Just south of PMQ is a neighbourhood that almost disappeared. A little more than 15 years ago, the cluster of post-war tenements along Staunton, Wing Lee and Shing Wong streets was slated for redevelopment by the Urban Renewal Authority (URA). Neighbourhood activists had been fighting the project for years, but as is often the case, there seemed to be little hope that this historic corner of Sheung Wan would be spared the wrecking ball.
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Then Echoes of the Rainbow was released. The 2010 film, starring Sandra Ng Kwan-yue and Simon Yam Tat-wah, offered a nostalgic portrayal of life on Wing Lee Street in the 1960s. It was a box office hit, and its success held a magnifying glass over the URA’s ambitions. Under mounting public pressure, the agency decided to halt the redevelopment, and instead fix up its properties on Wing Lee Street, a quiet, car-free row of walk-up buildings known as tong lau.
88-90 Staunton Street in Hong Kong. Photo: Keith Sin
The owners of nearby, privately owned properties made similar efforts to renovate their vintage buildings, including the owner of 19 Shing Wong Street, whose stylishly restored building is now home to a cafe. But the fate of the remaining URA-owned properties in the area – a collection of nine buildings completed between 1948 and 1958, plus seven vacant lots – remained up in the air.
Not any more. Today, after years of sitting empty, the nine buildings collectively known as the H19 Staunton Street/Shing Wong Street Project have been restored to community, commercial and residential use. And the efforts have been applauded: last year the project was recognised with a Special Award for Heritage and Adaptive Re-use by the Hong Kong Institute of Architects, along with a Revitalisation Team of the Year award from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a Grand Award from the Quality Building Award.
Restored terrazzo railings at 88-90 Staunton Street. Photo: Keith Sin
“It’s not really a conservation project – it’s more of a community re-engagement project,” says architect Jo Lo Ting-chuen, whose studio ArchiPie was the lead architectural consultant to the URA on H19. “There is a very strong neighbourhood here and a lot of people were very concerned about this project.”
