Commissioned in 1928 and completed in 1935, the City West Telephone Exchange is an imposing seven storey brick building near the corner of St Johns Lane. The floors of the exchange were built with concrete encased steel frames in order that the building be able to hold the tons of equipment which once allowed it to act as the largest of the metropolitan telephone exchanges. Although designed to look like a typical multistorey office building, the first six of the seven floors were dedicated to equipment, with only the uppermost floor being used for staff. Surrounded by the Law Courts, the former Mail Exchange and High Court building Bella Li knows, as a former judge’s associate, that this is a place for serious talk.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This poem is a part of Writings on the Wall.