The Former French Mission Building is a declared monument located on Government Hill at 1 Battery Path in Central, Hong Kong. It housed the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong from 1 July 1997 to 6 September 2015.

Features

thumb|The building in the late 19th century, then a residence of [[Augustine Heard and Company. St. John's Cathedral is visible on the left.]]

The building sits on a podium because it is located on Government Hill. Originally a mansion called Johnston House, the building was altered in the 1870s and 1880s to a three-storey building. The present three-storey building opened in 1917 as the result of a major renovation, also described as an "extensive rebuilding", of the previous structure. It is constructed in granite and red bricks in Neo-Classical style,

History

thumb|Back of the Former French Mission Building.

The original structure on this site dated back to 1842. and was occupied among others by the tai-pans of Augustine Heard and Company, a trading firm that went bankrupt in 1876. It was also used by HSBC and was home to the Russian Consulate in the 1870s. The government then leased the building from 1879

thumb|Entrance as the Court of Final Appeal (left).

In 1915, it was acquired by the Paris Foreign Missions Society, which commissioned a major renovation. The architects were Leigh & Orange. In the process, a chapel topped by a cupola was added in the north-west corner, and the building was refaced with red bricks. It reopened in 1917 and became known as the "French Mission Building".

It was then used successively by the Education Department, the Victoria District Court (1965–1980), the Supreme Court (1980–1983), and the Government Information Services (starting from 1987). It has been used as the Court of Final Appeal since the inception of the Court at the time of the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, on 1 July 1997. On 7 September 2015, the court moved to the Old Supreme Court Building.

Conservation

The building was declared a monument on September 14, 1989. It was decided in 2011 that it would be made available for adaptive reuse after the relocation of the Court of Final Appeal to the Old Supreme Court Building.

See also

  • Béthanie, a building built in 1875 by the Paris Foreign Missions Society in Pok Fu Lam

References

Further reading

  • GIS through the years