Sai Kung Old House

L.S.Hemshall
Tue, 09/23/2014 - 07:53
oldernewer
Sai Kung Old House

Could anyone identify the house in the photo and share some information about it?

The house is located off Fui Yiu Lane at the end of Sai Kung old town and is surrounded by other small old houses that seem to date from a similar time to the main house - unusual given most of SK 'old town' is now made up of post-war buildings.

I'd love to know some history - when it was built, who owned it and why it has fallen into disrepair. It appears the house is split into three or six seperate units as there are six entrances into it, not sure if that's an original feature from when it was constructed or if the house was subdivided later on. I peaked inside one of the three doors along the rear of the house and saw a small room blackened by what appears to have been created by a fire - or perhaps this is just the old kitchen.

Date picture taken
1 Jun 2014
Tags
Sai Kung
Old House
Pre war
Shows place(s)
Sai Kung Old House [????- ]

Comments

There is a horzontally polarised television aerial on the right hand side of the roof top aimed in an upwards direction - probably Kowloon Peak.

The doorway has large orange coloured posters with Chinese characters thereon.

The potted plants are in full bloom which suggests the photograph was taken during Lunar New Year time.

Looking at a satellite photo and comparing to the map, I think we're talking about 41-45 Sai Kung Rd here. (That's lots DD215L 563 and 576.)

Checking the Rating and Valuation Department database, they say they have no age or permitted occupation purposes records for these buildings, and there's a note that "Matching work in progress for property data concerned".

I really couldn't find out much else; you need to pay if you want most records. I'm speculating, though, but I wonder if (at least partial) records have been lost for these since they're most likely pre-war properties. (And that the reason they're sitting vacant and semi-abandoned is that until the ownership can be established, they can't be torn down and replaced with something new and expensive.)