Vanishing tong lau: Hong Kong heritage experts call for action, incentives to save last pre-war shophouses
- Old shophouse buildings in danger of demolition as rules for preservation are too restrictive, experts say
- Few owners apply to repair, upgrade buildings because it costs too much, government grant is not enough
Businesswoman Vanessa Ho never set out to be a conservationist, but now she is pleased that she bought an old shophouse and saved a slice of Hong Kong’s history.
The four-storey building at 1 Queen’s Road West in Sheung Wan was built in around 1930, before World War II, and was owned since the 1950s by a family who ran a restaurant selling roasted meat on the ground floor and lived upstairs.
The restaurant’s sign was still up and advertising slogans in fonts popular in the last century were painted on its wall and terrazzo pillars, when Ho, 50, bought it in 2016.
That was six years after the building received a grade-three historic rating in 2010, the lowest of a three-tier scale where no protection was guaranteed and the owners could demolish it if they wished.
“You can’t really look at a heritage building solely from the investment perspective,” she said. “To me, I feel I have preserved a piece of Hong Kong’s history and heritage, and I’m quite proud of that.”
It now has a vegetable store on the ground floor selling local farm products, while the upper floors are rented as office space.