Places for the people: King George V parks a Hong Kong legacy full of colour – and worth a detour to visit

The King George V Memorial Parks in Jordan and Sai Ying Pun provide a welcome splash of greenery in two dense urban areas that have too few of them

Built either side of World War II, the twin parks’ sports pitches are always busy, and their buildings and walls among the oldest in ever changing Hong Kong

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Men play chess in a Chinese-style pavilion in King George V Memorial Park, Kowloon. It is one of two parks named after the British monarch in Hong Kong. Photo: Christopher DeWolf

Published: 12:15pm, 26 Jun 2019Updated: 12:15pm, 26 Jun 2019

On a bright weekend afternoon, a group of children are playing basketball in King George V Memorial Park, a rare patch of greenery amid the concrete canyons of Jordan, in the dense urban heart of Hong Kong’s Kowloon peninsula.

At exactly the same time, across the harbour in Sai Ying Pun, another old neighbourhood near the western end of Hong Kong Island, a group of kids are playing another ball game – soccer – in a park with the same name, flanked by its own forest of high-rises.

Just how did Hong Kong end up with two parks named in honour of a British king who reigned for less than three decades? George V was the grandson of Queen Victoria and the grandfather of the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth. Beyond that, most people would be hard pressed to point out anything remarkable about him.

Yet his legacy in Hong Kong is two well-used green spaces in neighbourhoods that have too few of them. And whether you are on Hong Kong Island or in Kowloon, both George V parks are worth a detour – not only are they green and pleasant, they are each imbued with vintage architecture and plenty of neighbourhood colour.

A banyan tree atop one of the historic retaining walls of King George V Memorial Park in Sai Ying Pun. The walls originally enclosed a hospital garden. Photo: Christopher DeWolf

Plans for the parks were first announced soon after the king’s death in 1936. “At the present time of economic depression it is unlikely that sufficient money could be raised in this Colony for the purchase of large areas for playing fields,” read an official statement from the then colonial governor, Sir Andrew Caldecott. He asked local companies to pledge money to the Urban Council, which would oversee construction.