's Leisure and Cultural Services Department. The Urban Council (UrbCo) managed the City Hall (through the Urban Services Department) and held its meetings there prior to its dissolution in December 1999. Prior to its dissolution the UrbCo served as the municipal council for Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (including New Kowloon). The UrbCo had its meeting chamber in the Low Block of the City Hall.
First generation
Hong Kong's first City Hall, which existed from 1869 to 1933, occupied the current sites of the HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building (partly) and the Bank of China Building. It was designed by the French architect Achille-Antoine Hermitte and was opened by Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, in a ceremony on 28 June 1869. The current site of the HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building was occupied in part by the old City Hall, and in part by the first and second generations of the HSBC building.
Second generation
The second and current City Hall complex was built in the late 1950s on a plot of land on the newly reclaimed seafront, about from the first generation building.
The foundation stone laying ceremony took place on 25 February 1960 with Sir Robert Brown Black, then Governor of Hong Kong, who also presided over the official opening ceremony on 2 March 1962. The City Hall was placed under the responsibility of the Urban Council.
Since 2009, it had been listed as a Grade I historic building. On 20 May 2022, the Hong Kong City Hall was declared a monument under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance. At the age of 60, it is the youngest as well as the first post-WW2 building in Hong Kong being declared as a monument.
Design
The building complex erected at the present site based on the original design by Professor Gordon Brown, the first Head of Department of Architecture of Hong Kong University, together with his team, was completed by British architects Ronald Phillips and Alan Fitch at the cost of HK$20 million. With its clean lines and stark geometric forms, the new Hall is an example of the International style fashionable at the time. The structure was constructed using steel and concrete, and much of the equipment was of steel, glass and anodised aluminium.
The two separate blocks and gardens were laid out as a cohesive whole, along a central axis. The entrance to the lower block (exhibition hall) of the City Hall formed an axis with Queen's Pier to lend a sense of occasion to visiting dignitaries. On the façade of the Lower Block once had the old Coat of Arms of Hong Kong, which was removed before the handover in 1997. One major consideration was juxtaposing the city bustle whilst maximising public access to the surrounding area. Thus, the out-sized public areas of the Memorial Gardens and the piazza in front were conceived as a natural extension to promote the "freedom of movement and a sense of unlimited space".
Function
The most important civic function performed by City Hall was as a ceremonial location for the swearing in of successive Governors following their inauguration: The 24th to 28th Governors all swore their oaths of office there.
City Hall's Concert hall and theatre have been an important home to the performing arts in Hong Kong since its inauguration. A number of culture events, including the Hong Kong Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival in 1973, Asian Arts Festival in 1976, the Hong Kong International Film Festival in 1977, and the International Arts Carnival in 1982 were hosted there. The conference room of the former Urban Council was also at the lower building of the City Hall.
The High block once housed Hong Kong's principal public library, until a new Central library was opened in 2001; the Hong Kong art gallery (which became the Hong Kong Art Museum in 1969) began life there on the tenth and eleventh floors. The Hong Kong Museum of History relocated in 1975, and the Hong Kong Museum of Art also moved out of City Hall in 1991.