Iconic Buildings and Landmarks

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Comprehensive Information Database · Module 05: Campus

HKU has no single ceremonial axis like CUHK's University Mall, but it does have a cluster of red-brick buildings each individually listed as declared monuments/historic buildings — together forming one of the densest collections of heritage buildings among higher-education institutions in Hong Kong. This article makes no attempt at an exhaustive building inventory (for the complete area-by-area listing, see Campus Buildings and Places Directory). Instead, it takes four threads — landmark recognisability, naming origins, architectural features, and monument status — and reads each building in depth: the Main Building, Loke Yew Hall, the Hung Hing Ying Building, the Tang Chi Ngong Building, University Hall (Douglas Castle) and the Old Halls. How does a building become the visual signature of a campus? From which donor or forebear does its name come? What makes its form and materials immediately recognisable? And what grade does it hold under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance?

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# 1. The Main Building (1912): HKU's "founding building"

If you can remember only one HKU building, it should be the Main Building. It is the University's founding structure and the oldest, most symbolic red-brick building on campus.

# 1.1 Construction and donation

According to the Antiquities and Monuments Office's declared-monument record, the Main Buildingwas begun in 1910 and completed in 1912, making it the oldest building on campus^※,donated by the Parsi merchant and philanthropist Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody^※ (per AMO·Main Building declared monument). According to Wikipedia, the buildingwas inaugurated on 11 March 1912, designed by Alfred Bryer of Leigh & Orange^※ (per Main Building·Wikipedia). That same day also marked the formal start of teaching at HKU.

According to HKU's Giving page, the Parsi merchant Sir Hormusjee Mody initially pledged HK$150,000; when the cost rose to HK$365,000, he honoured his pledge and covered the full amount^※. In 1915, Malayan Chinese business leader Mr Loke Yew donated HK$50,000 and extended a HK$500,000 interest-free loan over 21 years, helping HKU through its early financial difficulties (per the Giving page).

# 1.2 Architectural character: classical three-storey red brick + clock tower + four courtyards

According to the Antiquities and Monuments Office, the Main Buildingis classical in style, a well-proportioned three-storey red-brick building supported by granite columns of the Ionic order, laid out symmetrically about a central clock tower with a pair of turrets at each end of the main facade^※ (per AMO·Main Building declared monument). Wikipedia, for its part, summarises the style as"Edwardian Baroque"/post-Renaissance, red brick with granite^※ (per Main Building·Wikipedia). The middle of the buildingcontains four internal courtyards surrounded by U-shaped cloisters^※. Its signature central clock tower and turrets make the Main Building instantly recognisable on the Bonham Road skyline.

# 1.3 War damage, rebirth and successive extensions

According to the Antiquities and Monuments Office, the Main Buildingsuffered severe damage during the Second World War; the University resumed operations there in October 1946^※ (per AMO·Main Building declared monument). The building underwent several additions after the war: according to the HKU Estates Office's photo captions, the Main Building"was extended in 1952 and 1958"^※ (per HKU Estates·Main Building). Per HKU's Giving page, the Main Building wasextended in the 1950s to roughly twice its original size^※ (during the tenure of Professor R. Gordon Brown), with every effort made to keep the additions stylistically consistent with the original — the complete four-courtyard layout seen today is in part the result of this project. Post-war concrete teaching and research blocks were later added up the hillside (see Campus Buildings and Places Directory), giving the HKU campus a pronounced stratification of eras.

# 1.4 Loke Yew Hall: the Great Hall inside the Main Building

Loke Yew Hall is not a standalone building but the Great Hall within the Main Building — the venue for HKU's congregations and major ceremonies. According to HKU and Leigh & Orange materials, the space originally known as the "Great Hall"was renamed "Loke Yew Hall" in 1956 in honour of Dr Loke Yew, an early benefactor of the University^※ (per Main Building·Wikipedia, Loke Yew Hall·Leigh & Orange). Loke Yew Hall has since been HKU's most ceremonial space — degree congregations and major lectures are held there (Sun Yat-sen's 1923 address to HKU students took place in this hall). Its timber roof, stained glass and colonial classical interiors make it one of the most frequently filmed interiors on campus, whether for ceremonies or film locations.

