Old Bailey Street
Encyclopedia
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. The name is derived from the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
, the Central Criminal Court in central London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Victoria Prison
Victoria Prison
Victoria Prison , or Victoria Gaol was Hong Kong's first prison. A testimony to the evolution of Hong Kong's correctional services, it had been the centre of the local prison system until it ceased operation in December 2005....
, the first prison in Hong Kong, was built on Old Bailey Street in 1841. As the population in Hong Kong grew, a larger prison was needed and in 1925 construction began in Stanley
Stanley, Hong Kong
Stanley is a town and a tourist attraction in Hong Kong. It located on a peninsula on the southeastern part of Hong Kong Island. It is east of Repulse Bay and west of Shek O, adjacent to Chung Hom Kok...
. Later that year a new prison opened as Stanley Prison
Stanley Prison
Stanley Prison is one of the five maximum security prisons in Hong Kong and is currently the oldest institution still in service...
where those sentenced to more than a year in detention were sent.
During the early colonisation of Hong Kong, prisoners in Victoria Prison were forced to parade in public, were often beaten with a cane, and their arms locked with a cangue
Cangue
A cangue is a small device that was used for public humiliation and corporal punishment in China and some other parts of East Asia and Southeast Asia, until the early years of the twentieth century....
on which their name and crimes-committed were penned. Policeman, often of Indian
Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin
A Non-Resident Indian is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country, a person of Indian origin who is born outside India, or a person of Indian origin who resides permanently outside India. Other terms with the same meaning are overseas Indian and expatriate Indian...
descent, would walk the prisoners to a plaza in front of the Man Mo Temple
Man Mo Temple
A Man Mo Temple or Man Mo Miu is a temple for the worship of the civil or literature god Man Tai / Man Cheong （文昌） and the martial god Mo Tai / Kwan Tai . The two gods were popularly patronized by scholars and students seeking progress in their study or ranking in the civil examinations in the...
where the lawbreakers were scoffed and condemned by the passers-by. After a few hours, the criminal was returned to the Old Bailey Street jail. This form of punishment was abolished after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
The old Victoria Prison
Victoria Prison
Victoria Prison , or Victoria Gaol was Hong Kong's first prison. A testimony to the evolution of Hong Kong's correctional services, it had been the centre of the local prison system until it ceased operation in December 2005....
still stands on Old Bailey Street, but is no longer in use. It was closed in December 2005 and the Hong Kong Government is currently in consultation as to what to do with both the Prison and the old Central Police Station
Central Police Station
Central Police Station is a former police station, located at the eastern end of Hollywood Road, in Central, Hong Kong. It is awaiting development following its decommissioning.-History:...
, which is at the intersection of Old Bailey Street and Hollywood Road
Hollywood Road
Hollywood Road is a street in Central and Sheung Wan, on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong.Hollywood Road is filled with trinket and antique shops of all sorts: from Chinese furniture to porcelain ware, from Buddha sculptures to Tibetan rugs, from Japanese netsukes to Coromandel screens, from Ming...
.