/ Historic Tenement Remains - ! History and Cultural! Significance! A report by Central & Western Concern Group and Sai Wan Concern! with recommendations! for conservation! 12 August 2016! ! !

! !The Site! Nestled between a section of Cochrane Street and Gutzlaff Street in Central - beside the mid- levels escalator - is a site which looks very different from its surrounding. Partly covered by vegetation and overlooked by many as just another vacant plot, the site contains a cluster of ancient house structures with walls made of green-grey bricks with granite stone foundations. Apart from viewing them from Cochrane Street, one can also look at them closely by entering a small !alley beside Nos. 108-110 Wellington Street.! Designated as Inland Lot No. 104, this was one of the sites first sold by public auction in January 1844. The story of this site and the associated tenement houses reflects the rich and intricate history of this area of Central, known as the Middle Bazaar in the 19th century. It was one of the most cosmopolitan areas in Central where people of many races and different social status lived !and interacted. ! On detailed inspection and research, it has been confirmed that the structures are the remains of 10 back-to-back tenement houses which were constructed as early as 1879. Despite more than a century of intensive use and partial demolition, parts of the walls and structures of these tenement houses remain intact until today, serving as the witness of a neighbourhood tinted with a turbulent past.! !Middle Bazaar in the early 19th century! When the British first took control of Island in early 1840s, many Chinese settlers congregated in areas around and Central. Houses and squatter huts were built by the Chinese along a ravine on the hillside in the area now embraced by Peel, Graham, Gutzlaff and Cochrane Streets. This was the Middle Bazaar of Chung Wan. There were trades of all kinds, as well as brothels and gambling houses. By late 1843, the then governor Sir Henry Pottinger decided to move the Chinese population in the Middle Bazaar to Tai Ping Shan, so that the area could be sold in lots for shops and dwellings of Europeans or “respectable Chinese”. These lots, including Inland Lot 104, were sold at public auction on 22 January, 1844. By September 1844, all the old structures in the Middle Bazaar had been removed, new streets were laid out and the lots were !prepared for occupation for their new owners. ! The parallel Cochrane Street and Gutzlaff Street were laid out at that time. The former was named after Sir Thomas John Cochrane (1789-1872), commander of the British naval force in the Far East. The latter was named after Karl Frederich August Gutzlaff (1803-1851), a Prussian Christian missionary who also worked as the Chinese Secretary for the colonial Hong Kong government.! !

! Plan of Victoria 1856 showing the subject site - Inland Lot 104 between Gutzlaff Street and Cochrane Street (Public Records Office)! ! !Inland Lot 104 under Lapraik and Endicott! Not long after the initial auction, Inland Lot 104 was transacted and divided into two portions: Section A facing Gutzlaff Street and the Remaining Portion (R.P.) facing Cochrane Street. By 1847 and 1848, the two portions came under the ownership of Douglas Lapraik (1818-1869), a !Scotsman who was an important and influential figure in colonial Hong Kong.! Douglas Lapraik came to Hong Kong in 1842 and established his name in land investment and shipping business. He was a founder of the Hongkong & Whampoa Dock Company (1863) - the first limited company registered in Hong Kong. He was also one of the founders of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce. He donated substantially to the building of the Pedder Street Clock Tower which became a landmark of Central from 1862 to 1913. His residence, Douglas Castle in Pokfulam, remains today as the University Hall of HKU. Douglas Street in Central was named after him.! !!! While Inland Lot 104 R.P. (facing Cochrane Street) remained under Douglas Lapraik and his successor until 1900, Inland Lot 104A (facing Gutzlaff Streeet) was sold to an American sea captain James Bridges Endicott in July 1847. James B. Endicott (1815-1870) was a descendant of an early Governor of Massachusetts Colony. He came to China about 1842 and worked for Russell and Company as the commander of the opium hulk the Ruparell. He eventually became one of the largest stockholders and Chairman of of the Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat !Company. ! In 1842, while he was in Canton, Endicott entered into a relationship with a Tanka boat woman named Ng Akew by whom he had five children. Ng Kew was described by a newspaper article as “a shrewd intelligent woman” and her involvement in opium trading sparked the Cumsingmoon affair (⾦星⾨事件 ). Her name was given as Ng Kew吳嬌 , Ong Akew, Ong Mo Kew, On Mow Kew or Hung Mo Kew 紅⽑嬌 in official documents and newspaper accounts.! !

