Name (English): Nam Koo Terrace
Name (Chinese): 南固臺
Category: Historical Site
Address (English): 55 Ship Street, Wan Chai
Address (Chinese): 灣仔船街55號
Address Google Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/CPNbVLTmW51bvJg8A
Address longitude and latitude: 22.27514148459226, 114.16968979661267
Nearest MTR Station: Wan Chai MTR Exit B2
Nearest MTR Station Google Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/6tZaa4Hn2kFgrqLZ7
Nearest MTR Station longitude and latitude: 22.277707533536272, 114.1731419677762
How far from the nearest MTR Station: 6-minute walk from Wan Chai MTR Exit B2
Opening Hour:
MON 00:00 – 23:59
TUE 00:00 – 23:59
WED 00:00 – 23:59
THU 00:00 – 23:59
FRI 00:00 – 23:59
SAT 00:00 – 23:59
SUN 00:00 – 23:59
Recommended Time to Visit: During nighttime for thrill seekers
Accessibility Note： Easy access
Notoriously known as the Wanchai Haunted House, Nam Koo Terrace is a two-storey mansion built by a Shanghainese merchant in 1915-1921. With a red brick facade, crescent shaped terrace and decorated balustrades, the mansion is built with a mix of traditional Chinese and European motifs, combined to be known as the Colonial Eclectic style.
It has a colonnaded porch with sculptural columns, which are now overgrown with moss. The building is notoriously creepy for its walls are painted in blood-red and peeling wallpapers, and half-submerged in overgrown greenery, relatively hidden from the main streets. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the owner of the mansion was forced to abandon it, and it is rumoured that Nam Koo Terrace was overtaken by the Japanese troops as a ‘comfort house’, or brothel for the military.
Tales of abuse and torture spread throughout the neighbourhood, and it has become an urban myth that ghosty flames appear at night, or that female voices echo in its abandoned halls. The myth was fortified when in 2003 a bunch of teenagers sneaked into the building, in hope to have a ghostly experience. They claimed to see dark figures waving at them, and one was even possessed by a ghost and ultimately they had to be rescued by police officers. It was rumoured that the teenagers suffered from mental breakdowns afterward.
Over the decades, Nam Koo Terrace had been vacant, waiting for its fate from property developers until recently, it was announced that the mansion will be converted into a marriage registry, perhaps a rather unusual choice, considering its troubled history.
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