Beaconsfield House

Beaconsfield House
拱北行
Beaconsfield House, Hong Kong, c.1966
General information
Type	Government offices
Location	4 Queen's Road, Central, Hong Kong
Opening	8 June 1963
Destroyed	1995
Owner	HK Government
Technical details
Floor count	6
Lifts/elevators	1

Beaconsfield House (Chinese: 拱北行) was a government office building in Hong Kong's Central district.

Built in 1963, the building was home to the Information Services Department until it was demolished along with the neighbouring Hong Kong Hilton in 1995 to make way for the Cheung Kong Center.

The 18,300 sq ft (1,700 m²) site was carved out of a rocky hill on the shore of Victoria Harbour. In 1841, Hong Kong's Deputy Superintendent of Trade and acting administrator, Alexander Johnstone, had the upper part of the hill levelled to build a home. The slope below was cut away to provide space for stables and outbuildings, and the rock and earth were used for reclamation.

Beaconsfield House site was originally home to the Beaconsfield Arcade (so named for Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield), built in 1878 by Emanuel R Belilios. Belilios, a Calcutta-born Sephardi Jew who was at that time a Hong Kong Bank director and LegCo member, sold it to the government in 1898 under some controversy – the Legco Public Works Committee resolution to acquire it passed on Mr Belilios' own vote over a suppressed protest for pecuniary interest disqualification. Across the street from Hong Kong Bank itself and City Hall. Dent's Fountain was later added and donated by Dent & Co..

Beaconsfield was also named for a government building near Government Hill built in the late 19th Century. It was demolished to make way for the French Mission Building of 1917 (at one time also owned by Mr Belilios).

The building was constructed in a utilitarian style of the 1960s, and consisted of 6 storeys.

The lower floors were occupied by the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers), which had its officers' and NCOs' mess in the building. The building thus housed three service messes, a post office and, dominating the ground floor façade, a large public toilet. The Information Services Department moved its offices from the west wing of the Government Offices to Beaconsfield House.