Hong Kong preservation body to revisit doomed historic pawn building in light of new archival evidence

The doomed Wan Chai landmark Tung Tak Pawn Shop building may have one last chance for an upgrade of its historic status after 2,000 people signed an online petition over the last two weeks, which persuaded the Antiquities Advisory Board to review new information about the site.

But the researcher who discovered the new evidence of the site’s history says she is “not optimistic” it will be enough to gain the building the highest historical grade.

The building, located on the corner of Hennessy Road and Marsh Road, has already lost one of its signature signs and some of the windows on its classic façade. Its owner, Tak Shing Investment, began to tear it down gradually last month.

But after the popularity of the petition calling for the government to rescue the building, the board is now reviewing fresh information that suggests a famous pawnbroker started operating on the site at 371 Hennessy Road some 10 years earlier than thought.

The new information comes from Wendy Ng Wan-yee, a research project officer at Chinese University’s School of Architecture, who presented findings to the government last week when she learned the pawn shop was being demolished.

After studying government records including the Land Registry, Ng discovered the pawn shop building was leased to a justice of peace named Li Yau-tsun in 1938. Li was a prominent pawnbroker in Hong Kong at the time. This was almost a decade before Ko Ho-ning, another famous pawnbroker, acquired the building in 1947.