Fenwick Pier Demolition

[hkskyline]

Fenwick Pier destined to fall
28 June 2008
South China Morning Post

Fenwick Pier, historic point of arrival for generations of sailors visiting the city, is to be demolished under the plan for the Central waterfront and be replaced by public landing steps and a park.

But an Antiquities Advisory Board member has questioned whether such a development can adequately take the place of the pier.

Under the plan, the pier and Fleet Arcade will be replaced by a public park after reclamation for the Central-Wan Chai bypass is completed.

But the reclamation is on hold because of a judicial review challenging whether a 10.7-hectare temporary reclamation is necessary to build the bypass, originally scheduled for completion in 2016.

At a board meeting on Thursday, Planning Department director Ava Ng Tse Suk-ying said the pier would be demolished and not rebuilt.

A department source said the pier had no architectural merit and had just a few landing steps.

The source said the area was intended for open-space development, so the Fleet Arcade would need to move to make way for a public park.

A department spokeswoman said public landing steps and waterfront commercial and leisure facilities would be provided along the new harbourfront to serve the public. An amendment to the outline zoning plan had undergone extensive public consultation, she said.

Honorary adviser to the Museum of History Cheng Po-hung said Fenwick Pier had a long history. He said the first Fenwick Pier, located in Johnston Road, was a private pier for a steel factory and a dockyard owned by the Fenwick Company. The pier was moved to Gloucester Road in the 1940s and Lung Wui Road, Admiralty, in the 1960s during reclamation.

Board member Ng Cho-nam said preservation of the pier was omitted from the public consultation.

Karl Milner, of the Quarterdeck Restaurant at Fleet Arcade, said it was not worried as the demolition could take years and the arcade might move to the new waterfront.