CLP Clock Tower Re-opens As Heritage Museum

The 83-year-old CLP clock tower on Argyle Street re-opened on Friday after undergoing a five-year renovation.

The building served as the power firm's headquarters until 2012 and was listed as a Grade 1 historic building in 2018, meaning it is deemed to be of outstanding merit and worthy of every effort at preservation.

Speaking on RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme, CLP's director of Corporate Affairs, Vivian Au, explained that the building has been turned into CLP Pulse, a free museum featuring artefacts, displays and even a retired, fifth-generation Peak Tram in the garden.

"When CLP relocated to Hung Hom in 2012, we had to think about how to use the clock tower building," she said. "We thought we could make it into a community facility, a cultural hub for the public of Hong Kong, to promote history, heritage, culture and green education. It took us five years to preserve and revitalise it and turn it into what it is today – a free museum for the public to enjoy."

CLP was founded in 1901 when electricity was very much still a novelty, and the museum tells the story of the role of electric power in Hong Kong's development.

"There is a lot of focus in the museum about electricity," Au said. "We have artefacts, models and videos to take people back to a time when electricity was a new thing, but also how it pushed society forward, and how it was expanded to all of Hong Kong."

Architecturally, the tower – with its three-phased electric clock – is of significant interest in itself. Au described it as "an iconic landmark."

"The building took shape at the height of the art deco movement and is international modernist in design," she said. "The clock itself is its most recognisable feature and really stands out in the local vicinity."