Hong Kong’s heritage advisers have endorsed designating a nearly 180-year-old temple and the city’s only mosque inside a prison as statutory monuments. The Antiquities Advisory Board proposed at a meeting on Thursday that Hung Shing Temple in Wan Chai and Stanley Mosque in Stanley Prison be elevated by the Antiquities Authority to the city’s highest tier of legal heritage protection. Both buildings currently have Grade 1 historic building status.

A nearly 180-year-old temple nestled in the heart of Wan Chai and Hong Kong’s only mosque inside a prison are poised to receive the city’s highest level of heritage protection under a government proposal. In a paper submitted ahead of a board meeting on Thursday, the Antiquities and Monuments Office recommended that Hung Shing Temple in Wan Chai and the Stanley Mosque at Stanley Prison be declared statutory monuments. Both buildings currently hold Grade 1 historic building status.