Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier

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The former Star Ferry pier and its clock tower viewed from the sea, November 2005 Clock Tower, Star Ferry Pier in Central.jpg
The former Star Ferry pier and its clock tower viewed from the sea, November 2005

The Pier, especially its clock tower, is a visually important landmark in Hong Kong. It is an eye-catching icon within the beautiful Hong Kong Harbour particularly for tourists and locals crossing it via Star Ferries from Tsim Sha Tsui. It is a must on their itinerary. No other ferry pier along the harbour could possibly perform such a symbolic function as this clocktower pier. The removal of the Star Ferry Pier to Piers 4–7 leading to its destruction would likely raise public objection and dismay. [1]

— Chan Sui San, Peter, A survey report of Historical Buildings and Structures within the Project Area of the Central Reclamation Phase III"

However, the Government had maintained that the Pier and its tower was not old enough to be classified as "historical" and that people were not necessarily "concerned about the building itself". [10] To some extent, it was not wrong, since the activists were mainly fighting for the preservation of a public place and against the methods and urban planning policies of its government, perceived to favour business interests over the public interest. The struggle to preserve the Star Ferry and, later, the Queen's Pier, was the occasion to raise questions on Hong Kong's history, the question of colonialism, and that of democracy in the HKSAR. [14]

The Government had grossly underestimated the very strong public sentiment about this 49-year-old landmark in the "collective memory" of Hong Kong residents. By its own retrospective admission, it lacked legitimacy: a Government spokesman conceded that the it had failed to gain the moral high ground. [15]

Loss of convenience

Ferry passengers would face a lengthier trek to reach the new pier. [7] By relocating the new piers 300 m away, it is estimated that the Star Ferry could lose perhaps 13 per cent or more of passengers due to its inconvenience. [16] On the Tsim Sha Tsui side of the harbour, the proposed relocation of the bus terminus which acts as a feeder for the ferry is forecast to further reduce passenger numbers by one-fifth. [6]

This loss, totalling one-third of its passengers, would translate into revenue loss of some HK$17 million per annum for Star Ferry. [6]

Architectural importance

Architects and conservationists [17] argued that the pier was architecturally significant to Hong Kong as one of the last remaining examples of a Streamline Moderne public building [18] (along with the Central Market and Wan Chai Market which have been earmarked for demolition); culturally the pier was widely recognised as a part of local collective memory. The Hong Kong Institute of Architects warned against the destruction of Hong Kong's heritage, [19] saying it would be an irreversible mistake. [18] Public opinion has resulted in alternatives put forward to preserve the clock tower, including moving the proposed six-lane road or relocating the clock tower to the front of the new pier as a memorial. [20]

State of the clock

One reason cited by the Government against the relocation of the turret clock and tower was that an expert feasibility study advised that there was "no guarantee the clock and chimes would continue to work after relocation, due to their age and obsolete components". [21] However, Neil Brennon Wright of Thwaites & Reed, the world's longest operating clockmaking firm, who arrived from England on 18 December 2006 to examine the clock, said that his firm had restored far worse. [5]

The Government promised that it would "rebuild" the chimes of the clock, complete with the restitution of the original clock faces and mechanism at some nearby location. [20]

Public sentiment

Pavement graffito at Star Ferry urging conservation of clock tower Graffiti protesting against the demolition of the Star Ferry pier.jpg
Pavement graffito at Star Ferry urging conservation of clock tower

The public outcry, anticipated by the consultancy report for the Antiquities and Monuments Office, was to become reality. [1] With the imminent threat of demolition, the local community rallied to save pier, to widespread media coverage. In the weeks running up to the cessation of service from the pier, thousands of Hong Kong residents arrived to post banners and other messages in support of retention.

There were some 150,000 nostalgic visitors to the Pier and harbour crossing on the night of 11 November 2006. To mark the special occasion, Star Ferry hosted a "last ride" before the pier was closed-down, with the last four ferries leaving this pier on the stroke of midnight. [22] Eighteen hundred Hongkongers willingly paid up $88 (40 times the normal fare) for the last ride, whose proceeds were designated for charity. [16]

Protest movement

On 19 November 2006, the Civic Party, Democratic Party, Harbour-front Enhancement Committee, Hong Kong Institute of Architects, People's Sustainable Development Committee, Clear the Air, and Earth Care jointly met to urge the public to fight for the preservation of the pier. Over 1,000 signatures were collected on that one day alone, in a petition to be submitted to Chief Executive Donald Tsang and other senior officials. [18] In addition, a group of protesters began a peaceful sit-in that day. So Sau Chung, veteran campaigner (now a monk), whose hunger strike against Star Ferry fare increases triggered the riots in 1966, came by to lend his support. [3]

