Built with financial assistance from Sir Paul Chater and Professor G. P. Jordan among others, this building was originally designed to house the student union and was officially opened by the then Governor, Sir Reginald Stubbs, in February 1919. It was temporarily used by the Registry after the Second World War, was later converted into the Senior Common Room in 1974 and housed the Department of Music from 1996 to 2012. The building was named in honour of Mr Hung Hing-ying in 1986 in recognition of his family’s donations to the university.
The two-storey Classic Revival red-brick building has an impressive rotunda at the centre and two rectangular blocks projecting on each side as wings, each of which has a tall chimney stack on the south elevation and colonnaded verandahs on the north elevation.
The Exterior of Hung Hing Ying Building, The University of Hong Kong was declared a monument in 1995.