Plans of Old Buildings

Submitted by David on Mon, 11/29/2010 - 17:52

In a recent question about 14 Conduit Road, Alfred asked if there was a way to get floor plans of the old building. Originally I said no, but then I remembered this comment on the Peak Mansions thread, where Andrew wrote:

Believe it or not, I have architectural plans for Peak Mansions. I obtained them from those lovely people at the Architectural Services Dept of the HK Govt, who still had them on microfiche even though poor old PM was knocked down years ago.

So I wrote to the Architectural Services Department:

I am researching the history of Hong Kong. In some cases it will be very
helpful to see floorplans of old buildings that have already been
demolished.

I have learned that the ASD has floorplans for some of Hong Kong's old
buildings. Please could you let me know how I can check if a certain
building's plans exist, and then how to access the plans and get copies?

I prefer access via the internet if it is possible.

And received this helpful reply:

To assist us in checking whether our department have drawings of a certain demolished building, please provide some details of the building such as address, location map or name of the building, etc.. For your information, if the drawings are available, you have to visit our office to view and confirm the relevant drawings to be copied, and arrange for issuing of demand note and collection of drawings. The whole process may not be completed via internet.

In this connection, please contact our Mr. K S NG (Tel. No.: 2867 3693, email address: ngks@archsd.gov.hk) or Ms. Katherine IU (Tel. No.: 2867 3697, email address: iuhl@ab.archsd.gov.hk) for processing of your request.

So it looks as though it may be possible after all.

If you contact the Architectural Services Department for old plans, please could you leave a comment below to let us know how it goes?

Thanks, David

Hi David

I can confirm that that was the process I went through with the ASD. I actually first found the references to the Peak Mansions microfiches on the PRO web site (I use this PRO search engine : http://www.grs.gov.hk/PRO/srch/english/sys_archive.jsp?language=english). Armed with the microfiche references I then emailed the ASD, who confirmed that they still existed. I then arranged a visit to the ASD offices to view the microfiches and confirm which ones I wanted copies of. The staff were incredibly friendly, helpful and professional. I think I viewed the microfiches on a Monday morning and was able to pick up the A2 photocopies on Tuesday afternoon. Note that you do have to pay for the copies first; I had to take a form down to the Wan Chai post office to make the payment and get a receipt. A scale of charges can be found on the ASD web site: http://www.archsd.gov.hk/archsd_home01.asp?Path_Lev1=8&Status=PC. 

I hope this helps. 

Andrew