# 1.5 Declared monument status (two versions of the year)

The exterior of the Main Building is a declared monument. Sources differ on the year of declaration; this database sets both versions side by side:

Per the Antiquities and Monuments Office's declared-monument record: the Main Building wasdeclared a monument in 1984^※; its entry in the AMO's HKU heritage trail records"declared on 15 June 1984"^※ (per AMO).

Per Wikipedia: the Main Building"became a declared monument of Hong Kong in 1985"^※ (per Main Building·Wikipedia).

This database takes the official AMO figure of 1984 as primary, noting Wikipedia's 1985 as an alternative; both point to the mid-1980s. Both versions remain in circulation. What is protected is the exterior facade; the interior may be adapted under conservation principles.

# 1.6 The stone inscription "Vniversity": not a typo, but a Latin epigraphic flourish

The stone inscription on the Main Building's facade spells "University" as "Vniversity", long misread by the public as a construction error. The University has addressed this directly: according to HKU's official "Background" page for its visual identity, this isdeliberate — a nod to the Roman epigraphic tradition of capital letters and the use of "V" in place of "U" (a mason could cut two straight strokes more cheaply than the curved bowl of a U; Augustus's name was routinely carved as AVGVSTVS), lending the inscription a scholarly gravity^※. The official page notes that the University regularly receives complaints calling it "an embarrassing mistake that should be fixed at once" — but that is not the case.

For a full dissection of this "legend versus official rebuttal," see the lore section ../15-campus-lore/campus-legends-and-hall-traditions.md; this article confines itself to the facts: the "Vniversity" inscription does exist, and it is a deliberate Latin epigraphic style. Nor is the Main Building alone in this — the Tang Chi Ngong Building, completed in 1931, carries the same "Vniversity" lettering on its facade (see §4 below), suggesting a deliberate, consistent practice across HKU buildings from before the 1930s.

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# 2. Hung Hing Ying Building (1919): "five lives" under a dome

The Hung Hing Ying Building, with its green dome, is the other striking landmark of the central campus — and its most unusual feature is how many times its purpose has changed over a century.

# 2.1 Architecture: a red-brick dome in dialogue with the Main Building

According to the Antiquities and Monuments Office's declared-monument record^※, the Hung Hing Ying Building is a two-storey red-brick building in the Classical Revival style, with a prominent circular rotunda at its centre and a rectangular wing extending from each side — each wing's south facade carries a tall chimney, while the north facades take the form of colonnaded verandahs. HKU Heritage Fund's page on the building^※ further notes that its central dome, entrance portico and balanced proportions speak strongly of the Neoclassical, while the red-brick walls echo the Edwardian Baroque aesthetic of the slightly earlier Main Building. According to Wikipedia, the building was designed by Little, Adams and Wood andopened in February 1919 by the then Governor, Sir Reginald Stubbs^※.

# 2.2 Changing uses: one building, "five lives"

Background note: The building's original identity as the "Union Building" is especially significant — it witnessed the early institutionalisation and activities of the HKU Students' Union (founded 1912) (for the Union's centenary history, see ../14-student-movements/unions-and-federation.md). That a building should go from being "the students' home" to "the staff's lounge" is itself a miniature of the spatial history of HKU's campus.

# 2.3 Naming and monument status

According to official pages and Wikipedia, in 1986, in recognition of the late businessman Mr Hung Hing Ying and his family's donations to HKU, the building was named the "Hung Hing Ying Building". On the date of its declared-monument status, the accounts differ and are set side by side: Wikipedia records itas a declared monument since 1995^※; the AMO and some compilations give the declaration of its facade as 15 September 1995. This museum takes the AMO's declared-monument page as its latest record. What is protected is the facade; the interior may be adapted for reuse under conservation principles — which is precisely how the building could change function repeatedly over a century without altering its exterior.

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# 3. University Hall: from Douglas Castle to "heritage-hall" residence, three lives

University Hall is HKU's most storied hall of residence — and the oldest building on campus (half a century older than the University itself). What makes it unique is that it had two entirely different "previous lives" before it became a hall.

