Checkpoint 1 - Glenealy Campus
For 90 years, this was where St. Paul’s College called home. Referred to as the Glenealy Campus, or the Tit Kong Campus, the buildings around Glenealy and Lower Albert Road were the original site of St. Paul’s College from its founding in 1851 until the fall of Hong Kong in 1941. The buildings exhibit multiple architectural styles, each reflecting a different period.
The first buildings were built in the late 1840s, as part of the Revd. Vincent Stanton’s plans to build an Anglo-Chinese school for local boys. These are now known as Bishop’s House, which houses the archives of the Sheng Kung Hui, and the South Wing.
Bishop’s House was completed in two stages. The first stage was from 1845 to 1848, designed by the Revd. J. Hanson, and it features Tudor-revival style architecture. The second stage saw the first Bishop of Hong Kong, Bishop George Smith, altering and expanding the existing house in accordance with his vision of St. Paul’s College as a school to train future Chinese ministers. Though St. Paul’s College no longer occupies the building, its name is still clearly visible on the front stone wall of the building, along with its former motto. It was listed as a Grade I historical building in 1992.
The South Wing was built in approximately the same period as the Bishop’s House, again featuring Tudor-revival elements in its design, though subsequent modifications have resulted in a more modernist appearance. To this day, the building still serves an educational purpose, with part of it housing the campus and dormitories of the SKH Ming Hua Theological College and another part of it being the site of the SKH Publications Office. The building was listed as a Grade II historical building in 2010.
Several other buildings are worthy of note - St. Paul’s Church, Wu Ting Fang Hall and St. Paul's College Hostel. These buildings, amongst many others, were built in the early 20th century, after the management of the College had been transferred from the Diocese to the Church Missionary Society. As the school rapidly expanded under the leadership of the Revd. A. D. Stewart, the number of students increased by the hundreds, necessitating the construction of more buildings. Donations poured in from alumni of the College and the society in general, and these buildings were among the many results that they produced.
St. Paul’s Church and Wu Ting Fang Hall were built in 1911, with a significant proportion of the funding coming from alumnus Dr Ng Choy, otherwise known as Dr Wu Ting Fang. This new building was actually split into two parts, the upper floor acted as a place of worship (St. Paul's Church) whilst the lower floor acted as a classroom block (Wu Ting Fang Hall) for St. Paul’s College. Such expansion also meant that the older parts of the campus had to be demolished. Graduates of the College who later joined the ministry often returned here to conduct services. The building was listed as a Grade I historical building in 2009.
Completed in 1919, St. Paul’s College Hostel on Upper Albert Road had a lot of other names. The building is a curious fusion of neo-classicist, Baroque, and Art Deco styles, an architectural rarity in Hong Kong. It originally served as a boarding house for students of St. Paul’s, which, by the time of its completion, had so many students that the College had to rent extra dormitories on Caine Road. After the end of the Second World War, the boarding house was converted and renamed as the Church Guest House, housing many refugees from the mainland during the Chinese Civil War. It has also been known as the Martin House.
Unfortunately, during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong from 1941 to 1945, many records of St. Paul’s College were lost. For this reason, there are relatively few historical records on the operation of St. Paul’s before 1941. Though the buildings themselves remained relatively unscathed throughout the occupation, St. Paul’s College never went back to its original site on Glenealy.
So why did St. Paul’s College not go back to Glenealy after the war ended? St. Paul’s College merged with St. Paul’s Girls’ College as a Joint College with the secondary campus on MacDonnell Road. Meanwhile, the Glenealy site was used as the campus for the Primary Section of the Joint College. A number of alumni put forward the idea of re-establishing St. Paul's College as a boys’ school. Coincidentally, at the University of Hong Kong, plans were being made to combine St. John’s Hall for men and St. Stephen’s Hall for women to form St. John’s College on a new site on Pokfulam Road. With the efforts of the old boys and Col. E. G. Stewart, St. Paul’s College resumed operation in September 1950. The Bishop agreed to St. Paul’s taking over part of St. John’s Hall, hostel of the University of Hong Kong on Bonham Road, as the new school site.
Although St. Paul’s College is now situated on Bonham Road, the connection between the College and its former home is still emphasised. The College now conducts annual services at St. Paul’s Church for its Form 1 boys in order to let them know more about their College’s history and heritage.