Bishop Hill hidden architecture found and saved last minute
Grade 1 historical Bishop Hill Reservoir
Bishop Hill Reservoir
The Ex-Sham Shui Po Service Reservoir, nicknamed Bishop Hill Reservoir, is a few blocks from the busy Sham Shui Po district.
Located underground, the structure reflects the romantic ancient Roman attitudes to architecture.
Following vigorous local rallying, in June 2021, the government’s Antiquities Advisory Board accorded the defunct reservoir a Grade 1 historical building status.
Dire need for water
A reliable water supply is a significant factor in a city as densely populated as Hong Kong. Nowadays, how many consider the logistics of this crucial necessity?
When water flows easily through winding pipes to meet our needs, we view its accessibility as a well-known fact. To most, the elegance of waterways faded away at the end of the ancient Roman era. But this is a disservice to early modern constructions.
Related Vatican Museums one of the largest
Near the beginning of the twentieth century, the Hong Kong government had to find ways to meet the needs of the city’s booming population.
In the decade between 1891 and 1901, Kowloon Peninsula’s residency count drastically doubled, and previous waterworks could not meet the increased demand.
Qing to British rule
Additionally, in 1898, the New Territories transitioned from Imperial Qing to British colonial rule, bringing the matter of meeting the new entrants’ basic needs into the hands of the British government.
Related Lavish legacy of the Qing Emperors and Empresses
The British administration began seeking ways to remedy the shortcomings of the local water supplies. At the time, this comprised three wells, several pipes, a water tank, and an underground dam.
Gravitation scheme
To help alleviate stress on the contemporary water supply, in 1902, the government launched the Kowloon Waterworks Gravitation Scheme.
Related Down down drowned on wedding day at Bride’s Pool
The plan utilised the territory’s running hills and boulder-studded watercourses as perspective reservoir sites.
Bishop Hill construction
This resulted in the construction of the Kowloon Reservoir and catchwaters, the Tai Po Road filter beds, Bishop Hill Reservoir, and other connecting water pipes of varying sizes to form a comprehensive water supply network.
Constructed in 1904, the development of Bishop Hill Reservoir was entrusted to the British architectural firm Denison, Ram & Gibbs.
Related Tropical Modernism architecture of in the post-colonial world
Previous projects handled by the firm include the Helena May main building, the University of Hong Kong’s Eliot Hall, and the now-demolished Repulse Bay Hotel
The design elements of Bishop Hill Reservoir featured an effective concrete recipe favouring local materials such as cement from the Green Island Cement brand, sand gathered from neighbouring beaches, and hand-crushed igneous rocks found in different locations in Hong Kong.
Hybrid concrete and brick
The reservoir’s hybrid concrete-and-brick construction marks the architectural transition that was in progress at the time, as pure brickwork steadily gave way to concrete formations.
Related Kowloon district religious and historic Wong Tai Sin Temple
To help increase the water supply in Kowloon, Bishop Hill Reservoir was built in Bishop Hill, also known as Mission Hill, at Sham Shui Po.
With a storage capacity of 9,900 cubic metres, Bishop Hill greatly surpassed other functioning watercourses of the era (the former Yau Ma Tei Reservoir and the since-demolished Hung Hom Service Reservoir had capacities of approximately 740 and 420 cubic metres, respectively).
Related Kowloon Walled City famous old City of Darkness
Due to this significantly greater holding power, Bishop Hill efficiently met the freshwater needs of residents in the Kowloon Tong, Sham Shui Po and Tai Hang Tung districts.
Bishop Hill Reservoir faced many hurdles throughout its brief career. In 1938, terrible leakage forced its suspension, a hiatus prolonged by the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong (Lasting from 25 December 1941 to 15 August 1945).
Related War and Sir Cecil’s Ride in Tai Tam Country Park
By 1951, the reservoir was officially recommissioned. Its earlier leakage problem was resolved by adding a 150-millimetre-thick concrete wall to strengthen the existing perimeter.
Water capacity diminished
The caveat of this solution was to reduce the reservoir’s water capacity from 2.18 million gallons to 1.07 million gallons.
Bishop Hill Reservoir ceased operations in 1970. In the same year, the Shek Kip Mei Fresh Water Service Reservoir, which held ten times the storage capacity of Bishop Hill, was commissioned, rendering the latter obsolete.
The government ordered Bishop Hill Reservoir to be hermetically sealed from public view. Slowly, the reservoir faded from public memory, hidden from sight for forty-seven years.
In 2017, the Water Service Department discovered cracks at the top of Bishop Hill Reservoir. Tree roots had breached the dome, posing a structural hazard to the entire establishment. A department investigation took place.
After confirming that the reservoir was defunct and that the Antiquities and Monuments Office had no objections, the Water Service Department decided to demolish the site and redesignate the government land for general use.
