Ominous sign: Workers cover up old coal shop front and fence off site as Hong Kong concern group petitions for Mid-Levels preservation

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Now you see it ... heritage restoration expert Wong Hung-keung walks past the old shop front in Peel Street, which was then covered up on Thursday. Photos: Nora Tam

Published: 7:01am, 23 Oct 2015

A group of activists and district council election candidates on Thursday went to a Mid-Levels redevelopment site to petition for the preservation of an old shop sign – only to see workers cover it up with a large sheet of black canvas before fencing off the building, helped by police.

The call for a halt to demolition of buildings in the area was issued by the Central and Western Concern Group after it consulted heritage restoration specialist Wong Hung-keung and estimated the Ying Kee Hard Coal shop sign at 21 Peel Street dated back at least 70 years.

They also said remains of tenement houses on Cochrane Street, also part of the Urban Renewal Authority project site, could have been built between the 1830s and 1911 and should be conserved.

The Graham Street project, a plan to redevelop Hong Kong’s first wet market into a commercial and residential zone, was first announced by the now-defunct Land Development Corporation 17 years ago and was revived by its successor, the URA, nine years ago.

New discoveries of remains of Graham Street market near the intersection of Cochrane Street and Wellington Street Photo: Nora Tam

Around 10 people, including district councillors and community organisers of the Democratic Party, visited the site on Thursday afternoon to petition for an immediate investigation into the immediate area's heritage values.