Satirical funeral wreath sent on behalf of Michael Suen Protestwreath.jpg
Satirical funeral wreath sent on behalf of Michael Suen

Further spurred by the start of demolition on the afternoon of 12 December 2006, more protesters started gathering spontaneously after workers removed the bell and the clock face from the tower, leaving a big hole. Activists, including "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, rushed into and occupied part of the demolition site, chanting slogans from the roof of an excavator and demanded to meet Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Michael Suen Ming-yeung. [23] Protesters formed a human chain at the entrance of the construction site so as to try to stop the construction crew and machines from further demolishing the site. [24]

In addition to the public, Civic Party legislators, and Choy So-yuk, a councillor from the pro-government Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, showed up to lend support. [23]

The demolition drew widespread condemnation from the public, legislators, and conservationists, all of whom claimed the government action was contrary to the wishes of the public. [25] Legco members tabled motions to immediately halt the demolition, pending further consultation. The Government denied a last-minute reprieve, reiterating that there has been "adequate consultation", and forged ahead with demolition. The Conservancy Association claimed it made its objection known in 1996 when Government proposed to construct a temporary road through the Edinburgh Place and that the Government has never consulted the public regarding demolition of the pier, or the adjacent Queen's Pier. [17]

After the demolition of the pier, the government said that it would consider the memories of the citizens and not the historic value of the building/structure before demolishing it.

Conservationists vowed to take the fight to Queen's Pier, and a number of other historical sites threatened with a similar fate. [26] At the end of 2006, in a testament to how the protests have struck a chord with the public, the Ferry protesters were voted "Person of the Year" by RTHK Radio 3. [27] Local Action, the group of rather young cultural and media activists which formed the core of the movement, were to later influence social movements, in Hong Kong as well as in the mainland: [28] part of the more militant "post 80s" generation, they are critical of government business collusion, a one-sided development approach, Hong Kong's subordinate status within China and the perceived lack of democracy in the territory, and have been involved in the fight for real political reform in Hong Kong, and against the Express Rail link to Guangzhou. [29]

