appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Allen Au-yeung

Community activists in Central on Monday are appealing to the city’s heritage advisory body to reconsider its decision not to grade a row of tenement house ruins near the Mid-Levels escalator.
The group had repeatedly urged the government to thoroughly study the historic significance of the ruins hidden at Cochrane Street in Central since October last year and urged their preservation.
But at its meeting last month, the Antiquities Advisory Board decided not to grade the ruins after just minutes of deliberation.
Fears of demolition for historic State Theatre building in North Point: heritage group calls for preservation
Katty Law Ngar-ning, convenor of Central and Western Concern Group said the board should reconsider its decision because it failed to appreciate the ruins’ value as a rare surviving example of early residental structures in Hong Kong as well as its social history.
Law’s group had discovered the neighbourhood was once occupied by a mixed community of Westerners and local Chinese.

“We have been making the call for a grading since October [last year] but there have been no positive answers since,” said Law of her decision to create a petition prior to the board’s meeting at a heritage centre at Kowloon Park on Monday afternoon. “I hope the board can reverse its decision of not grading the ruins.”
She also asked the board to allow the group to present its findings at a future board meeting.
Abandoned Hong Kong island gets new life as heritage site and ecotourism destination
Law added she had filed a complaint with the Ombudsman.
Ted Hui Chi-fung, a Central district councillor supporting Law, felt the history of the building was being “buried away” by the government.
According to a government appraisal of the ruins, the remains, located at what was formerly City of Victoria, comprised a densely-packed, back-to-back tenement house built before 1903.
After 1903, buildings were required to provide open space and a sanitary lane.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, tenement houses in the city were mostly torn down as they were dilapidated.
Local historian and former board member Ko Tim-keung, echoing the group’s call for thorough assessment of the building, last week said he felt the city’s preservation body had often overlooked buildings’ historical significance by focusing only on architectural value or visual appeal.
Hong Kong preservation body to revisit doomed historic pawn building in light of new archival evidence
The ruins now face a threat of demolition as they are located near an Urban Renewal Authority project revamping Graham Street Market.
Andrew Lam Siu-lo, the board’s chairman, accepted Law’s petition.


Why the Hungry Ghost Festival celebration at Hong Kong’s Wah Fu Estate is under threat

Intangible cultural heritage and Hong Kong examples as city celebrates inaugural ICH month

Forget tourist fads. Let’s better preserve, promote Hong Kong heritage

Hong Kong’s intangible cultural heritage to be celebrated in new annual initiative

Living heritage of Hong Kong

Battle for history: Hong Kong community seeks heritage body help to save century-old tenement house

The remains are located in Central near the Mid-Levels escalator. Photo: Dickson Lee

(L-R) Charlton Cheung of Sai Wan Concern Group; Tanya Chan Suk-chong of Civic Party; Local Historian Ko Tim-keung; Central and Western Concern Group Convenor Katty Law Ngar-ning; Engineer Albert Lai Kwong-tak of the Professional Commons; with Central and Western District Councillor Ted Hui Chi-fung; at a press conference by Central & Western Concern Group/Sai Wan Concern on Important findings for old house remains on Cochrane and Gutzlaff Streets and Call for grading, conservation and review of systemic flaws in heritage administration, in Central. 14APR16 SCMP/ Dickson Lee

Press conference by Central & Western Concern Group/Sai Wan Concern on Important findings for old house remains on Cochrane and Gutzlaff Streets and Call for grading, conservation and review of systemic flaws in heritage administration, in Central. 14APR16 SCMP/ Dickson Lee

IN PICTURES: End of an era for Hong Kong's Graham Street as vendors trade places

The corner of Wellington and Graham streets in Central, photographed in 1894, showing the old tenement buildings. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Accompanied by Governor Sir Murray MacLehose, Queen Elizabeth II chats with vegetable sellers while making an unscheduled visit to busy Graham Street in Central.  Photo: P Y Tang

Antique shops on Graham street in Central. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang (right) visits  Graham Street's wet market. Photo: Martin Chan

A model dressed as a skyscraper performs at the Graham Street market festival fashion show. Photo: Robert Ng

Models in market-themed outfits perform at the Graham Street market festival fashion show. Photo: Robert Ng

General view of the market in Graham Street, Central. Photo: David Wong

People shop at the Graham Street wet market. Photo: Martin Chan

People hold vegetables aloft and shout "Market, how much? Gai si gai chin?" for two minutes and then disperse, at the market on the Gage Street intersection with Graham Street in Central. Photo: Martin Chan

A fruit stall on Graham Street, Central.  Pictured (left) is 58-year-old owner Yau Luk Chiu-ying, who has had the stall for about 40 years. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Roger Ho Yao-sheng, executive director of the Conservancy Association Centre for Heritage, pictured at the Wing Woo Grocery, which is over 80 years old and one of the highlights of the Graham Street market tour. Pictured with Roger is store owner Kwan Moon-chiu. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Kwan Moon-chiu, owner of hundred-year-old grocery shop Wing Wo,  which is in the area to be redeveloped by by the Urban Renewal Authority, at the junction of Graham Street and Wellington Street, Central. Photo: Dickson Lee

Visitors take in the "Market in the Sky" light installations on Peel Street, Graham Street and Gage Street designed by master's students from the University of Hong Kong's Department of Architecture, Eric Yin Po-chung and Sandra Leung Mei-wa. Photo: Felix Wong

(From left to right) Lindsay Robertson, Katty Law Ngar-ning, Tanya Chan Suk-chong and Patsy Cheng Man-wah call for government action to save the Graham Street market in Central. Photo: Edward Wong

(From left to right) Lindsay Robertson, Katty Law Ngar-ning, Tanya Chan Suk-chong and Patsy Cheng Man-wah call for government action to save the Graham Street Market in Central. Photo: Edward Wong

A Harry's View cartoon published on July 20, 2007. The Urban Renewal Authority pushed ahead with its plan to knock down the city's oldest wet market on Graham Street in Central despite strong opposition from heritage and residents' concern groups.

Artist's impression of the Peel Street/Graham Street redevelopment project. Image: Urban Renewal Authority

The Urban Renewal Authority's model of the Peel Street/Graham Street project at the URA office. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

News

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Economy