Checkpoint 6 - Wong Ming Him Hall
For visitors to St. Paul’s College coming along Bonham Road westbound, Wong Ming Him Hall is most likely the first building they will come across. A bronze school badge adorns the centre of an otherwise plain façade, with ‘St. Paul’s’ written in capital letters on the top left, in a typeface that is reminiscent of Broadway in the 1940s. Upon closer inspection, the outer walls and the letter blocks combine to give the building an old but slightly inconsistent appearance. The interior walls might look brand-new, but the windows on the ground floor reveal its age.
Built in 1953, Wong Ming Him Hall is the oldest building in the College. It was named after the father of Mr Wong Cheuk Um, who graduated in 1920. Mr Wong was the former Chinese General Manager of the Swire Hong Kong Group and was appointed Chief of Sugar Distribution in Hong Kong, earning him the moniker of ‘Sugar King’ (糖王). Along with Mr Tse Yu Chuen, Chief of Rice Distribution, and Mr Ho Ka Lau, Chief of Firewood Distribution, they were colloquially known as the ‘Three Kings of St. Paul’s’ (聖保羅三王).
Originally used as classrooms, Wong Ming Him Hall was later used by the primary section as a playground and meeting rooms. In the 1970s, the Hall had a darkroom for the Photography Club and acted as headquarters and storerooms of the Students’ Association and the Scouts until 1978. From 1992 until 2008, the ground floor housed the table-tennis tables, the first floor housed the visual arts room (which was originally situated on the ground floor, before the table-tennis tables were added), and the second floor housed the music room which was further subdivided into two separate music rooms.
Wong Ming Him Hall was renovated in 2008, with the design work undertaken by architect Mr Rembert Lai Siu Kin (Class of 1974), an alumnus. The ground floor became an open multi-purpose area; the first floor was turned into a multi-purpose rehearsal room, and the second floor became the meeting room for the College Council, where the archives and artefacts are also kept.
One thing that remained unchanged during the renovation, however, was the memorial plaque commemorating our former principal, the Revd. A. D. Stewart. He served as the principal of our College from 1909 until 1930 and led the development of St. Paul’s College at Glenealy.
The current surroundings of Wong Ming Him Hall are vastly different from how they were in the past. The passageways leading to the entrance used to be filled with lush greenery, flame trees, flowers, and at one point, even a small fishpond with carp in it. With the music and visual arts rooms located there, the building had a certain artistic aura to it. Combined with the former Primary School Block acting as a noise barrier, the Hall was always associated with serenity by teachers and students.
It is also worth noting that the bronze College badge facing Bonham Road outside Wong Ming Him Hall was not the original from 1953. The original College badge that faced the University of Hong Kong was made of wood, but as time went by, the badge began to rot, and the bronze badge we see today was a replacement, designed by our former visual arts teacher, Mr Leung Tse Sau, who was an alumnus (1950-1957) and served the College as a teacher for forty years from 1960-1990 and 1995-2005.
Isolated from the rest of the College campus, Wong Ming Him Hall seems a bit out of place in St. Paul’s College. Its construction, its location, its design, and its interior all seem to have a distinct flavour of its own. It is a perfect retreat from the hustle and bustle of the main blocks of the College and signifies St. Paul’s itself. A place with years of history behind it, looking old on the outside yet fresh and new on the inside, sitting silently in the corner waiting for someone to discover its beauty. Whichever way you view the Hall, one thing is for certain: its history is almost as long as post-war St. Paul’s College itself, and it has a very unique place amongst all the buildings of the College.
