Introduction

Located in Kowloon Park, once the site of the British Army's Whitfield Barracks, the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre is housed in two of the old barrack blocks, S61 and S62, which were probably built in the late 1890s. Starting in 1967, Whitfield Barracks was handed over in stages to the government for redevelopment as a cultural and leisure venue, and the site was eventually opened to the public in 1970 as Kowloon Park. Blocks S61 and S62 were used from 1983 to 1998 as the temporary premises of the Hong Kong Museum of History. The blocks were restored by the Antiquities and Monuments Office in 2003 and subsequently developed into the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre in 2005. The buildings are now used for heritage education and publicity.

Open to visitors since October 2005, the Centre is home to a permanent exhibition gallery, thematic exhibition gallery, lecture hall, educational activity rooms and reference library. It also provides free Government Wi-Fi Internet access for the public.

For more information on the history, architectural characteristics and restoration of the Centre, please read the pamphlet on the Centre or join the guided tour of the "Former Whitfield Barracks After Adaptive Re-use".