Publisher's Synopsis
Standing close together in a compound on a hillside above Victoria Harbour, the Central Police Station, Central Magistracy and Victoria Gaol were a bastion of British colonial power, a symbol of security, law and punishment. This walled city in the heart of Hong Kong's Central District is now restored as a heritage and arts centre known as Tai Kwun. Maintaining law and order in a turbulent place like Hong Kong - lying 'within a rifle shot of the mainland of China' and with a largely unsettled population - was far from straightforward. In the early decades of the colony the police force was a byword for incompetence and corruption. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, political policing became a growing preoccupation as waves of strikes, boycotts and agitations shook the colony.
