anyone else been checking out the amo's new grading of buildings? Pretty impressed so far, if it means Grade 1 buildings are no unlikely to be torn down. Also amazing how poor the grading was before: the old Bank of China building in Central wasn't graded at all before, neither was the Peninsula.
There's a ton of sites listed, almost all with photos (military sites on stonecutters are coyly omitted from pics)
Here's the link. The list of sites and photos open on separate pages.
80sKid
re: New Grading
whoops - here's the link
http://www.amo.gov.hk/en/aab.php
Wartime sites grading
btw they also give grade 2 listings for a number of the batteries, like pinewood - plus grade 2 for 'wong nai chung military site' - the pictures show the renovated bunkers down the road which amo says is West Brigade HQ. I thought the HQ was the site by the Shell garage. They also show the St Johns Ambulance memorial.
the amo are asking to feedback on sites - any other bunker complexes, tunnels etc might be worth letting them know about, plus if they have anything wrong. I've not made it all the way through the list yet - 1440 sites!
it's about time
I guess "better late than never" is a good adage here. It's a real shame many other buildings have already disappeared. I wonder what difference this will make in the long run though?
new era?
we ll it's true Hong Kong has been hopelessly negligent when it came to old buildings, but there've been some successes lately - with Kam Tong Hall or whatever it's called in the Mid-levels and King Yin Lei on Stubbs Road. In previous decades these buildings would have just been torn down.
The new grading needs to have teeth though. I stood and watched workers at king yin lei take sledgehammers to the ornate granite balustrades, smash out windows and their frames and hack at the brickwork - all on the same day the government was having an emergency meeting to declare the building a monument. I called various government departments - none of them had the power to stop it until the monument declaration had been published in the gazette the next day.
Hopefully the publishing of this list will at least provide the public a framework for preservation and the knowledge to prevent more destruction.
new grading
80skid, I hadn't realised the list of graded buildings was being updated. Thanks for that.