Mong Kok heritage project reveals 100 years of Hong Kong’s street-side history

These 10 tenement buildings once housed bicycle stores and tobacco shops, then electronics retailers and construction suppliers

Now a HK$200 million restoration project by the Urban Renewal Authority has helped these prewar shophouses show off their bones

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Conservation architect Curry Tse Ching-kan recalls the difficulties in preserving the Shanghai street project in Yau Ma Tei. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 11:00am, 27 Dec 2019Updated: 4:29pm, 27 Dec 2019

Wedged among the skyscrapers of Mong Kok, one of Hong Kong’s busiest districts, sits 10 newly restored blocks that tell the near-forgotten story of a city some 100 years ago.

Standing on Shanghai Street since the 1920s, around the corner from the densely packed Argyle Street, these 10 blocks have been home to generations of Hongkongers and seen decade upon decade of change.

They once housed bicycle stores and tobacco shops, then electronics retailers and construction suppliers. Now, after a lengthy HK$200 million restoration project by the Urban Renewal Authority (URA), dubbed “618 Shanghai Street”, these prewar shophouses are again showing off their original bones.

Curry Tse Ching-kan, the project’s conservation architect, said the authority was pleasantly surprised to see the buildings’ origins revealed with the removal of each layer of paint and render – added over time by different tenants.

Tenement buildings as part of the Shanghai street project in Yau Ma Tei. Photo: Winson Wong

It took more than 11 years for the authority to take the project from initial acquisition and public consultation to commencement of construction in 2014, to final completion just last month.