Central Police Station - Now and Then

Despite the former Central Police Station compound being open for several years now (looks like it was open as far back a 2018) I have only just made the effort to go there this week. I have yet to have a decent wander, but I did go to the Happy Valley museum in the basement of the Police HQ block. "Why is there an historical exhibition for Happy Valley in the Central Police Station compound?" I hear you ask? It's because the renovation of the compound was funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club so they wanted to make it a bit about themselves as well.

I will go back at some point and get some better pictures and explore a bit more, but in the meantime, here are a couple of shots to compare to some screen grabs taken from Rod Taylor's entertaining 1960s show "Hong Kong", for which I did an episode-by-episode location breakdown about five years ago. Incidentally, for those not wanting to go to the Internet Archive, I am also uploading all episodes to my Youtube channel.

Lupin the 3rd - Shun Oguri (2014) - Central Police Station, Hollywood Road

The second and last post of our brief coverage of Lupin the 3rd as the Interpol Police Inspector (played by Tadanobu Asano) calls a meeting with the Hong Kong Police in order to plan his raid on The Works' headquarters.

It's just a very brief shot of the stone facade of the former Police HQ on Hollywood Road before switching to an interior filmed, I assume, somewhere else although I have yet to visit here to confirm one way or another. Given that the last post was most definitely stock footage, I'm going to assume this shot was as well. I doubt there was any proper filming taking place here for this movie.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Compound, Central

It seems only fitting that for the very last episode of this show (Ep:26), The Runaway, we are taking one last look at the Central Police Station Compound off Hollywood Road. There is a little bit of reuse of some images (for instance, this sequence from the episode was originally seen in Blind Bargain) but there are a few new angles that hadn't been used before. don't forget that this whole complex is now open to the public and now goes by the name of Tai Kwun.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Compound, Central

I've put up so many different angles of the Central Police Station compound for this show that I have sort of lost track of all the different views. This one, or at least a version of it, also appeared in episode 1, Clear for Action, but for some reason I managed to capture an extra screencap of the car turning into the front of the station for Murder by Proxy.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Compound, Central

A single solitary shot from When Strangers Meet that shows the central courtyard facing entrance of the Central Police Station.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Compound, Central

Moving on to episode 12, The Dragon Cup, and already there are a few changes being done to the Hong Kong series, perhaps in response to the fact that it wasn't getting quite as many views as was hoped (according to the fan page it was competing with Wagon Train for viewers at the time and losing badly). So it seems that the change in year from 1960 to 1961 also saw some changes in the show.

One thing to note is that this episode is the very last one featuring Jack Kruschen's character 'Tully'. After this episode he just disappears and is never mentioned again. It seems that the dive bar he owns was no longer considered to be a place that Glen Evans and Neil Campbell could hang out in and so from episode 14 onward (an episode called Suitable for Framing which has disappeared online making it impossible for me to watch) their new hangout is a nightclub called the Golden Dragon run by a lady called Ching Mei (played by Mai Tai Sing). This gave the producers a chance to introduce a sort of musical interlude in the show to fill up some airtime. The change also saw a significant amount of reuse of the footage already seen in earlier episodes as well as more studio based scenes and stories. Overall the quality of locations dropped in number and originality for the second half of the season.

With that said, the first proper location is footage from the Central Police Station compound that uses some previously unused footage of Rod Taylor driving his car around the central carpark coupled with some older footage (last image) of him getting out of the car (the first use of this footage can be seen in Colonel Cat).

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station Compound, Central

Here's another quick view of the Central Police Compound that hasn't popped up before. The building on the left was the actual police station building that fronted onto Hollywood Road. I think over the course of this whole series, almost every angle of this central courtyard was covered.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station Compound, Central

Here is a new view of the Central Police Station Compund from episode 8, Colonel Cat. This is the first time we have this view from the central carpark/courtyard looking south towards what was once the main barrack block.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station Compound, Central

I'm sticking with the Central Police Station (now Tai Kwun) for the next episode, Blind Bargain. This is the episode adapted from the un-aired pilot that co-starred Alex Davion in the original Chief Inspector role.

Various descriptions on the web say that the pilot was a cut down version of this episode, however, the way the characters interact and the way the story plays out in this episode, it looks to me more likely that this episode was constructed from the pilot footage with extra pick up shots inserted to pad the episode out to its 50 minute length (the original pilot was only 30 mins). An example would be the friendliness between Taylor's and Davion's characters that implies a close friendship despite the fact that for this episode, Davion is supposed to be a quick replacement brought in to fill in for Lloyd Bochner's usual 'Neil Campbell' character whilst the latter is away in the UK giving evidence in a trial.

So that I don't repeat myself too much, I've already updated the Pilot locations with a tag that also identifies them as locations for this episode, so the locations I'll include here are the ones that weren't in the pilot. In this case it is footage of Rod Taylor driving his car up the access ramp into the Police Station compound from Hollywood Road and then circling the central car park.

This exact same sequence was reused for the very last episode, The Runaway, a well.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station Compound, Central

A final shot from Jumping Dragon and a revisit to the Central Police Station. I have no doubt that all the shots of this place throughout the whole series were most likely filmed on a single day.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station Compound, Central

One of the most commonly occurring locations for this show was the Central Police Compound off Hollywood Road in Central. This is because the secondary character throughout the whole series was Lloyd Bochner's rather well-spoken English Gent Police Chief Inspector, Neil Campbell, whose office was located here.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station, Central

One of the main locations for the on-screen dialogue between Evans and the Police Chief, throughout this whole series, occurs on the police station studio set. However, the establishing shots for these scenes were filmed at the real life Central Police Station on Hollywood Road, with Taylor driving his signature white sports car up the main entrance and then around the central courtyard/carpark area.

This place is now open to the public and you can rad more about it here.

The Yin and Yang of Mr Go - James Mason (1970) - Hollywood Road, Central

The US agent gets into a spot of bother (it's never clear why and I suppose the reason may have been one of the never filmed scenes) and is chased up Pottinger Street. Burgess Meredith, in a role that is also never made clear, agrees to act as a decoy and leads the pursuers up to the Central Police Station on Hollywood Road where he is able to escape (into the police compound it seems) by walking next to some police.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Central Police Station, Hong Kong

In this post we see the Central Police Station which was recently undergoing a major refurbishment and was supposed to be open full time last year (2015). However, just yesterday (29 May 2016) it seems that a major part of the building has collapsed. Time will tell the cause but I wouldn't rule out human stupidity at this point, HK seems to be infected with it of late.

Anyway, in case you wanted to remember how it all looked 30 years ago, here are the grabs from Noble House.

Southern building facade

Apparently, this is the real Interior

Driveway to central courtyard