Facade of the Old Mental Hospital in Hong Kong

Modern day High Street in Hong Kong’s Sai Ying Pun district is mostly known as a food destination, with many lively restaurants and eateries lining the street. However, at its eastern end, the aura feels vastly different due to the presence of a structure renowned as one of Hong Kong’s most haunted locations.

Forebodingly entrenched at 2 High Street is the ominous facade of the city’s former mental asylum. Built with local granite in a monumental Early-Baroque architecture style rarely seen in Hong Kong, the original building was completed in 1892, first serving as the Medical Staff Quarters of the Government Civil Hospital.

In 1938, it was converted into wards for mentally-ill female patients to help alleviate the overcrowded main hospital. It served in this capacity until 1961, when it became utilized as an out-patient clinic for the mentally-ill, before being vacated in 1971.

After being abandoned, the emprty building became frequented by urban explorers and drug addicts. Significant damage to the structure followed, with the collapse of the roof, then two separate fires, believed to have been started by trespassers.

Redevelopment work began in 1998 to convert the site into the Sai Ying Pun Community Complex. Most of the original structure was deemed too damaged and expensive to repair, and was replaced with a larger modern building. This left only the formidable L-shaped granite facade and verandas on the High Street side to be preserved intact, which received official monument <a href="https://warsaw.today/american-airlines-elite-status-what-it-is-and-how-to-earn-it-3/” title=”American Airlines elite status: What it is and how to earn it”>status in 2015.

The building’s dark history extends far beyond its past as a mental asylum. During World War II and the 4 year Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the facility was purportedly used as an execution site. It was also rumoured that neighbouring King George V Memorial Park was used as a mass grave for the bodies murdered within the walls of the then-mental asylum.

Many different apparitions have been seen at the facade, including the decapitated ghosts of WWII prisoners, disembodied sounds of women crying, mysterious footsteps, and male ghosts that burst into flames.

While also known as the “Old Mental Hospital”, its frightening reputation for paranormal activity has led to its most common moniker among local residents, the “High Street Haunted House”.

Source: www.atlasobscura.com