Wedding in Hong Kong - Part 1 - The Registrars

Having just arrived the previous night, we were up quite early to get ready to go to the wedding of two of Jacquelines' friends at the Cotton Tree Drive Registrars Office, which is within Hong Kong Park. 

The Wedding Party

Entrance

Registry Office

he Marriage registry Office actually  housed within Rawlinson House, the former residence of the British Deputy General (also known as the "Deputy Commander, British Forces"), converted in the 1980s into a marriage registry. 

Two Warrant Officers' Married Quarters were integrated with it into a single building in the 1960s.

Marriage Hall

Hallway

 Also within the now Hong Kong Park were The Victoria Barracks.

The Victoria Barracks were a barracks in the Admiralty district of Central on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. The barracks were constructed between the 1840s and 1874 and situated within the area bounded by Cotton Tree Drive, Kennedy Road and Queensway, Hong Kong. Together with Murray Barracks, Wellington Barracks and Admiralty Dock, the barracks formed a British military zone in Central. The barracks was named for Queen Victoria, monarch at the time of construction.

The barracks were one of the first British military compounds in Hong Kong and were used by the Japanese during the Japanese occupation (1941–1945). 

They underwent major restoration after World War II. Part of the land was returned to the Hong Kong Government in 1967; most of the rest was transferred to the government in 1979.

According to the Hong Kong Heritage Society, a Shinto-style arch was built and a pilau stone was erected by the Japanese Navy during the war. These Japanese structures still existed in the barracks in the late 1970s.

Part of the barracks were subsequently used as a branch office of the Immigration Department; illegal immigrants went to the Victoria Barracks office for registration to apply for Hong Kong Identity Cards in 1979.

Victoria Barracks