NEW POLICE HEADQUARTERS
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The main facade of the building as it will look when completed.
The urgent need for adequate is bounded by Arsenal Street on a Government wholesale market accommodation for a central head- the east, Hennessy Road on the was started on part of it. Owing quarters for the Hong Kong Police south, War Department properties to the lack of public support, it Force will be achieved when the on the west, and the harbour on was closed down after a few projected development in Arsenal the north. The first section of the months. When the Auxiliary Fire Yard is completed. It is proposed scheme will cover an area ap- Service was started, they used part to utilize the whole of Arsenal proximately 320'0" by 220'0", while of the site for the training of Yard, stretching from Queen's the total scheme will cover an their personnel and erected a tem- Road East to the sea front for the area approximately 320'0" by porary recreation centre near the Police Force, and the final scheme 520'0". The site, which is prac- Hennessy Road boundary. which will take about three to four tically level, lies roughly north years to complete will include a and south between the sea and main administrative block, a Queen's Road. All services are Marine Police Station, headquar- available at the site, which is ade- ters for the Emergency Unit, gar- quately served by the public ages and mechanical workshops transportation systems. for police vehicles, central police stores, radio workshops and quar ters for both officers and rank and file, who are required by the na- ture of their duties, to live on the spot.
While preliminary investigations were being carried out on the site an old dock wall, some 30'0" thick, which had been covered in by the reclamation, was disclosed. A large portion of this dock wall had to Before the war, the site was be removed before piling could occupied by the Royal Army Ser- commence and this unfortunately vice Corps and was badly bombed delayed the start of the building during the Japanese occupation of contract. A further complication the Colony. After the liberation, was the existence of a six-foot dia- parts of it were taken over by the meter stormwater drain across The first section to be built will Royal Electrical and Mechanical the site, which had to be taken out be at the water-front end of the Engineers and the Government in order to clear the space requir- site and will comprise an eight- furniture workshop. The clearing ed for the basement. storey Marine Police station and a of the site was started in October seven-storey Administration Block. 1947, when some trees were cut The piling and the basement walls down and blitzed buildings were have already been completed; demolished. building of
will commence in June and it is
The Police Headquarters was, for a number of years, located at Central Police Station in Holly- wood Road; after the war, it was
the superstructure The furniture workshop was moved to the Oriental Building on expected to be finished in about eventually moved to North Point, the waterfront, which is Japanese and it was then proposed to use property and which is now listed the site for a waterworks work- as part of the Japanese assets in The site for the new buildings shop: this plan was shelved, and Hong Kong. When the new build-
one year.
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