Century-Old Bishop Hill Reservoir receives grade one protection status

Bishop Hill underground reservoir (HKFP)

When the Water Supplies Department was cleaning up a site for the Lands Department in Bishop Hill, Sham Shui Po, they discovered an underground reservoir (Century-old Romanesque, 2020). The cistern features 100 stone columns, brick arches, and a cement ceiling (Yeo & Ng, 2020).

The reservoir was initially set for demolition, but after facing public outcry, the Hong Kong government reversed the decision to knock down the structure. It has now been deemed a grade one historic building- the second-highest classification on the scale, behind ‘monument’. According to Hong Kong’s Antiquities Advisory Board, a grade one building is “of outstanding merit, [for] which every effort should be made to preserve [it] if possible” (Yeo, 2021).

While most reservoirs in Hong Kong were built after World War Two, the Bishop Hill reservoir was built in 1909 (Century-old Romanesque, 2020). Built by the British, it was a part of the Kowloon Waterworks Gravitation Scheme to alleviate the water supply issue for the increasing population of the Kowloon peninsula. The reservoir is a valuable insight into Hong Kong’s colonial past (Leung, 2021).