Stanley 1 Murray House - 180 years of history, Victorian style

Murray House was built in 1844 and is part of the Victoria Barracks in Central, mainly used as a barracks for the British Army. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, this building was used by the Japanese army as the "Japanese Military Police Office" and the "Japanese Military Command". It also had many prisoner cells and was used as an execution ground. It is said that more than 4,000 people were killed there, making it the building with the most deaths outside of the hospital. After the end of World War II, Murray House was used as offices by several Hong Kong government departments. From 1975 to 1982, Murray House became the headquarters of the Rating and Valuation Department of Hong Kong. From the 1960s to the 1970s, there were frequent reports of ghost stories about Murray House. During that time, the British Hong Kong government not only invited pastors and priests to exorcise ghosts in the building, but also used Buddhist rituals to purify the resentment in the hope of calming people's hearts. As the government had to use public funds to perform the rituals, relevant archival records were kept. In 1982, the Murray Building had to be demolished to accommodate the construction of the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong. However, due to its historical value, the Hong Kong government decided to preserve the building intact and relocate it elsewhere. More than 3,000 pieces of construction materials were separated and properly recorded and stored. In 1990, the Hong Kong Housing Authority decided to relocate Murray House to Stanley. The entire building was rebuilt in 1998 and reopened in 1999. Architectural Features The building is the only remaining ancient European Victorian-style building in Hong Kong and is also one of Hong Kong's Grade I historical buildings. The three-storey Murray Building is built mainly of giant granite and combines Eastern and Western architectural features. The Murray House has both a Chinese-style tiled sloping roof and ancient European Victorian-style round stone columns, which, combined with Hong Kong's special historical background, makes it unique.