Central District, the original and enduring heart
of Hong Kong, was remarkably compact. By
the standards of most cities it was very small. Originally developed along the coastal strip beneath the lower slopes of Victoria Peak,
Central District later had been extended
seawards by reclamation. The area had always been the focus of the Colony's administrative, military and commercial life. Yet, just beyond
this civic precinct's established spaces, there existed crowded back streets. These tenement areas, thoroughly Chinese, stretched to the
west and east.

Hedda Morrison captured the essence of the district, originally named the City of Victoria and known to the Chinese, then and now, as Chung Wan (Middle Circuit). Some way above the city, from gently winding contour roads, she photographed panoramas across the harbour towards Kowloon and its line of peaks. In Central the impressive mass of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, focus of European finance on the China coast, loomed large. Nearby Morrison took pleasure in the fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings that graced the area. Around Statue Square, its Cenotaph yet to be inscribed for the Second World War, she captured the dignity
– and to modern eyes the surreal emptiness
– of the city. Some distance to the west, where perceptions of European civility gave way to raw Chinese reality, her camera revealed the street
life: alleyways and terraced tenements, children and workers. There, individuals – whole lives
– endured poverty and hardship.

In China Morrison had made finely composed architectural studies, capturing Peking's built heritage in compelling views. Now in Hong Kong she portrayed the edifices of Central District.
By the standards of Peking, or even Shanghai,
the buildings were modest. But for Hong Kong
they represented the epitome of colonial style.