Hong Kong hospital tears down historic arch to make way for barrier-free access
Wan Chai district councillor says body might have considered the issue in a different light if Ruttonjee Hospital had said it would demolish the arch
The hospital said the project required it to dismantle the arch – which did not have any historical grading – to make room for the new facilities, including an escalator and lift, but it would store the original materials and reassemble the arch later.
But Wan Chai district councillor Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying said the body, instead of endorsing the project in February last year, would have taken more time to scrutinise the plan if the hospital had told the council it planned to tear down the structure.
“During the meeting, the Hospital Authority only briefly mentioned that the entrance had historic value and that it would preserve the design of the entrance, but it never told us it would tear it down,” Yeung said. “This is misleading.”
Charlton Cheung, member of Wan Chai conservation group Ha Ha Ha Wan, said residents in the neighbourhood first discovered that the arch had been removed on Friday last week.
He showed maps and hospital building plans from the Public Records Office dating back to the 1880s, when the facility was still called the Seaman’s Hospital.
The plans showed the side entrance on Wan Chai Road first appeared in 1889 as an entrance for a newly built mortuary. Cheung believed this could prove that the arch was built that year.
