King George V Memorial Park, Kowloon, Urban park in Jordan, Hong Kong.
King George V Memorial Park lies in Jordan between Canton Road and Shanghai Street, bounded by Jordan Road to the north. Its first layout was designed by the Hong Kong architecture firm Palmer and Turner, with Lai Kee Company as main contractor. After the war the Urban Council rebuilt it with three Chinese-style kiosks, a 7-a-side football pitch, basketball courts and a children's playground, and the northern end was designed for the comfort of elderly visitors.
Construction began in October 1940 under contractor Lai Kee Company, which completed the park in eight months for HK$70,000. It opened on 11 June 1941, with Colonial Secretary Norman Lockhart Smith officiating in place of the ill Governor Sir Geoffry Northcote. The original layout, centred on a statue of King George V, was designed by architecture firm Palmer and Turner. During the Japanese occupation the facilities were destroyed and the site was used as a rubbish dump.
The park's name honours King George V, whose statue once stood at its centre. Its red-tiled, green-roofed entrance gatehouse and three Chinese-style kiosks were built in the 1950s reconstruction. The northern end was designed for the comfort of elderly visitors, a layout still visible today.
The park lies south of Jordan Road, east of Canton Road, north of the Kwun Chung Municipal Services Building and west of Shanghai Street, near Austin MTR station. Entrances face these surrounding streets. Smoking is banned throughout except in designated smoking areas.
The park's 1990s redesign removed its children's library, opened in 1967 by Urban Councillor Elsie Elliott, after the better-equipped Yau Ma Tei Public Library opened in 1971. The Kwun Chung Municipal Services Building, the district's first Urban Council complex, cost $410 million and opened on 1 January 1991 on the former football pitch.
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