# 3.1 First life: Douglas Castle (c. 1861)

According to the University Hall Wikipedia entry, the Scottish merchant Douglas Lapraik (in shipping and shipbuilding)built this castle on a Pokfulam hilltop around 1861–1867, naming it "Douglas Castle" after himself^※, as his headquarters and residence. According to the same entry, the building blendsEnglish Tudor and Gothic styles; later commentators have also classed it under "Renaissance Revival" — its castle-like towers and battlements set it apart from the rest of HKU's red-brick cluster.

Douglas Lapraik himself was one of the most influential merchants of early colonial Hong Kong: according to the Industrial History of Hong Kong Group, he arrived in the East in 1839, learned watchmaking in Macau, moved to Hong Kong in 1842, and in 1863 co-founded the Hongkong & Whampoa Dock Company with Thomas Sutherland (a key figure behind both Jardine's and the predecessor of Butterfield & Swire); in 1864 he joined the founding committee of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He was also a principal subscriber to the Pedder Street Clock Tower (1862–1913) in Central. In other words, the castle that would later become a university hall originally belonged to a merchant deeply embedded in Hong Kong's early dockyard and banking history — University Hall's "previous life" is thus not merely architectural anecdote but a physical slice of the colony's commercial history.

# 3.2 Second life: Nazareth — a Catholic printing house (1894–1954)

According to the Wikipedia entry, in 1894 (around the time of the Hong Kong plague), the buildingwas sold to the French Missions Étrangères de Paris, which renamed it "Nazareth"^※. The mission added a new wing, a chapel and a printshop to the north-east, making the siteone of the busiest Bible-printing and translation houses in Asia in the early 20th century^※ (per the same entry). The mission held the site into the 1950s; according to official and informal accounts, themissionaries gave up Nazareth around 1953^※.

Background note: A Scottish merchant's castle becomes a French Catholic mission's printing powerhouse — this "second life" means University Hall carries, beyond its architecture, a chapter of Hong Kong's early religious publishing history. The remnants of the chapel inside today date from this period.

# 3.3 Third life: an HKU men's hall (from 1954)

According to the Wikipedia entry, HKU purchased the site on 4 December 1954 for HK$1,600,000; in 1956 it formally opened as the men's hall "University Hall". Today University Hall houses approximately 110 residents (per the same entry). The hall's traditions, song and regulations are covered in the hall fact file ../10-colleges/university-hall.md.

The spiral staircase of cast copper in the South Tower is said to be one of only two such staircases left in Hong Kong (per the Wikipedia entry). Residents speak of the hall's "three treasures": the David's Deer statue at the entrance, the copper spiral staircase in the South Tower, and "Third Sister" (Ms Yuen So-mui), the cook who presided over the kitchen for decades and was awarded an honorary fellowship by HKU. "Third Sister" is a positive figure publicly honoured by the University, so she is named here on the record; the "curse" said to attach to the deer statue is campus folklore, and is quarantined for analysis in the lore section (see ../15-campus-lore/campus-legends-and-hall-traditions.md).

# 3.4 Declared monument status (versions set side by side)

According to the Antiquities and Monuments Office's declared-monument record, University Hall is a declared monument; sources differ slightly on the exact date: the AMO's heritage-trail material and some compilations give 15 September 1995, whilethe Wikipedia entry gives 7 September 1995. The two are a few days apart; this museum sets them side by side without adjudicating, deferring to the latest record on the AMO's official page. According to the Antiquities and Monuments Office, University Hallblends Tudor, Gothic and Renaissance Revival styles^※ (per AMO·HKU Heritage).

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# 4. Tang Chi Ngong Building (1931): the first home of Chinese studies, built "to preserve Chinese culture"

The Tang Chi Ngong Building carries the founding memory of Chinese-language education at HKU. With the Fung Ping Shan Building (the Chinese library; see Museums and Campus Ecology), it belongs to HKU's 1930s push to institutionalise Chinese studies.

# 4.1 Origins: built for the School of Chinese

According to the Wikipedia entry on the Tang Chi Ngong Building, construction began in 1929 and the building was opened by the Governor in 1931, originally to house the School of Chinese. According to the HKU Estates Office, the donor Tang Chi-ngong was a philanthropist and thefather of Sir Tang Shiu-kin^※; he funded the building in full, with the aim of "preserving the essence of Chinese culture and advancing the study of the Chinese classics."

