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Raymond Ma

ANYONE WORKING in the centre of Hong Kong's financial district who can put up with cramped quarters and do without some luxuries of life - such as cable and broadband - may find the history-laden Hollywood Road a good home.

Located just above the financial heart of the SAR and perched below its richer cousin - Mid-Levels - the area offers a convenient place to start the day.

Centaline Property Agency sales director Terrace Tong Ping-ching says: 'Some of the people who live there work in Central, particularly those working in the financial sector. Working late, they like some place close to work so they can just walk home.'

Finding a home here will not be easy, however, as the market on flats is rather slow.

'Even if I wanted to find a place to live on Hollywood Road, the choice of apartments is not that great,' Mr Tong says.

However, like Mid-Levels, Hollywood Road represents a tranquil setting to retire to at the end of the day, Midland Reality's district manager Sunny Yau Ngai-sun says.

Named by Hong Kong's second governor, Sir John Davis, after his family home at Wesry-on-Trym near Bristol, England, Hollywood Road was built by the Royal Engineers and is of strong interest to both residents and visitors.

Around the mid-19th Century, the street was the home to many attractive private residences, with a few European-staffed brothels at its eastern end. Cat Street, located at the Western end, was a haven for drunken sailors, gamblers, prostitutes and opium addicts. It also was where thieves and pirates went to sell stolen antiques - a possible origin of the area's famous antique trade.

Along the middle of the stretch, and still standing after nearly 150 years, is Man Mo Temple. A favourite as a set for many films, it is dedicated to the gods of literature and war.

Recently declared a monument and preserved for posterity, Central Police Station is located at the Eastern end. Adjoining Victoria Prison, it dates back to 1864.

It was used by the Japanese from 1941 to 1945 as the central district headquarters of the kempetai - Japan's answer to Germany's gestapo.

Unlike Cat Street's chaotic mix of shops, stalls and hawkers selling antiques and junk right up until the 1970s, modern Hollywood Road's antique scene is more commercialised but no less eclectic.

Collectors browsing through the shops can find merchandise ranging from expensive, museum-quality Ming and Ching furniture to posters and photographs of old Hong Kong, rare valuable books and manuscripts.

Mao Zedong memorabilia, old money, classic toys and aged electrical appliances are all fair game at shops on and around Hollywood Road.

And no mention of Hollywood Road would be complete without reference to one of Hong Kong's trendiest nightspots, congregated mainly on Staunton, Shelley and Elgin Streets and inspired by its more established counterparts in London and New York - Soho.

The name stands for 'south of Hollywood Road'. Soho has an abundance of bars, pubs, drinking and eating establishments featuring worldwide cuisine -  and all sorts of other entertainment both seedy and wholesome.

The majority of residences on and around Hollywood Road are tong lau - Chinese residential buildings - which are generally five or six storeys.

They proliferated in Hong Kong during the 1950s and 1960s as living space became more scarce, with some being rented out to sun yee mun (new immigrants). Tong lau differed from yeung lau (Western buildings) in that whereas the latter usually had lifts, tong lau residents had to use stairs.

The tong lau on Hollywood Road, as in other parts of Hong Kong, are neither shiny and new nor spacious. Most average 400 square feet to 500 sq ft, a far cry from those available in Mid-Levels which can reach about 2,000 sq ft, which usually translates into two-bedrooms and a single bathroom.

Most were built anywhere between a few and about 20 years ago.

Luckily they are not priced too aggressively - about HK$2,000 per square foot for a flat close to the Mid-Levels escalators.

Flats close to the western end of Hollywood Road, and thus further from Central, tend to cost less - about HK$1,500 per square foot for those willing to do a little more exercise on their way to work.

A big minus for those thinking of spending Sundays, beer in hand, lounging around enjoying ESPN or catching their favourite movie on HBO after a long, hard week at work is that cable television is not available in the area.

The same goes for broadband Internet, so power surfers may have to make do with a slow and torturous telephone dial up.

Perched on the other end of the luxury scale is Hollywood Terrace, probably the only prominent residential estate on Hollywood Road with a good range of facilities.

Built by the Hong Kong Housing Society and completed in 1999, the combination of large, open apartments (between 700 sq ft and 900 sq ft) and proximity to Central meant an instant success despite stiff prices of up to HK$4,000 per sq ft.

All 550 flats in the development were sold on the first day they were put on the market.

Next week: Shamshuipo

Graphic: PRO27gwz



Despite cramped quarters and the absence of cable TV, this historic island road is much sought after by weary Central workers