Surrounding Buildings
- South
The HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building is located along the southern side of the square, across Des Voeux Road Central. The site was previously occupied by the old City Hall (built 1869, demolished 1933) and smaller earlier generations of the HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building.
- East
- Legislative Council Building, along the eastern side of the southern section of the square
- Hong Kong Club Building, along the eastern side of the northern section of the square
- West
Several buildings with names reminiscent of British royalty were built on the western side of the square. Prince's Building and Queen's Building were built directly along the square (southern section and northern section respectively), while the others were built further west.
- Prince's Building 1904-1963, replaced by the current Prince's Building (1965)
- Queen's Building 1899-1961, replaced by the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong hotel (1963)
- King's Building 1905-1958, home to Marconi Wireless and now part of the footprint for Chater House
- St George's Building (聖佐治大廈) 1904-1966, home to Millington Limited and replaced by the current St. George's Building office tower (1969)
- Alexandra Building (亞歷山大行) 1904-1950; 1952-1974 - named for Princess of Wales, later Queen Alexandra, replaced by modernist Alexandra Building (1952–1974) and now Alexandra House (歷山大廈) (1976)
- North
The square was initially bordered by Victoria Harbour on its northern side, but following land reclamation, it is now separated from it by Edinburgh Place, which housed the Star Ferry pier, among others, until 2007.
Read more about this topic: Statue Square
Famous quotes containing the words surrounding and/or buildings:
“There are no such oysters, terrapin, or canvas-back ducks as there were in those days; the race is extinct. It is strange how things degenerate.... I passed, the other day, the deserted house of Mrs. Gerry, which I used to think so lordly. It stands alone now amid the surrounding sky-scrapers, and reminds me of Don Quixote going out to fight the windmills. It should always remain to mark the difference between the past and the present.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“The desert is a natural extension of the inner silence of the body. If humanity’s language, technology, and buildings are an extension of its constructive faculties, the desert alone is an extension of its capacity for absence, the ideal schema of humanity’s disappearance.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)