Story Behind This Print

Located at the intersection of Nathan Road and Austin Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, is a grade 3 Pre-War historical building that is at risk of being demolished. Built between 1932 and 1937, it is now one of the three remaining pre-war corridor styled buildings in Hong Kong. Its uniqueness stands in the fact that it is not classified as a tenement building (tong lau), but rather a western design influenced by Classicism. In addition, it has rear features of both arcades and balconies, and has an independent building corner.

Throughout the building lifetime, it has went through a few iterations of usage. In the 80s, the tenement building still serves as a living quarter for locals while the ground level shops were open to public. More rarely, the building has retained most of its original architectural features and finishes.

Today, the building is reduced to commercial use. While the architectural features and finishes still remains intact, the biggest changes has been the addition of an exterior façade mounted signage. With the ongoing modernization and urban redevelopment efforts by developers and local government, a demolition plan was approved in 2021. This has caused a pushback from local heritage and conservation groups, and subsequently drove the efforts from conservationists to push the Antiquities Advisory Board to reclassify and upgrade the structure to Grade I status to halt its destruction.