CLP Clock Tower: Hong Kong’s iconic heritage landmark still alive and ticking
- Kadoorie Hill’s tower, in use since 1940, remains one of Kowloon’s few recognisable remaining pre-war features
- Built on granite bedrock, the tower forms a visual representation of the architectural transitions of the 1930s
At 147 Argyle Street, in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district, a narrow brick clock tower that has been telling the time for 80 years stands solemnly next to demolished blocks, where luxury residential skyscrapers will stand beside it by 2022.
Perched beneath the stately homes of Kadoorie Hill, the clock tower is a reminder of what was once the stately headquarters of China Light and Power (CLP). Opened in 1940, the iconic tower is listed as a grade one historic building, and has been under preservation since the company decided to move to a bigger office in 2012.
The majority of the pearly white houses on Kadoorie Hill, designed by in-house architects of the Kadoorie Estates, are an amalgam of Bauhaus and streamline moderne sensibilities.
Yet Charles Lai, a PhD candidate at the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Architecture, says that only the CLP headquarters was a “clear example of art deco architecture”.
Whereas the duplexes and single-family homes possess Bauhaus-influenced structural asymmetries and streamline moderne features, such as smoothed edges reminiscent of a ship’s hull, the CLP building was designed with the geometric proportions and angular edges of art deco.
