'Shanghai Street', The Last Tong Lau, Mongkok, 2016

Archival pigment print, collaboration with Jörg Dietrich
52 x 140 cm
20 1/2 x 55 1/8 inches
Signed, titled and edition numbered by Artist below the image of print.
Image size only, print size will include 10 cm bleed size all around (add 20 cm) and frame is another 2 cm all around (add 4 cm), Photographs taken in 2015, digital collage completed in 2016. - Shanghai Street, Mongkok | 上海街，旺角 Running down a long section of the Kowloon Peninsula, Shanghai Street in Mongkok features this cluster of ten pre-war tong-lau shophouses, which have been listed as Grade II buildings for their historical value. This is one of the few remaining examples of the typical Hong Kong architecture of the 1920s, with their first- floor verandahs (now enclosed) and arcaded fronts facing the street. The four taller buildings interspersed among the shophouses were built in the 1960s. Such tong-lau shophouses were residential on their upper floors and commercial at street-level, with stores in this area selling Chinese and Western utensils, hardware, traditional Chinese wedding gowns, and even snake soup. A major heritage preservation project by the Urban Renewal Authority has already started, which will see the entire block revitalised, with many of the original architectural elements preserved. However, critics fear the loss of the area’s original character and the break-up of the community of some 170 residents, who will need to be re-housed. © Stefan Irvine. Courtesy Blue Lotus Gallery, Hong Kong.