Restoring Queen's Pier must be integral part of conserving Central
Many have hailed the government's initiative of 'conserving Central' as a paradigm shift and a triumph of civil society's continuous efforts to conserve historic elements of Victoria City.
It is certainly not easy in money-first Hong Kong and the government should be praised for its efforts. Conserving Central not only gives breathing spaces for a packed business centre. More importantly, it also allows people a right to the city, a right that might be denied if the spaces were occupied by grade-A offices or expensive commercial outlets.
Can we call this the second liberation of Central? Before the second world war Central, for a variety of health, sanitary, racial and political reasons, was a rather exclusive district for expatriates.
Chinese were relegated to live in areas around and to the west of Sheung Wan. It was only in the 1950s when the government undertook massive reclamation in Central that public piers, transport hubs and public open spaces were planned. According to the 1961 City of Victoria Hong Kong Central Area Redevelopment Report by the director of public works, most of the reclaimed land was to be 'set aside for improvements in community facilities rather than to increase the existing preponderance of private buildings both business and residential in this congested part of the city'.
It was in this plan that City Hall, Edinburgh Place and Queen's Pier fronting the new harbourfront became firmly established as civic spaces that could be reached by ordinary people 'for sitting and watching, waiting and talking'. For the first time in the colonial history of the City of Victoria, people were given a right to use the city core and imbue it with meaning.
City Hall, Edinburgh Place and the Queen's Pier complex were symbolic, according to the director's report. They were to be seen as a suitable entrance to the colony for visitors arriving at the pier. They would arrive at a civic space, in the political and economic heart of the city. This was the first quiet but powerful liberation of Central. This probably explains why the fight to rescue Queen's Pier in 2007 stirred so much emotion within the community.
Unless you have a right to access a space and use it, you cannot turn it into a place with cultural images and collective memories.
Now, hopefully, with the Central Market and other buildings saved, they will provide spaces for people from all walks of life in the city to use and imbue them with meaning that is valued by civil society. Central's second liberation is in the making.
However, if conservation necessarily embraces a deep respect for the history of a place, this second liberation will be incomplete without the intact preservation of the first civic space in Central, namely the City Hall/Edinburgh Place/Queen's Pier complex.
Therefore, the pier should be reinstituted in situ as a tribute to mark the birthplace of civic space in the political and economic heart of Victoria City.
Ng Mee-kam, associate professor, department of urban planning and design, University of Hong Kong
