Interview with David Yeo and Iain Ward of Hullett House

Heritage boutique hotel Hullet House is the brainchild of David Yeo who is best known for his high-end restaurant group Aqua. The hotel is housed in the former marine police headquarters and is part of a revitalization and redevelopment project of the historical site.

Erected in 1881 the site is one of the four oldest surviving buildings in Hong Kong. But is this merely a shameless attempt to commercialize Hong Kong’s heritage or a genuine exercise in cultural preservation?

Iain Ward, who was a mariner based in the marine police headquarters in the 1960s and now a historian, attempts to answer this question together with David Yeo. The two fill us in on ghost stories, mariners running around in their underpants, and Kowloon’s first flushing toilet.

CNNGo: What reaction has Hullett House had since its opening?

Well, I have not been pelted by eggs! So far people seem to appreciate what we’re trying to do. There is a sigh of relief that it has not been turned into a very commercial area -- no chain restaurants for example. We want the building to be allowed to speak to you. We wanted it to be consistent with its past otherwise it would just be bitty and not as historical. We are trying to do this for everyone in Hong Kong as this whole place belongs to Hong Kong. We are even hoping to get a stage up in the courtyard to showcase dying arts and culture in Hong Kong, paper lanterns for example. There is also a very talented shadow puppeteer in Hong Kong. We would like to put up a wishing tree too. Now the whole hill is a facility for Hong Kong people. They have had three wedding parties yesterday, two graduations and it is impossible to get onto the veranda. Hong Kong people are already beginning to say “Yeah, it’s good”. I have now stopped walking out of my room scratching in my underpants like I did in the 1960s -- there is always someone having their photo taken outside!

 

CNNGo: Do you think Hullett House is a positive move for the preservation of Hong Kong’s heritage?

Yes. We wanted to create a heritage feel as this place is so unique; its history stretches from 1881 to 2009. It is a kaleidoscope from the colonial past to today. It is still very distinct and we tried to encapsulate this. Iain was the inspiration behind calling the courtyard the “fifty pigeon courtyard.”
Yes, the pigeons used to come here everyday and there always seemed to be about fifty of them. Even after they died they always managed to maintain a constant population of fifty. You can still see the birdhouses in the courtyard today. Also, all the wood used for the Stables came from an old Chinese ship. All the wood has been left untouched -- you can see all the grooves. Hullet House also contains Kowloon’s first flushing toilet. Yes, but there is now a staircase running through the middle of it! The original intention was to pull the whole thing down and put a bus stop here in the 1980s. This is one of Hong Kong’s buildings, we want to use it for the people in some way. At one point we had a dewy-eyed vision of children playing on the grass in the courtyard -- we didn’t envision a hotel.

CNNGo: Iain, how much is it like you remember it?

It is weird for me, as it is very much as I remember it. But suddenly I go around the corner and can't go where I used to go. Ironically, I am staying in the room I used to live in from 1967-8. I am very used to the room. But then I step out onto the same veranda, walk through the same familiar door and find I have an audience of a quarter of a million people. Also, the Mariner’s Bar was originally the sergeant’s mess. It was dead rough in the old days for the old policemen. Fifteen to twenty people would share a room. Although it was quite good accommodation for the time. The cells are now the only rooms that haven’t changed their uses.
Iain, I have been meaning to ask you: how many people would the cells hold? Officially a maximum of three. Normally, though, we would have one, three, five, or seven prisoners. We would always try and have an odd number in case of assaults.

CNNGo: Do you have a favorite room?

Back then it would have been the sergeant’s mess. Not just because of the alcohol! It had wood paneling and a fireplace; a fire was always lit in the winter. It had a cozy home feel. We sort of lived in it. Everything else was pretty stark. Now, I don’t have a favorite, each room suits a different mood. I don’t have a favorite room either. But the very special bits to me are the staircases. They are so old and made out of granite. There is a special feeling that history is speaking to you. They are special to me too. I ran up and down them so many times, for good reasons and bad.

CNNGo: Are there any interesting ghost stories about the old marine police headquarters?

 

Ghosts? Luckily, no. But people have died here. People died rather nastily here during the occupation but luckily no ghosts; they would probably be quite nasty ones if there were. I have seen this complex so full of prisoners with their hands on their heads squatting on the ground.

 

CNNGo: No ghost stories? This place must have seen some sort of controversy?

I remember the mariners used to recruit a lot of Punjabi soldiers -- they were strong and tall. There was a water shortage once which caused quite a bit of conflict. The Punjabis tried to make sure they had enough water so they tried to use their weight and height over the Cantonese. The next day the Cantonese found a dead pig and put it on top of the water container. Because the Punjabis were Muslim they could not touch the water. The gweilos got involved after that. Ah, the Indian constables room is my other favorite!

CNNGo: How long did the project take you to finish?

Refurbishing took five months but work on the whole building started in 2002. It has taken seven years to dig up the hill and excavate.

CNNGo: David, Do you think you are exploiting Hong Kong’s heritage for commercial purposes?

We were contacted to put forward a proposal and immediately we said we would like to be the only operator. We’re not exploiting it. The government put the site out to tender. We are doing the refurbishment. This is the closest we can think of to national service; a thank you to Hong Kong from us. The only reason culture is vanishing is because it is no longer relevant. We need to turn this place [Hullett House] into something relevant. It is the best way to keep culture going. It’s not exploitation. It is making it relevant. We want to respect the building and the history of the place. As far as the government is concerned anyone could come in and put a Starbucks or a McDonalds here.

 

Hullett House

2 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong Tel +852 3988 0000 www.hulletthouse.com

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