Kom Tong Hall ready for a new lease of life

It seemed like mission impossible, but after more than two years, countless hours of renovation work and HK$95 million, the legendary Kom Tong Hall has almost been restored to its former glory.

The stately mansion, at No. 7 Castle Road in Mid-Levels, was built in 1914 for Ho Kom Tong, the younger brother of Eurasian tycoon Sir Robert Hotung.

'The red-brick house with granite pillars and wrought-iron balconies is itself a good reference book of architecture of the early 20th century,' said Sylvia Lam Yu Ka-wai, a senior project manager at the Architectural Services Department, who is in charge of the restoration project at the four-storey property.

'It is a typical Edwardian classical building and is among the very few surviving structures in Hong Kong dating back to the early 20th century,' she said.

The layout of the mansion also reflects the social strata of the day and provides a glimpse into the daily life of a Chinese comprador.

The central feature of the mansion is the main staircase to a French-style parlour on the upper ground floor where the Ho family had meals and received guests.

The lower ground floor and the mezzanine floor were for the servants, and their access was restricted to a staircase at the back.

'Our principle was minimum intervention, that is, to keep its old face and to leave things untouched as far as possible,' said Lam Shing-wai, chief curator of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department's central conservation section.

Restoring the metal balustrades alone took more than a month.

The mansion will be unveiled as Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum, it is hoped this year, to mark the 140th birthday of the revolutionary regarded as the father of modern China.

Esa Leung Kit-ling, curator of Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum, admitted the link between the nationalist and the Ho family was remote, but still, it was appropriate to house the museum in Kom Tong Hall.

'Mr Ho [Kom Tong] and Dr Sun were born in the same year and educated at the same school. Both studied at the Government Central School, the present-day Queen's College, at Gough Street, a stone's throw from Kom Tong Hall.'

The mansion previously belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but the government intervened in 2002 to prevent it from being demolished.

The church had bought the 1,020-square-metre mansion from the Cheng family for about HK$920,000 in 1960. The Chengs purchased the house from the Ho family, which spent HK$300,000 building the mansion in 1914.

It is believed to have been the first steel-frame house in Hong Kong. All the furniture and fittings were imported from Europe and the carpets were of Persian silk.

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