For this purpose, a plot of coastal land adjoining the Statue Square was especially reserved for The Hong Kong Club in the Central district reclamation project in 1890. There, the Club’s grandees put up a four-storey white building in Victorian Renaissance and Italian style, with an imposing entrance hall. Inside we could find a variety of facilities such as the library, cellar, ice chamber, dining room, conference room, banquet hall, bowling alley, billiard room and several luxurious guest rooms. The establishment was opened in 1897, and it was until the 1970s that the Club began to receive non-white members. Still it was a place where elites and dignitaries from different fields gathered, hence a most desirable venue to socialize and hobnob in Hong Kong.
You don’t think I would miss out the “ultimate clubhouse”, do you? Here it is, The Hong Kong Club!
Founded in 1846, The Hong Kong Club was a prestigious club exclusive to the colony’s political, military and business elites. Members of the Club were all from the upper class — a matter of course, as membership was by invitation only and a hefty fee was incurred. It was, in addition, opened only to white Englishmen, with a stringent dress code. Which means that it was off-limits to British of “lowly background”, Chinese, coloured-British and females. At first it had its clubhouse at the intersection of Wyndham Street and Queen’s Road, but as the Club grew, a new site had to be found.
