Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Yellowthread Street (TV Series) - Bruce Payne (1990) - Playing Field Road, Mongkok

Moving onto episode 9: The Red Pole, we get a brief glimpse of that, sadly, rare beast in Hong Kong: the corner shophouse. I know of only four current remaining examples (and one of those is also about to go) and sadly the following one isn't one of them.

We see Mark McGann (who played Brady) crossing the road next to Mongkok Police station and behind him, on the corner of Playing Field Road and Sai Yeung Choi Street North, is a great example of this old and increasingly rare type of HK architecture.


As mentioned, sadly this building no longer exists and for those who don't live in HK this is a good example of how redevelopment here works. If you look at the following Streetview grab of the same corner, you can see the remnants of the old joists that joined the building on to its neighbour. Both buildings on the left and right are still there, but the best looking one (and most likely due to the fact that it was low rise) has been replaced by a new generic - but taller and more "rent-efficient" - building called the Capricorn Centre (built 1995).

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