PMQ, Sun Yat-sen's old school

You're standing at PMQ, a buzzing hive of design shops and studios. But look at the stone wall at its base and the granite steps of the Staunton Street entrance: they are remains of one of the most important schools in Hong Kong's history.

1The Central School

In 1862 the colonial government opened the Central School on Gough Street, a few metres from here, the first public school to offer Western education in English to the city's children. In the mid-1880s a young man from Canton named Sun Yat-sen studied there; years later he would lead the revolution that brought down the Qing dynasty. Robert Ho Tung, one of the great businessmen of his day, also passed through its classrooms.

In 1889 the school moved to this site, into a building that was among the largest and most expensive in the colony. It was called Victoria College and, from 1894, Queen's College.

2War and a new life

The building was wrecked during the war and the Japanese occupation, and its remains were demolished in 1948. In 1951 housing for married police officers went up here, the Police Married Quarters that give the place its name. Empty from 2000, they reopened in 2014 as a creative hub.

Under the design shops, the foundations of the Victorian school are still there.

3What to look for

• The rubble-stone wall and stone corners, inherited from Queen's College.
• The open galleries of the blocks, typical of 1950s housing.
• The school's foundations, visible in an underground space on the site.