LOCAL
The High Street Ghost House Nicole Slater explores the dark history of the Sai Ying Pun Community Complex
Located on the corner of High Street and Eastern Street, Sai Ying Pun Community Complex is a Grade I Historic Building in the heart of the city. Featuring arched verandahs and pitched tiled roofs, this monument represents a dark history for Hong Kong. Originally built in 1892, the building served as quarters for international nursing staff of the Civil Hospital. It contained ten bedrooms for the nurses, a matron’s office, a laboratory and 12 servants’ quarters, as well as other living facilities. But when nearby asylums became overcrowded, the nurses’ quarters were converted into a 23-bed hospital for mentally ill female patients. During this time its primary function was to take care of patients being transferred to China or other countries.
During World War II the site was believed to be used as an execution ground by the Japanese, with thousands of bodies dumped in a mass grave just across the road. Upon the completion of the war, the building went back to housing mentally ill patients until the opening of Castle Peak Hospital in 1961, when patients were eventually transferred and the Sai Ying Pun location was abandoned in 1970. The old mental hospital sat vacant for 20 years and became the location for many ghost tales and sightings, giving it the nickname of the High Street Ghost House. Many residents in the area reported sightings of headless ghosts wandering the corridors and curious teenagers visited
at night in the hopes of spotting one. The reports were so widely spread that people avoided moving to the area completely. After two fires devastated the building, the Hong Kong Government decided to put some love back into it. Over the course of three years, the building’s exterior was restored but the interior was so badly damaged that they decided to modernise it, turning the building into a community center, housing several charity organisations. While the building has now overcome its dark history, many believe that the lost souls remain inside to this day, so keep your eyes peeled after the sun goes down.
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