"High-rise building" in the dock: Senior Staff Residences of the Whampoa Dockyard (English version)

Quite a number of buildings in the Whampoa Dockyard had a history of decades or even a hundred years, while some only existed for around ten years or less. One of the examples were the Senior Staff Residences of the Whampoa Dockyard (appeared on the map as Whampoa Court South & North Towers) located on the northern hills of the Dockyard.

Online information on the above-mentioned buildings is limited. Nevertheless, the buildings can still be seen on historical photos in public domain databases and individual blogs from time to time. The residences are ten-storey (counting the ground floor) and they resemble the government staff quarters built in the 1970s and 1980s (Figures 1 & 2). According to some senior members in an online discussion forum, each flat occupies more or less 2,000 square feet. Since neither the floorplan nor views taken from the interiors is available on the Internet, one may take reference from photos of the former governmental residence such as Wylie Court at the King's Park. As the two buildings were relatively tall among the buildings in the Whampoa Dockyard, they were known as the "high-rise" buildings in the area.

I had once visited the Whampoa Garden showflats with my family, which were inside a single-storey temporary structure erected near the two buildings. At that time, the showflats and the “high-rise” buildings were located on the same hill. One needed to walk up the ramp near Ki Fu Building of the Whampoa Estate. Based on the historical maps available, the mentioned senior staff residences of the Whampoa Dockyard were completed in around 1973. Similar to the Tantallon Terrace, they could not resist their fate to be finally demolished in 1987 (Figure 3). The current location is about the northeast of the Site 11 (Bauhinia Mansions) of Whampoa Garden.

(If you may have any information such as photos or floor plans of the “high-rise” residences, please feel free to share with me. I would then share them here to all, with credit lines.)

Figure 1: Aerial view of the Senior Staff Residences (left) and Tantallon Terrace (right) on the hill

(Source: Special Collections, The University of Hong Kong Libraries)

Figure 2: Senior staff residences of the Whampoa Dockyard before demolition

(Source: Special Collections, The University of Hong Kong Libraries)

Figure 3: The "high-rise" residences being demolished, circa 1987. On the left is the Site 2 (Cherry Mansions) of Whampoa Garden. The dock at center is now the site of The Whampoa, a ship-shaped structure with shops and restaurants as part of the Whampoa Garden.

(Source: Special Collections, The University of Hong Kong Libraries)

Figure 4: Dr. Richard Ho Man-wui made his closing remarks in front of the "high-rise" residences in the RTHK programme "Archaeology and Antiquities" (1982).

Figure 5: Northern area of Whampoa in 1986. The "high-rise" residences and the temporary structure of Whampoa Garden showflats behind can be seen. The JDH Centre and Whampoa Terminal Building on the left of photo seem to be the last bastions "guarding" the Whampoa Dockyard. Ships can still be seen mooring on the adjacent embankment. These two buildings performed the last function of the dockyard till to the last moment, i.e. a container terminal. After they were demolished in early 1990s, the history of Whampoa Dockyard finally came to an end.