and it is not Flagstaff House

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Learn about the unbiased, real Hong Kong | forget what you read in the press!

The oldest British Colonial or Western Building in Hong Kong

and it is not Flagstaff House in Hong Kong Park

It is knowing the story behind each place | attraction you visit that really counts, all my private tour guide friends are master storytellers and have lived in Hong Kong for a long time (I am at 52 years!) it is our responsibility to bring Hong Kong alive!

For the record my friends who are the best Private Tour Guides in Hong Kong are committed to accuracy when it comes to relaying facts and figures to their Guests and this particular issue was debated at length and my conclusion anyway was simple and that the Anglican Chapel in the Hong Kong Cemetery completed in 1845 as shown in the image below is the oldest Colonial or Western Building in Hong Kong still standing.

The Anglican Chapel in Hong Kong Cemetery, completed in 1845 and it is a wonderful, moody and historic place to visit

Learn more | My images of the Hong Kong Cemetery and Anglican Chapel

This text is what I mainly used in my post on my J3 Private Tours website in 2021 with some additions

To be fair, I believe that for some reason the confusion is perhaps caused by people thinking that the day construction started is what counts in which cased Flagstaff House would win the crown as construction started in 1844 although it should also be known that construction started on the Anglican Chapel also in 1844! I think this is nonsense, it is always the case that the COMPLETION DATE is when a building is deemed finished and ready for use and can be termed a building, no doubt some dry and ancient historian | professor will respond with a dry 2 hour lecture on why my argument is wrong, but common sense must prevail and I believe my logic is perfectly sound and reasonable.

For as long as I have been in Hong Kong I have always held the belief (as has everyone else) that Flagstaff House in Hong Kong Park, Central | Admiralty was the oldest British Colonial or Western Building in Hong Kong still standing having being completed in 1846 I have | had never any doubt that this information was 100% accurate particularly when all the Hong Kong Governments Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) state the same facts.

I would like to suggest that this information is inaccurate…… and in fact the oldest British or Western style colonial building still standing is in fact a Church | Chapel in Hong Kong Cemetery in Happy Valley which was completed in 1845

The Church is not a shed, as you can see from the image it is quite a substantial building, when I visited it in April 2021 it was closed and it looks like it had had a recent lick of paint and some renovation work was ongoing.

It all started in early April 2021 when I got a message from my friend Virginia, owner of the awesome food tour company Humid with a Chance of Fishballs, quite simply she was looking for some advice on whether this Church was in fact the oldest Colonial or Western building still standing in Hong Kong and she sent through some very basic info she had gleaned.

To be honest I was unsure, even though the answer was on my Flickr Images site in my album of Hong Kong Cemetery images, the description I used mentioned that the cemetery was established in 1845 and yet my brain was telling me that it must be Flagstaff House which was completed in 1846

So me being me (like a dog with a bone) set to work and I have to say it was very frustrating but ultimately a very interesting project.

The Antiquities and Monuments office of the Hong Kong Government - the information is quite clear, Flagstaff House was completed in **1846**

I find it very interesting that if you check the listing for declared monuments on Hong Kong Island you will NOT find the Anglican Hong Kong Cemetery Chapel, which is odd as they list St. Johns Cathedral, personally I think the Chapel should be a declared monument as it is the oldest surviving British Colonial or Western Building in Hong Kong.

… but it begs the question, do the Hong Kong Government historians working at the the Antiquities and Monuments Office actually check the facts?, they clearly state Flagstaff House is the oldest colonial building but this is NOT the case, maybe it is because the Chapel is hard to get too and is located in a cemetery and is not a grand building like Flagstaff House (which also has the big plus of being in a Central location)

…. and it should also be noted that they now call Flagstaff House the oldest surviving Western Building and the Chapel is a Western Building as well, what is wrong with the word colonial? it is simply a fact.

Learn more | The Antiquities and Monuments Office Hong Kong

I then had the idea to do a search on the GWULO site - this is probably the best reference site about old Hong Kong although I find the site to be hokey and very hard to navigate at times, still it is an excellence source and I came up with this reference regarding the Church | Chapel and the Cemetery and also their take on Flagstaff House

The Anglican Chapel in Hong Kong Cemetery was completed in 1845

Flagstaff House in Hong Kong Park was completed in 1846

Learn more | Gwulo - The best Hong Kong History site, simply amazing

I would absolutely recommend you spend some time in the Gwulo site, it is a treasure trove of information.

I absolutely believe this information to be 100% correct and it means the Hong Kong Cemetery Church | Chapel is the oldest surviving British Colonial | Western Building in Hong Kong, completed in 1845 about a 12 - 18 months earlier than Flagstaff House.

The Hong Kong Sheng Kung Archives also provides some useful information

The Hong Kong Cemetery Heritage Website also states 1845

I have also consulted the oracle that is Wikipedia and it states 1845 please note in general I do not consider Wikipedia to be a reliable source of information, in many of my searches I have found the information to be inaccurate, I prefer to get my data from a reliable source and cross reference it with other sources.

I spent many, many hours of research on this project and I simply could not find any other information to contradict this information, it has been and was suggested that Victoria Prison on Hong Kong Island (the location is now the site called Tai Kwun) was completed in 1841 which is absolutely correct, I found this incredibly detailed PDF file detailing the entire project including architectural drawings and such, there was just one flaw in the argument, the original prison was demolished in 1858 to make way for a much, much larger prison and compound, the original building simply no longer exists.

In the overall scheme of things this is hardly the revelation of the century but to me and my friends ( Private Tour Guides ) this is a very important fact as you have millions and millions of tourists who where given factually incorrect information and trust me we live for stuff like this.

I also enjoyed visiting the Cemetery again, I am not a frequent visitor but I spent 4 hours wandering around taking photos and reading gravestones and I also just sat for an hour taking in the solitude of the place, I am glad I went.

Naturally I have thought about writing to the Antiquities and Monuments Office about this new information but I doubt they would agree even though the evidence cannot be faulted, I mean seriously it would mean pulling a few land records and such, a 10 minute task in the computer age and in theory the Land Records will confirm all of this

At the end of the day I think it would simply be too much trouble for the Antiquities and Monuments Office to change all the books and reference sources and they would probably spin it to make sure that Flagstaff House still retained the honour given it is easy for Tourists to visit and it is so much more photogenic and it is now a jolly nice Tea Museum.

In a nutshell 1845 comes before 1846

Now you know.