# 4.2 Architecture: Neoclassical and the "Vniversity" spelling

According to the Wikipedia entry, the building isthree storeys with a flat roof, in theNeoclassical style, clad inShanghai plaster. One nice detail: its Latin-lettered inscriptions likewise render "U" as "V", so the stone arches and facade carry "Vniversity" — exactly as on the Main Building (see §1 above).

# 4.3 Change of use and present identity

According to the Wikipedia entry, from the 1970s the building was adapted to other uses, but the name was kept; it housed the Centre of Asian Studies until 2012; today it is home to the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole — continuing its association with Chinese cultural studies.

# 4.4 Declared monument status

According to the Wikipedia entry, the building's facade became a declared monument in 1995. Together with the Main Building, University Hall, the Hung Hing Ying Building and the Fung Ping Shan Building, it forms the declared-monument cluster of HKU's old campus; the facades of the Hung Hing Ying Building, University Hall and the Tang Chi Ngong Building were all listed as monuments around 1995, reflecting a concentrated heritage-protection drive at HKU in the mid-1990s.

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# 5. Eliot Hall and May Hall (1914/1915): early red-brick halls and the merging and splitting of the Old Halls

On the hillside east of the central campus, Eliot Hall and May Hall are HKU's earliest men's residences — and the key to understanding how the University's residential space "merged, then split apart."

# 5.1 Naming and construction

According to the Antiquities and Monuments Office and HKU Heritage Fund, both halls arethree-storey red-brick buildings reflecting "the Edwardian love affair with classicism"^※.Eliot Hall,completed in 1914, named after Sir Charles Eliot, the University's first Vice-Chancellor^※, was HKU's second purpose-built student residence;May Hall,completed in 1915, named after Sir Francis Henry May, the University's second Chancellor and fifteenth Governor of Hong Kong^※ (per Eliot Hall and May Hall·Wikipedia).

In the University's opening years, a third early residence — Lugard Hall, named after Governor Frederick Lugard, who championed the University's founding — stood on the same hillside as the Main Building. All three went up between 1913 and 1915, HKU's first residential buildings. That three early halls named for a Vice-Chancellor, a Governor and a Chancellor should stand together on one slope amounts, unintentionally, to a campus "memorial cluster to the founding figures."

# 5.2 1966: landslides and emergency evacuation

According to Hong Kong's Development Bureau (DEVB) and the HKU Heritage Fund, in 1966 a spell of sustained heavy rain triggeredlandslides^※ on the slopes behind May Hall, Eliot Hall and Lugard Hall. The two halls were evacuated; the two wardens' quarters at the eastern ends of Eliot Hall and May Hall were demolished, followed by slope-stabilisation and repair works.

# 5.3 Merging: the Old Halls (1969)

According to DEVB material, HKU took the repair works as an opportunity to merge Lugard Hall, Eliot Hall and May Hall into a single large residential unit, the "Old Halls"; the Old Hallsopened in 1969 with three wings: the Lugard Wing, the Eliot Wing and the May Wing^※.

# 5.4 Splitting: demolition of Lugard Hall and the renaming of Eliot Hall (1992)

According to the Eliot Hall and May Hall Wikipedia entry, in 1992 theLugard Hall (Lugard Wing) was demolished for campus redevelopment, and the Eliot Wing was renamed "Eliot Hall" — the three halls thus returned from "merged" to "separate." According to the Antiquities and Monuments Office, thefacades of Eliot Hall and May Hall were subsequently declared monuments,announced on 16 November 2018^※ (per AMO·HKU Heritage, Government press release·2018-11-16), and thus preserved (of the three named for founding figures, only Lugard Hall did not survive).

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# 6. Fung Ping Shan Building (1932): home of Hong Kong's oldest museum

The Fung Ping Shan Building houses the HKU Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG) and is a significant member of the University's heritage cluster. According to UMAG, the buildingwas completed in 1932, originally named the "Fung Ping Shan Library," and donated by the merchant Mr Fung Ping Shan^※ (per UMAG·History). According to the Antiquities and Monuments Office, the Fung Ping Shan Building is ared-brick building embellished with evenly distributed light-coloured decorative elements, declared a monument on 16 November 2018^※ (per AMO·HKU Heritage). The collection and institutional history of the Fung Ping Shan Building as "Hong Kong's oldest museum" are covered in Museums and Campus Ecology.

