It's a pity no one photographed the 1930s-style clawfoot bath swinging in the wind as a giant crane hoisted it towards a second-storey window. But moving in the cast iron tub was the least of James Shipton's problems when he set out to restore an old colonial-style building in Tai Hang to its former glory.
The Australian banker has always had an affinity for heritage buildings. 'Melbourne is one of the great repositories of Victorian architecture, and I grew up in a wonderful 1880s house, surrounded by heritage features such as century-old wooded floorboards, 16-foot ceilings, original brass beds and rambling verandahs,' he says.
In relocating for his work, Shipton has also lived in a pre-war shophouse in Singapore, an old teak house in Thailand and previously rented West Point Bungalow, a heritage building on Conduit Road.
But two years ago he decided to restore a heritage home of his own rather than rent, and searched Hong Kong island for property.
'I used to spend weekends walking around with a little map, making notes of all the old buildings and all the old apartment blocks that I would find,' says the 37-year-old who first came to Hong Kong in 1993 to undertake postgraduate studies in law at the University of Hong Kong. 'I would walk in to the local real estate agents and try and get the heritage of the different buildings.'
Shipton's search led him to a 1906 house on School Street in Tai Hang, the first in the village to include a western-style toilet. Its owners, the Chung family, used to run a building business in Tai Hang but had resettled in Sydney, and struck a deal to sell him the 31/2-storey house.