Murray House is a Victorian building located in Stanley Bay. Built in the Central business district in 1844 as an officers' barracks by Royal Engineers Major Aldrich and Lieutenant Collins, the building was moved to the south of Hong Kong Island in the 2000s.
Murray House has become one of the oldest surviving public buildings in Hong Kong. Like many of its early colonial contemporaries, it was designed in the classical style. The heavy stone walls with open arches on the ground floor are meant to give a sense of stability, while the light-coloured Doric and Ionic columns on the upper floors are meant to provide better ventilation. All floors have circular verandas, essential in the local subtropical climate.
During the forty-four months of Japanese occupation, the building was used as a military police command centre. A grim page in the history of Murray House from this period is the executions of Chinese citizens within the walls of the structure and on the surrounding grounds. After World War II, several government departments used the building for offices.
Murray House is believed to be haunted by restless evil spirits and has been the site of two exorcisms in 1963 and 1974, the latter on television. As it was a public institution, a formal contract was drawn up on behalf of the government to exorcise demons.
In 1982, the historic monument was to be demolished due to the construction of the Bank of China Tower. But it was dismantled, with more than 3,000 building blocks tagged and archived for later restoration. The building was restored in 2001 at Stanley Bay and reopened in 2002.
The ground floor of Murray House was given to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum in 2005, which occupied it for about 8 years. The historic structure now houses a restaurant and shops.
