PMQ CENTER, Pmq Centre

Hi, my name’s Rick, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: PMQ.

PMQ is a modern center for the arts, culture and exhibitions, in which you can visit art galleries, craft shops, pastry shops, cafés and restaurants.

The main purpose of the center is to support the work of talented local young people and to promote cooperation among international designers.

With all these little shops, open-plan areas, temporary stands, art galleries, stores selling jewelry, accessories, clothes, shoes, designer items for the home and furniture, all in rigorously innovative style, you’re bound to find something to fall in love with.

The building you’re about to visit, renovated and altered between 2012 and 2014, today appears bright and modern, with large spaces and outdoor areas, but its history dates to the end of the 19th century, when the Central School, the first western-style school also for the children of rich Chinese merchants and craftsmen, was moved here.

Later renamed Queen’s College, the school was destroyed during the Second World War and moved elsewhere. Its place was taken by quarters built for local police officers and their families. The plain, simple architecture was in keeping with the style of the post-war years. The modern restoration, with the addition of large windows and areas such as the Marketplace and the Roof Garden, has brought a bright, distinctive look to the construction.

The families who lived here were all moved to other quarters by the end of the year 2000, and in the years that followed, the decision was taken to reconsider this area as a historical monument, breathing new life into it with a project designed to support local creativity.

The only historical part of the building still visible is the Glimpse PMQ, in the basement, where you can see part of the rocky foundations of the old school.

The layout of the structure has remained as it was in the 1950s: two large seven-floor buildings facing one another, linked by a smaller structure in which connecting corridors have been created, as well as a large open-plan area, and a Roof Garden on the 4th floor.

Let me leave you with an interesting fact: among the former students of the old Central School, in 1864, was the great Chinese politician Sun Yat-sen.