Statue Square was once a bastion of British colonial rule, taking its name from a statue of Queen Victoria (now removed) and another (still there) of Sir Thomas Jackson, the chief manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank between 1876 and 1902. Other statues of individuals from Britain's royal past in Hong Kong were removed to Japan during the Japanese occupation in World War II (all were later returned). 

Today most of the old colonial buildings have gone, as have the harbour views enjoyed when the square's northern flank looked out over the waterfront (land reclamation has long since changed its appearance). 

The only building of any age is the Legislative Council Chamber, a grandiose granite edifice with lofty lonic pillars and pinnacled dome on the square's eastern flank. It was completed around 1910 and designed by Sir Aston Webb, the British architect responsible for the facade of Buckingham Palace and the Victoria and Albert Museumin London. Until 1985 it was the city's Supreme Court, hence the pediment statue of the blindfolded Greek goddess Themis, symbol of law and justice. 

Today the area is hardly a square in the accepted sense, having been spoiled by the sterility of its modern surroundings, concrete pools and lacklustre fountains. Nonetheless it's a favoured Sunday meeting place for some of the city's expatriate workers - Filipinos in particular - and provides visitors with a good point from which to admire nearby buildings such as the Bank of China Tower, Old Bank of China and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Building. 

The War Memorial Cenotaph, a memorial to the Hong Kong dead of two world wars, is also here (just across the road), as is the home of the Hong Kong Club, a 'paradise of the select, and temple of colonial gentility'. The club's elegant old headquarters, a rococo building dating from 1898, was torn down in the late 1970s. It now occupies several floors of a modern tower.