A recently rediscovered century-old Hong Kong hilltop reservoir featuring Roman-style arches that was built in the British colonial era should be given the highest level of heritage protection by the government, a group of architects and historians said following an assessment.

The Bishop Hill covered water tank in Shek Kip Mei showed an extremely high historical value that merited classification as a monument, conservation group Walk in Hong Kong and the experts conducting the study said.

The experts based their conclusion on six criteria used by the government’s Antiquities and Monuments Office to assess a building’s historical value, namely its historical interest, architectural merit, authenticity, rarity, group value, and social value and local interest.

The Bishop Hill facility was unique in Hong Kong for its combined use of granite pillars, red-bricked arches and concrete domes, said Shita Lam, an architecture researcher who took part in the study. The materials reflected Hong Kong’s architectural design in the early 1900s, with red bricks showing a British colonial influence and granite being a local material, she said.

The mixed use of the three materials was rare in Hong Kong as it was a transitional design that would be soon replaced by the extensive use of structures with reinforcement bars and concrete, said Charles Lai, a historian participating in the study.

The reservoir, completed in 1904, was unearthed last December when the government’s Water Supplies Department carried out construction work at the site. Part of its structure was damaged in the process. While the existence of the water tank was known, the details and possible architectural and historical value of its design had been overlooked.

About 90% of its structure and architectural features remained largely intact despite a 1952 renovation and the recent damage by the department’s works, the researchers said in the study.

Historically, the Bishop Hill facility was one of the five remaining reservoirs in Hong Kong from pre-World War II days and the second oldest on the Kowloon peninsula. It also marked the starting point of a major modernization of the water supplies infrastructure from pump wells to service reservoirs for the whole of Kowloon in the early 20th century, the researchers said.

The Shek Kip Mei structure formed a historic record of Kowloon’s water supplies system together with five other monuments and graded historic buildings in Kowloon Reservoir, they said.

The research would be submitted to the Antiquities and Monuments Office and the Antiques Advisory Board, which assesses and grades historic buildings, said Walk in Hong Kong co-founder Paul Chan.

The reservoir showed merits worthy of monument status and the authorities had to explain to the public if they refused to give it that status, Chan said.

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