Preservation Campaign
A campaign was mounted to preserve the 60-year old red brick terminus. The Kowloon Residents' Association wrote to the Colonial Secretary in 1970; the Tsim Sha Tsui Neighbourhood and Welfare Association also wrote to the Colonial Secretary in 1975, and again in May 1977.
A petition was mounted by the Heritage Society, and sent to the then Governor, Murray MacLehose on 29 July 1977. The Government rejected the petition, and its request for an independent inquiry into the draft area development plan. It argued that a new cultural complex would assume the role enjoyed by the building, and that the plans for a new cultural complex to be erected on the site were too far advanced to be altered. The Heritage society charged that the Government was engaged in dirty tricks, and was misleading the public.
The Heritage Society escalated lobbying effort, and petitioned Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with a file containing some 15,000 signatures in February 1978, hoping for royal intervention. Within 48 hours of the Royal decision, the demolition crew had already moved in.
Read more about this topic: Kowloon Station (KCR)
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