Related Ancient treasures and antiquities illustrate Origins of Chinese Civilisation
In October 2020, demolition work began. Two months later, the disused reservoir was revealed to contain brick arches and a cement roof fashioned in Romanesque architecture.
Related Saint Peter’s Basilica marvelously domed Christian church
Before the rediscovery of Bishop Hill Reservoir, two other century-old reservoirs – the Magazine Gap Road and the Hatton Road service reservoirs – were demolished in 2010 and 2011, respectively, with no objection from the Antiquities and Monuments Office.
On 29 December 2020, after much public outcry, the tear-down of Bishop Hill Reservoir was suspended.
Virtual tour Bishop Hill Reservoir
In the aftermath, the Antiquities and Monuments Office defended criticism that its board did not raise objections to its demolition in 2017, citing that the Water Services Department described the location as a disused “water tank’” with no mention of its historic design.
Related I M Pei iconic historic buildings designs
Much work was put into Bishop Hill’s restoration. Yellow lighting effects were added to complement its beauty, as well as the orderly arrangement of the piers and the ever-expanding arches, creating a sense of solemnity and security.
Visitors begin their journey at the assembly point at Berwick Street in Shek Kip Mei. Volunteer tour guides lead participants up a steep climb to Mission Hill, passing by ping pong tables, towering trees, and Buddha statues to reach the notable site.
Related Tian Tan Big Buddha largest statue in Hong Kong
A virtual tour of Bishop Hill Reservoir is also available on the Water Service Department’s website, providing a panoramic view of the interior beside descriptions of its architectural features.
Imitating ancient Roman civil engineering works, Bishop Hill Reservoir features Euro-style granite piers and red brick arches.
As Hong Kong’s first circular underground service reservoir, Bishop Hill’s interior is cement-bonded earth-filling. A circumferential cement wall highlights the 1951 repair works.
Related Prehistoric relics recovered from the underground pits of Sanxingdui
Granite piers emphasise its fine craftsmanship. Each is composed of fourteen smooth blocks, which all measure sixty-one centimetres in length, forty-six centimetres in width, and thirty centimetres in height.
The piers are arranged like a Roman arcade, their contiguous segmental arches uniquely carved with three-ringed openings.
Bishop Hill Reservoir’s construction combined aesthetics and practicality. Its design choices reference antique Roman aqueducts and tanks, including the Pont du Gard, Roman Cisterns of Fermo, and Piscina Mirabilis.
Related Roman era architecture and ruins throughout city of Rome
The distinctive reservoir features include light openings, ventilators, balancing pipes, and a masonry portal. Functioning as a balance tank, the service reservoir collected and stored excess water for future consumption.
The concrete cove ceiling was designed using a concrete-in-situ technique. This ensured that the cover could prevent water contamination.
It is supported by pentagonal profile granite spring blocks, which transmit down the loading weight from the topsoil and concrete ceiling, safely dispersing the loadbearing effort to the foundation.
Pentagonal blocks mark the highest point on the reservoir’s 108 rusticated granite piers. The columnal structures run along in one direction, then down to the brick arches.
Related Michelangelo stunning design for the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica
Each column is topped with red mortar brick arches built in Flemish bond, a special pattern where each brick placement alternates between horizontal and vertical.
The pavement light openings, also called ventilators, have all been sealed by cement concrete since the reservoir was decommissioned.
Two adjacent cove ceilings are linked with wall-top balancing pipes, which worked to balance the water levels and pressure when either was too high.
Gravity encouraged the water to flow through the pipe works. Water was carried through the main pipe to filter beds from the hilltop Kowloon reservoir before coursing into Bishop Hill, then to the distribution system.
At its completion, the reservoir’s diameter was approximately forty-six metres. Its height from floor to vault reached about 6.85 metres.
The centre-to-centre distances between stone piers were roughly four metres longitudinally and 3.7 metres laterally. At the highest point of the reservoir sits an inlet pipe measuring thirty centimetres in diameter.
An overflow pipe is on the reinforced concrete perimeter wall on the left. A half-round channel sits ground-level to the inflow pipe, like a perfectly carved shallow river. When cleaning the interior of the service reservoir, the half-round channel caught the washed sediments and drained the washout pipe.
Related Local creative Inkgo Lam transformed bamboo into art
Laid at the lowest point of the reservoir, the washout pipe, which measures twenty centimetres in diameter, is usually shut. It can be opened when the water tank is being cleaned.
The practical and the aesthetic do not have to stand in opposition. Bishop Hill Reservoir stands as proof.
Its remarkable structure offers a precious glimpse of Hong Kong’s water supply history over the past hundred years.
Related Voyage Through Time celebrates history of Victoria Harbour Hong Kong
For those interested in exploring its practical design wisdom up close, the Water Supplies Department allows a limited number of monthly public tours and self-guided visits.
Text & photos by Victoria Mae Martyn
