This heritage building turned a luxury restaurant offering modern British cuisine, is elegantly beautiful.
Behind the beautiful facade, lies untold stories.
The building, located at 66 Johnston Road, Wanchai, was originally a pawn shop built in late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Due to its distinct feature of four buildings connected with overhang structure, a unique architecture style in Guangdong, southern China in early 1900s, it was classified as a heritage building by the authorities and a “conservation” project started in 2007, converting the 2nd to 4th floor of the building to become a high-end dining place – the Pawn.
The restaurant, named after the pawn shop, is not for the ordinary people, though. How can they afford an average of HK$500 per person for dinner?
Sitting atop the building is a terrace, which is rented to the restaurant for organizing parties and so it is for “private use” only. The public can go visit the terrace out of the “good wish” of the restaurant, but they are not allowed to eat and drink there, except water, the visiting rules dictate.
On 25March, 2012, some local residents went to the terrace, bringing with them their own food. The management company brought in the Emergency Unit of the Police and forced them away.
This is what Hong Kong style conservation is like – to build something new in a heritage site so that the rich can use and the mass can be kept away. The so-called “heritage” is essentially property projects to cater for the city’s elite and the privileged. Look no further for another example – 1881 Heritage located at Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. The new development at the heritage site (the headquarters of the Hong Kong Marine Police from the 1880s to 1996) is basically a luxury shopping mall and a luxury hotel.
“Heritage” sounds eerily hollow in this city.
