The Magistracy used to handle cases in the Kowloon District, which covers Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po, Shek Kip Mei, Cheung Sha Wan and Ho Man Tin, and could be considered one of the busiest in Hong Kong.

[2] The estimated saving from the closure of North Kowloon Magistracy is HK$6.6 million a year coming mainly from the reduction of registry staff.

[7] The cases adjudicated in North Kowloon Magistracy were mostly minor ones including prostitution, illegal hawking and littering in prohibited areas.

On 7 December 1998, an elderly hawker suddenly set fire to himself in the Magistracy after he was convicted of illegal hawking, fined HK$400 and had his jade trinkets confiscated.

[8][9] In December 2002, someone sprayed red paint on the rear door of the Magistracy to support the implementation of Article 23, he was later charged with criminal damage to property.

[10] In December 2003 Kwai Bing Hong [zh; zh-yue] (aka King of the Gangsters, 季炳雄) appeared in the Magistracy facing charges of illegal possession of firearms and causing grievous bodily harm to two police officers.

North Kowloon Magistracy is featured by the Neo-classical architecture and Stripped Classicism, a form of neo-classicism from which most of the traditional mouldings, ornament and details have been elided, visually emphasizing the structural and proportional systems.

[4] The building is divided into 3 functional zones and characterized by independent circulation access for general public, magistrates and staff, police and prisoners respectively.

Another major architectural feature of the building is the double half-turn unenclosed symmetrical grand staircase outside the door that form a hexagon.

However, this proposal faced strong opposition from the Sham Shui Po District Council, which in turn suggested using the site to build a Legal History Museum.

The anticipated renovation period for the magistracy building will be around 15 months and the SCAD school is expected to open in 2011, allowing the public to visit the old law courts and passages for prisoners.

It is expected that the project will house 40 classrooms, 16 faculty and staff offices, one library, one art gallery, and two computer laboratories.

Wang's outburst has caused much public outcry and as a result the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Revitalization of Historic Buildings, Bernard Charnwut Chan, had to clean up the rumours on air.

On 17 February 2009, Liza Wang strongly protested against the result of the scheme, said she wanted to cry and threatened to take the matter up with Chief Executive Donald Tsang.

[15][16] It was later reported in the newspapers that the association's initial proposal had a comparable score to the ultimate winner SCAD but fell short at the interview stage because Wang was unable to convince the Advisory Committee with an estimated operating cost of $15 million and foreseeable difficulty in raising funds.