Hong Kong Heritage – a Few Observations 1 – Central Market

a few days break in the Midnight in Peking US tour so let’s catch up on some heritage news gleaned on a recent Hong Kong trip…

The Central Market issue in Hong Kong rolls on with shop keepers there finding life precarious. The 72-year-old building is supposed to be being renovated by the Urban Renewal Authority. The aim is to rezone the market as a “historic area” – an obvious thing to do as the Central Market is by far the best piece of architecture in the Bauhaus style left in Hong Kong (built in the late 1930s) and at that time one of the biggest and most modern meat markets in Asia (comparable only really to Shanghai’s abattoir – now the failed 1933 development in Hongkou).

The Central Market is a four storey building with rounded corners typical of the period and style. The internal courtyard and staircases are particularly impress (see this pdf for some internal pictures of the market). The building was so well designed and maintained after the war that it has hardly been changed inside.

Anyway, shop keepers are up in arms about being moved swiftly without being able to let their customers know where they’re going while (surprise, surprise) property developers want the land for (uuggghh!!) a car park or a supermarket.

frontage onto Des Voeux Road

Side of the market down