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# 7. A contemporary landmark: the Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) student residence at Wong Chuk Hang (2023)

Beyond the red-brick monuments, HKU also has a contemporary architectural landmark — only its "landmark" quality lies not in its looks but in its method of construction. The student residence at 4 Police School Road, Wong Chuk Hang, on Hong Kong Island South, is one of Hong Kong's pioneering projects to use Modular Integrated Construction (MiC). According to the HKU Estates Office, the projectcomprises two 17-storey modular towers plus a three-storey non-residential podium, providing around 1,200 student places^※; construction began in 2019 and was completed and opened in September 2023, at a cost of roughly HK$1.2 billion;the 952 modular units used come in only five module sizes, prefabricated and pre-finished in mainland China, then delivered to site for hoisting into place^※. The project has received a provisional BEAM Plus Platinum rating from the Hong Kong Green Building Council and has won several awards, including the "Outstanding MiC Project Award" (2022). It forms a striking generational contrast with the red-brick monuments of the central campus — and once that contrast is grasped, the HKU campus can be "read" as a record of architectural language and construction method from 1912 to 2023 (see Architecture and Sustainability).

Between the Wong Chuk Hang residence and the Main Building lies an entire generation of post-war concrete buildings (such as the Knowles Building, completed in 1973) — the naming and forms of these teaching and research blocks are covered in Campus Buildings and Places Directory. Set the Main Building, the post-war teaching blocks and the Wong Chuk Hang residence side by side, and they trace a complete timeline — "colonial classical → post-war modernist → contemporary prefabricated modular" — the most direct way to read the generational change in HKU's campus architecture.

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# 8. At a glance: the central-campus declared-monument cluster

Nearly all of the declared monuments in HKU's central area had their status confirmed in two concentrated rounds of grading, in 1995 and 2018 — and that itself is a piece of heritage-protection history worth noting: HKU's red-brick cluster did not enjoy legal protection "since time immemorial" but was converted to monument status one by one in two rounds of action, one in the late colonial era and one after the handover. The table below summarises the buildings read in depth in this article for quick reference:

These buildings connect three distinct "red-brick eras" of HKU: the founding core of the 1910s (Main Building, Hung Hing Ying Building, Eliot Hall, May Hall); the 1930s institutionalisation of Chinese studies (Tang Chi Ngong Building, Fung Ping Shan Building); and the colonial merchant relics older than the University itself (Douglas Castle, predecessor of University Hall). Stacked together, they produce the "one of the densest heritage clusters of any higher-education institution in Hong Kong" of which this article's opening speaks.

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# Unverified / to be confirmed

• Year the Main Building was declared a monument (1984 vs 1985): the AMO's official page says 1984; Wikipedia says 1985. The two differ by a year; this article sets them side by side, deferring to the AMO.
• Exact date University Hall was declared a monument (7 September vs 15 September): sources differ by a few days; this article sets them side by side, deferring to the AMO's official page.
• Romanisation of the Governor who opened the Hung Hing Ying Building: sources give "Reginald Stubbs" and "Edward Stubbs" (in fact the same man, Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs / 司徒拔); this article writes only "the then Governor" and does not engage with the romanisation.
• Exact year of the 1966 landslide at the Old Halls (1966 vs an occasional caption's 1996): this museum follows the majority of official sources and the internal chronology for 1966; the occasional "1996" reading is flagged as doubtful.
• Donation amount for the Tang Chi Ngong Building: Wikipedia records that it was "fully donated" and mentions that Chinese community groups also contributed HK$200,000 to promote Chinese-language teaching; the exact total awaits consultation of HKU's donation archives, see ../08-finances/benefactors-and-donors.md.
• Donor and exact completion year of the Main Building's central clock tower: folklore has it that "a merchant donated the clock tower in 1930," but the AMO, Giving and Wikipedia pages on which this museum relies do not record the clock tower's donor, so this article describes only the form of the "central clock tower" and lists neither donor nor year, pending confirmation from official records.

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