Engineer's Office of the Former Pumping Station The
Engineer's Office of the Former Pumping Station, Water Supplies Department (), sometimes called "The Red Brick House" (), is a
Grade I historical building located at No. 344 Shanghai Street. It is the only remaining building of a former
pumping station, which was built in 1895 and ceased operation in 1911. Its three buildings underwent different
adaptive reuse: one of them, now demolished, was converted into a post office in the 1910s–1920s. Another one became a hazardous goods store. The remaining building became a
hawkers control office. In the pre-war and early post-war days Yunnan Lane, which was located by the side of the post office, became a place where professional letter writers set up their stalls. The post office ceased operation in 1967 with the opening of the nearby
Kowloon Central Post Office. The vacated post office was then used as a "Street Sleepers' Shelter" operated by the
Salvation Army, until the end of the 1990s, when the shelter for the homeless moved across the street to the building on 345A Shanghai Street, where it is still located. The building is now vacant awaiting a suitable adaptive re-use. It is proposed that the Red Brick Building will revitalise in conjunction with the
Yau Ma Tei Theatre as a
Xiqu Activity Centre, providing a performing and practising venue for small-scale Cantonese Opera performance. It would also serve as training venue for budding artists. This revitalisation project was endorsed by the Public Works Subcommittee of the Finance Committee of the
Legislative Council at its meeting on 21 January 2009.
Shophouses .
Nos. 600-626 Shanghai Street, or more specifically Nos. 600, 602, 604, 606, 612, 614, 620, 622, 624 and 626, is a group of ten pre-war
shophouses (
tong-lau) in the Mong Kok section of Shanghai Street, that have been listed as
Grade I historical buildings for their historical value. It is believed that Nos. 620 – 626 are the oldest buildings among them. No. 330 Shanghai Street, a post-war tong lau adjacent to the Engineer's Office of the Former Pumping Station, houses the
Hong Kong International Hobby and Toy Museum.
History of shophouses Shophouses were mainly occupied by Chinese and predominantly seen all over southern Chinese cities and town in the 19th century. There were various reasons for the existence of
tong lau in Hong Kong, which including economic development of Hong Kong,
Second World War and also the influx of Chinese migrants to Hong Kong. These 10 typical shophouses are believed to have been built in the 1920s and 1930s, which are typical of an old commercial street. They are composed of shops on the ground floor that open up to a public arcade or "five-foot way", and low-rented residential accommodations upstairs. Shops selling furnishings, building construction materials (such as window frames, curtains, paint and hardware), traditional Chinese utensils, Chinese and Western household kitchen tools, ceremonial items, traditional Chinese wedding gowns, grocery,
snake soup as well as traditional Nepalese snacks can be found in Shanghai Street. As part of Hong Kong's living heritage, those shop houses are still functional in their communities and play important roles in the lives of local people.
Preservation In September 2008, the
Urban Renewal Authority (URA) announced two heritage conservation plans, which proposed to preserve the ten blocks of pre-war shophouses on Shanghai Street in Mong Kok and ten other blocks on
Prince Edward Road East. Four 1960s buildings that dissect the shophouse cluster in Shanghai Street are also included in the project. The Shanghai Street project covers an area of about 1,128m2. The project aims to preserve and revitalise these shophouse clusters for commercial uses. The projects, which costs HK$1.33 billion, is the largest single conservation initiative ever undertaken in Hong Kong. This conservation plan is the initiative of the expanded conservation strategy for 48 pre-war shophouses across Hong Kong. The URA has two alternatives: to buy property rights of the shop houses and redevelop them into commercial or other uses; to re-zone them so as to limit the use of those shop houses for preservation purposes. In addition, the authority plans to reserve the shops upstairs for the arts community, such as bookstores and dance studios. The cluster of shophouses on Prince Edward Road East would be remained as a part of the flower market so that the thriving flower trade would not be disrupted. The Prince Edward Road East project and the Shanghai Street project are expected to be completed by 2014 and 2015 respectively. But some people see problems with the URA's plans: not so much capital a conservation strategy as an acquisition or buy-out of properties; elimination of Shanghai Street true character by removing the stores and residents. ==Building and street rehabilitation==