11.
With the influx of immigrants from China in the 1850s, more police stations were built to cope with the sudden population growth. The headquarters for the force was then constructed in 1864 on the present site adjacent to the Victoria Prison. It initially consisted of a three-storey Barrack Block as sergeants quarters, and two other blocks (A and B) as the residence of the Captain Superintendent of Police and his most senior officers. An additional storey was added to the Barrack Block in 1905.
In 1919, an extension block facing Hollywood Road was erected. It is noted for its brick construction and imposing columns in the entrance hall. This four-storey building is classical in style. The whole of the front and the main architectural features of the back and end elevations were carried out in cement plaster.
The laundry and medical blocks were added in the early 1910s and the final structure, the store block was completed in 1925 as a combined store, armoury, magazine and workshop.
The compound has not functioned as the Police Headquarters since the Second World War. But it is still occupied by the Police as the Hong Kong Island Regional headquarters and a number of its sub-units, including Central District Headquarters and Central Division.
Victoria Prison.
It was one of the first buildings constructed of durable materials in 1841.
Some 20 years later, the prison had become so inadequate that prisoners had to be moved to a site on Stonecutters Island and to a hulk anchored between the island and Lai Chi Kok. All these facilities, however, were abandoned three years later when improvement and reconstruction works providing additional accommodation at Victoria were completed.
In 1932, 91 years after the construction of the prison, the Lai Chi Kok Prison, Hong Kong's second prison, was erected on the Kowloon peninsula to take over the female prisoners, who, until then, had been housed together with their male counterparts in the Victoria Prison.
In 1937, when the Stanley Prison was completed, the Victoria Prison was closed. However, the closure lasted only two years as Stanley proved to be overcrowded from the start and it was therefore decided to recommission the old jail for prisoners on remand.