Statue Square

Don’t be fooled by the name: Statue Square isn’t full of statues. In fact just one survives here. Instead of the usual gods, warrior heroes or royalty, it’s of a chubby man in a suit with a cheerful smile. This is Sir Thomas Jackson, a successful Victorian chief manager of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank. The square derives its name from the various effigies of British royalty once on display here, until they were spirited away by the Japanese during the occupation. While it lacks statues, there’s plenty else to see. In the northern part, reached via a pedestrian underpass, is the Cenotaph (1923), a memorial to Hong Kong residents killed during the two world wars. Due west is the venerable Mandarin Oriental, which opened in 1963 and is consistently voted as one of the best hotels in the world. To the east the Hong Kong Club Building houses a prestigious club of that name that was still not accepting Chinese members until well after WWII. The original club building, a magnificent four-storey colonial structure, was torn down in 1981 despite public outcry and was replaced with the modern bow-fronted monstrosity there now. On the south side of Chater Rd, Statue Square is a pleasant collection of fountains and seating areas, somewhat marred by the tiling, which gives them the look of a 1980s municipal washroom. Statue Square is also the meeting place of choice for tens of thousands of Filipino migrant workers on the weekend, especially on Sundays when it becomes a cacophony of Tagalog, Visayan and Ilocano.