The art library hiding in plain sight in a Hong Kong restaurant – and you don’t have to order anything to sit and read there
Public can sit and browse books in Old Bailey Restaurant at Central Police Station Compound at their leisure
From the look of it, it’s a nice restaurant lounge in Hong Kong’s newly opened heritage site Central Police Station Compound. Featuring shelves of artists’ books, comfy sofas and chairs, wood tables and bamboo blinds, the style brings to mind a Southeast Asian colonial house.
A handful of people relax in the laid-back atmosphere, chatting or browsing the books over a drink or two. Most do not know, however, that they can sit and read without having to order anything to eat or drink.
In fact, the books inside the Old Bailey Restaurant, on the second floor of the JC Contemporary art gallery in the compound, is part of the gallery’s display that the restaurant has agreed to temporarily house in its lounge area with free access for the public.
But there is no sign outside or inside the restaurant saying so, nor is there any publicly available information about it on the websites of the restaurant and the historic site, colloquially known as Tai Kwun, or the Big Station.
On a Post visit to the restaurant, members of staff did not tell visitors they were free to sit and read in the lounge area unless visitors asked.
