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Liz Heron

The door will close on a small piece of Hong Kong history next Sunday night  - or sometime the following morning - when Cecilia Yuen Wing-kwan  bids farewell to her last customers.

The Better 'Ole Bar and Restaurant in Fanling is set to go out in the style it became famed for in its heyday in the 1970s,with a party starting at 10pm for regulars and old friends from across Hong Kong.

Ms Yuen, whose family has run the bar and restaurant for 50 years, will be calling  last orders next week after they recently accepted an offer from developers to buy the site.

'I think I'm going to take a long holiday,' she said.

'I was about 11 when my dad took over the restaurant and it is full of memories.

'I'm sad to be leaving after all these years but I'm looking forward to a new stage of my life.

'We plan to go out in style. All our customers and friends are going to pop in and we are going to have a really good party. We don't really know what we are going to do next.'

A former soldier opened the Better 'Ole  in 1947  next to the old railway station in Fanling as a watering hole for the many British regiments stationed in the area.

Ms Yuen's family acquired it in 1962 and moved the bar and restaurant to Luen Wo Hui, where it continued to serve soldiers, as well as attracting police officers from the northern New Territories and visitors from across Hong Kong.

The Better 'Ole, which takes its name from a  first world war poster showing soldiers sheltering in a bomb crater,  won a special place in the hearts of many regulars.

One former police officer, Bob Wilkinson, opted to have his memorial service in the pub, two couples got married and numerous regimental reunion parties were held there.

Patrick Rattigan, a solicitor,  used to be taken by his father to the original Better 'Ole   when he was a child. 'It is very sad to hear that it is closing down,' he said.

'It was  the only watering hole for westerners in the area for decades. I hope that someone will pick up the reins and continue the old tradition by opening a new Better 'Ole.'

Mike Arden, of Sheung Shui, a former Royal Artillery bombardier with the 48th Gurkha's Brigade, met his wife at the Better 'Ole more than 40 years ago. She was a waitress at the bar and he was stationed at a battery in what is now a car park.

'It is the closing of another page in Hong Kong's history and it will be sorely missed,' he said.



Time for reminiscing as last orders loom at  Better  'Ole Bar