#109-111 Lockhart Road [????- ]

As a frequent visitor to Prodive in Lockhart Road, I used to walk under this one all the time and never realised what it was. Anyway, I was in Wanchai again today and took the opportunity to grab a snap.

I used to work in an office that overlooked this building. The rooftop was a jumble of illegal huts.

I read an article (SCMP I think) about a rooftop in Wanchai that was a popular place for short-term workers (eg collecting scrap materials)  from the mainland to stay, as the rent was so cheap. I think it was this same place.

Then one day when I looked the rooftop had been cleared, and that was the end of that.

Thanks to IDJ for sending in this photo and text:

Many Hong Kong and China newspaper readers will have seen in recent times the poignant images of house dwellers in Chinese cities holding out against rapacious developers and subsequently finding their properties isolated from all around them.

Similar issues arose in Hong Kong when old blocks were being redeveloped. Some owners held out to find their properties shored-up to prevent them falling down when adjacent buildings were demolished. All succumbed eventually.

The property in the image was in Lockhart Road, Wanchai, in the late 1970s. Many blocks in the area were raised to the ground at this time after the boom years of the Vietnam war R&R trade ended and Wanchai started to be redeveloped as a spill over business area due to the high rents in Central district.
 
The 1970s was a period when steam powered pile drivers were still common on construction sites. The hammering noise echoing around the districts between buildings and the smoke from the pile drivers steam boilers was horrendous, especially if a number were operating on adjacent projects. The 'thump' as the piles were struck with force could be felt over a large area and anything on a flat surface in an office, shop or apartment danced around for the duration with piling often carrying on until the late evening.

The owner must have also owned the adjacent lands for the supports to remain there.   If he doesn't own them, it will make expensive redevelopment for his neighbours and, eventually for himself.

So true about those pile-drivers!  It was like a steam locomotive running (stationary) next to you and a giant hammering big long spikes.  One operated about 40 feet away but I never got used to it.

OldTimer