#3-5 Pennington Road, Causeway Bay - Tak Hing Pawn Shop on #3, IL 6650 [????- ]

Great pic - I actually live next door to this building (in the residential block to the right of the picture, which I think dates from the late 1950s / early 1960s). As you can see most of that building is taken up by UML (a local toy / hobby shop). Very interesting arrangement inside, from the layout it looks as though it was originally a house. There's another very interesting old three / four storey building to the left on the corner of Pennington / Jardines Bazaar which looks like it dates from the 1930s / 1940s and has some very nice balconies and appears to be subdivided into flats inside. On the ground floor there is a shop selling tortoise soup which I think has been there for a very long time (saw it in exactly the same location in a pic from the 1970s i saw on Flickr). Always interesting finds in Causeway Bay.

I didn't realise you could see the pavillion from street level but yes there is one and my living room is practically level with it. Will take a pic and send it in shortly. I have no idea what is for, but I have had friends who have lived in some of these older buildings and they say there are often small pavilions or shrines on top, so maybe it is for religious / superstitious purposes.

Speaking of UML, it started out as a tiny 2nd floor hobby shop in the 70's tugged away in one of those narrow non descript alleyways close to the former Central public market (and that god awful smell on a hot summer day). I used to go there as a young kid with my schoolmates to shop for model kits and military reference books after school.

It has now grown to become an international hobby shop with its own UML brand products, publications, manufacturing factory and multiple outlets in HK and all over the world.