When the General Post Office was built in Central half a century ago, conservationists mourned the loss of the building it replaced.
Exterior of the General Post Office. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.The old General Post Office was a marvel of Edwardian architecture: sweeping archways and granite veranda pillars beneath a distinctive façade of rose-coloured Amoy brick – the gold standard for durability on the storm-lashed South China coast.
The GPO’s ground-floor entrance at 2 Connaught Place. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.Just over a decade ago, the former chief curator of the Hong Kong Museum of History crowned it “Hong Kong’s most beautiful building” when it stood at the site of what is now World-Wide House.
For others, its loss ranked alongside the demolition of the old Hong Kong Club as one of the greatest architectural crimes the city has committed against itself.
Post Office Private Boxes on the second floor of the GPO. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.But fast-forward to 2026 and accolades are now pouring in for the much-maligned replacement structure. Ahead of its own demolition, the current modernist General Post Office, erected in 1976, is belatedly finding recognition as an icon of modern Hong Kong heritage.
Service counters in the General Post Office. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.Crouching just five storeys above the Central harbourfront – its planned stature stunted so as to preserve the sea view from Jardine House – the post office’s sharp lines and white concrete walls buck against its ornate predecessor.
Customers queue in the main hall of the GPO. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.Yet, in retrospect, it’s clear to see how these design choices reflected the society it was born into: one that, by the 1970s, prized simple, utilitarian structures that served a rapidly growing population first and foremost. In the headlong rush to modernise and develop, form followed function – and decoration was optional.
Towers of parcels wait at a GPO counter. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.It’s not the first time a modern landmark has, with time, won the hearts of Hongkongers.
A row of desks in the GPO. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.The looming demise of the GPO’s erstwhile neighbour, Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier, sparked spirited protests and a sit-in by conservationists in 2006. Although they failed to protect the 1950s landmark, many saw the movement as a watershed moment that led to the localist movement and pro-democracy mobilisation of the 2010s.
A stairwell inside the GPO. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.In North Point, efforts to save the mid-century State Theatre have been ongoing for a decade, with some hard-won concessions from the government and developers.
A second-floor window in the GPO overlooks the Court of Final Appeal Building. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.After it is levelled and the Central Yards shopping centre goes up in its place, the General Post Office will become – almost literally – a footnote. It will be relegated to the basement of the new mega-mall, which will stretch from the site to the now-distant waters of Victoria Harbour.
Stamps on display in the GPO. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.As usual, the GPO’s time in the spotlight will be short-lived, a brief moment in the sun before it sets forever. It’s a collective tic that local scholar Ackbar Abbas – whose passing marked another sad loss for the city this year – called “love at last sight.”
A colonial-era pillar box stands in the GPO. Photo: Kyle Lam: HKFP.In a place that never stops changing, belonging can be defined as much by what we have lost as what we have today.
Well-used postal chops on a GPO desk. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.Words by Ryan Ho Kilpatrick