Demonstration timeline

  • August 2006, a group of local artists subsequently known as "We Are Society" and patronised by Para/Site member Kith Tsang Tak-ping started carrying out shows and setting up installations on the premises of the Star Ferry Pier in an attempt to heighten people's awareness.
  • 19 November 2006, pressure groups met at pier to collect petition signatures; protesters began sit-in at the pier. [3] [18]
  • 6 December 2006, demolition workers broke through a human chain of peaceful protesters and erected scaffolding around the site. [4]
  • 12 December 2006, site occupied by demonstrators determined to stop demolition. [23]
  • 13 December 2006, demolition resumed after all demonstrators were forcibly removed from the site by police, despite protesters remaining outside. [30]
  • 14 December 2006, 200 people attended a candlelight vigil to mark the pier's 49th anniversary; activists again broke through a police cordon to retake the building. [31] 13 protesters were detained in the early hours of the morning
Student sit-in to protest against the demolition of the pier, 16 December 2006 Edinburgh Pier protesters.jpg
Student sit-in to protest against the demolition of the pier, 16 December 2006
  • 15 December 2006, Government vows to get tough against protesters and accelerates demolition by carrying on work overnight; the clock tower is lifted off in one piece and taken off-site. A group of 20 students start a 49-hour sit-in hunger strike at midnight, one hour to represent each year of the pier's existence. [11] [12] [32]
  • 17 December 2006, 200 people marched on the Government Headquarters demanding to see the Chief Executive; violent scuffles broke out; Conservationists vow to take the fight to Queen's Pier. [32]
  • 18 December 2006, legislators incensed at a volte-face by the demolition company who recanted on selling the remains to conservationists and by suggestion that the clock tower may be used as landfill, demanded to know the whereabouts of the remains.
  • 19 December 2006, newspapers published interviews of witnesses who claim to have seen the old clock tower being broken up at the building waste landfill in Tuen Mun.
  • 11 May 2007, harbour protester Ho Loy convicted of criminal damage for having slashed the canvas surrounding the demolition works on 12 December 2006 and ordered to pay $800 in compensation. [33]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Chan Sui San Peter, "EIA: A survey report of Historical Buildings and Structures within the Project Area of the Central Reclamation Phase III", HK Government, February 2001
  2. ↑ "Star Ferry fare increases provoke riots", Hong Kong Commercial Daily, 4 April 2005 (in Chinese)
  3. 1 2 3 ""keep the ferry pier" says veteran protester" [ permanent dead link ], Apple Daily, 27 November 2007 (in Chinese)
  4. 1 2 3 4 Donald Asprey " "Attempts to save old pier losing steam" Archived 22 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 7 December 2006. Retrieved 16 December 2006
  5. 1 2 Donald Asprey, "Ferry clock may yet chime again" Archived 15 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 19 December 2006. Retrieved 19 December 2006
  6. 1 2 3 Leslie Kwoh, "Pier relocation spells gloom, says Star Ferry" Archived 22 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 13 May 2006
  7. 1 2 3 Keith Wallis, "Harbour reclamation plans gathering pace" Archived 22 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 31 July 2000
  8. ↑ Agence-France Presse, "Star Ferry pier to keep clock" Archived 22 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 13 April 2000
  9. ↑ "How surveyors use 3D Laser Scanning Technology in digital recording of structures" Archived 29 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine , The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors, 17 January 2007
  10. 1 2 Leslie Kwoh, "Early demolition for old Star Ferry pier" Archived 22 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 15 November 2006
  11. 1 2 Donald Asprey, "Tough action warning on pier" Archived 21 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 16 December 2006, 16 December 2006
  12. 1 2 Chloe Lai, "Clock tower may be used as landfill for reclamation", South China Morning Post, 17 December 2006
  13. ↑ "Central Reclamation Phase III – Project History" Archived 5 December 2005 at the Wayback Machine , Civil Engineering & Development Dept.
  14. ↑ Pierre Martin, Hong Kong: cultural heritage, activism and decolonization (school work, in French language) https://www.scribd.com/doc/34335050/Pierre-Martin-Hong-Kong-patrimoine-activisme-et-decolonisation-Hong-Kong-cultural-heritage-activism-and-decolonization  ;
  15. ↑ Carrie Chan, "New policy aims will lead heritage debate" Archived 22 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 10 May 2007
  16. 1 2 Ng Tze-wei, "Not even HK's storied Star Ferry can face down developers", International Herald Tribune, 10 November 2006
  17. 1 2 "Preservation of Star Pier and Queen's Pier", The Conservancy Association, 18 December 2006
  18. 1 2 3 4 Leslie Kwoh, "United front in pier drive" Archived 22 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 20 November 2006
  19. ↑ Leslie Kwoh,"Ferry terminal a step closer to history" Archived 15 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 30 August 2006. Retrieved 16 December 2006
  20. 1 2 Diana Lee, "Harbor option for Queen's Pier" Archived 22 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 4 May 2007
  21. ↑ "New Star Ferry Piers to open in November" Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine , 19 December 2006, Hong Kong Government. Retrieved 19 December 2006
  22. ↑ South China Morning Post, 17 December 2006
  23. 1 2 3 Donald Asprey, "Protesters storm ferry site" Archived 15 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 13 December 2006. Retrieved 16 December 2006
  24. ↑ Ku, Agnes Shuk-mei (2012). "Remaking Places and Fashioning an Opposition Discourse: Struggle over the Star Ferry Pier and the Queen's Pier in Hong Kong". Environment and Planning D: Society and Space . 30: 13. doi:10.1068/d16409. S2CID   54956756.
  25. ↑ Vaudine England, "Hong Kong wakes up to heritage", BBC News, 4 December 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2006
  26. ↑ Ng Kang-chung & Danny Mok, "Front line in preservation battle switches to Queen's Pier", South China Morning Post, 18 December 2006
  27. ↑ Michael DeGolyer,"Commentary": The power of the people Archived 13 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 4 January 2007
  28. ↑ Chou, Oliver & Lai, Chloe (5 September 2010). "War of words" South China Morning Post
  29. ↑ "Emanciper la ville et le citoyen: le mouvement civique urbain hongkongais", Monde chinois n° 24, "Médias & pouvoir en Chine", Hiver 2010–2011 (in French)
  30. ↑ Donald Asprey, "Standoff at old ferry pier turns nasty" Archived 22 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 14 December 2006. Retrieved 16 December 2006
  31. ↑ Tonny Chan "Protesters retake Star Ferry tower" Archived 21 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 15 December 2006. Retrieved 16 December 2006
  32. 1 2 Jonathan Cheng, "Pier battle throws light on landmarks" Archived 14 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine , The Standard (Hong Kong), 18 December 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2006
  33. ↑ "Pier activist found guilty of damage" South China Morning Post, 12 May 2007, page C1
Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier
Traditional Chinese 愛丁堡廣場渡輪碼頭
Simplified Chinese 爱丁堡广场渡轮码头
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Àidīngbǎo Guǎngchǎng Dùlún Mǎtóu
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping (ng)oi3 ding1 bou2 gwong2 coeng4 dou6 leon4 maa5 tau4
Areas
History
Office buildings
Government
Closed/reprovisioned
Legislature/judiciary
Chinese military
Transport
Bus terminuses
Ferry piers
Demolished
Relocated
MTR stations
Diplomatic missions
Other landmarks
Demolished
Relocated
Education
This list is incomplete.

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