! Douglas Lapriak! !!!!!James Bridges Enidcott! ! ! !Ng Akew, the protected woman! In-depth research of the life of Ng Akew had been conducted by renowned Hong Kong historian Carl T. Smith and recorded in a number of academic publications. According to Carl Smith, in his book A Sense of History: “the presence of foreign traders in the China Coast cities of the Nineteenth century gave rise to a distinct class of Chinese women who were euphemistically described as ‘living under the protection of a foreigner’….. at times their ‘protectors’ made provision !for a favourite by the creation of a Trust or the gift of real estate.”! In 1852, Endicott gave Ng Akew, his “protected woman”, Inland Lot 104A before he entered into a formal marriage with an English lady. Two merchants, Douglas Lapraik and William Scott, were named as trustees for the estate. Ng Kew soon moved to Hong Kong and started a new life, engaging in property investment and providing loans to women of her own class. She became a leader of the protected women and gained much prosperity. She resided in Nos. 8 & 10 Gutzlaff !Street.! By 1878, the situation had changed for Ng Akew and she was declared bankrupt in March. She auctioned off her fine furnitures of Nos. 8 & 10 Gutzlaff Street and other properties to pay her debts, but was able to secure her residence in Gutzlaff Street as the trust estate could not be sold. Ng Kew continued to live there until her death in 1914, when the trust on this lot was dissolved and !conferred to Robert Endicott of New York City.! ! Owner particulars of Section A of Inland Lot No.104 (from the Land Registry) showing the property was assigned to Ong Akew in form of a trust in 1852!

! ! ! ! ! (Left)! Auction notice on Hong Kong Daily Press 29 March 1878 re the sale of Ng Akew’s furniture. Her address was shown to be Nos. 8 and 10, Ground Floor and Second Floor, Gutzlaff Street! (Right)! !Bankruptcy notice of Ng Kew in Hong Kong Government Gazette, 2 June 1880! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !The “in between” area! According to Carl Smith, the bazaar area of Cochrane, Gutzlaff, Graham, Peel, Elgin and Staunton Streets was a cosmopolitan area populated by a mixed and polyglot group composed of middle- class or wealthy Chinese, Chinese prostitutes serving non-Chinese, European prostitutes, Indian, Parsee and Muslim merchants and shopkeepers, a few scattered Portuguese and Macanese, and protected women. The area was an “in between” area which had a character quite different from the predominantly Chinese “Tai Ping Shan” and the predominantly European business district in !Central and the European residential area in . ! This marginal cosmopolitan neighbourhood provided protection for the protected women and their !Eurasian children who were discriminated against at that time. ! !

! ! (Left) Carl Smith: Ethnic distribution of population in Central District and premises !occupied by protected women (Rates and Collection Book 1872, HKPRO)! !(Right) Cochrane Street in the early 1870s! ! ! ! !The Great Fire of Christmas 1878! A disaster which occurred on Christmas night of 1878 resulted in a large-scale redevelopment of the area. At 11pm, a fire broke out on the seaward side of Queen’s Road Central (Endicott Lane) and eventually spread to a large area - uphill to , east to and west to Staveley Street. Several hundred houses were burnt down. The houses on Cochrane Street and Gutzlaff Street, including those on Inland Lot 104, were entirely destroyed. In the Rates and Valuation Book of 1879, all the houses of Cochrane Street and Gutzlaff Street were recorded as “Burnt 25/26 Dec 1878”. The entire burnt area of Central was exempted from rate payment for the !year 1879.! Reconstruction started in early 1879 - according to a China Mail report, surveyors’ poles were already laid out along the burned-out streets by January 13, 1879. The houses at Nos. 25, 27, 29, 31& 33 Cochrane Street and Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10 Gutzlaff Street were completely rebuilt by late 1879 as rates were paid again for the first quarter of 1880. Since Inland Lot 104A and R.P were both under the control and management of John Stewart Lapraik (the nephew and successor of Douglas Lapraik) at that time, the ten houses were rebuilt all together back-to-back, with five houses facing Gutzlaff Street and five facing Cochrane Street, the two rows of houses sharing a common back wall. Ng Akew continued to live in the Gutzlaff street house after the fire. The house remains that we find between Cochrane Street and Gutzlaff Street today which show the common back wall and some of the party walls can therefore be traced back to 1879. !

! !(Left) The Great Fire in Central Hong Kong, 1878! (Right) Map showing the area destroyed by the Great Fire, 1878 - Inland Lot 104 lies within the area (from !Adam Nebbs’ book The Great Fire of Hong Kong)! ! ! Artist impression of the subject tenement houses built in 1879!

! !Back-to-back tenement houses before and during the Great Plague! ! Tenement houses, or Tong Lau, were the main housing stock for the urban population in Hong Kong in the 19th to mid 20th century. Due to rapid population growth, the City of Victoria was already densely built with tenement houses by 1870s. The reconstruction after the 1878 fire only led to further increase in density - tenement houses became three storeys compared with two !storeys previously.! According to the government-commissioned Chadwick Report published in 1882, houses in the City of Victoria were commonly built back-to-back - this was essentially to achieve the greatest economy in the use of land but had led to poor ventilation and sanitary conditions. The usual building material was green-grey Canton brick, which was soft and porous, although plaster was normally applied on the outside walls to provide a seal against the weather. Tile roofs were the general rule. Most buildings had very narrow frontages of between 4m and 5m which were dictated by the common length of the China fir poles used for floor beams. By comparison, the depth of buildings was considerable, ranging from 9m to 18m. In terraced houses, only the front rooms had windows so that the inner compartments were dark and airless. At the rear of each floor was a cookhouse, normally about 2m deep, which also frequently served as a latrine, storage room and !even sleeping quarters. ! The house remains found between Cochrane Street and Gutzlaff Street largely conform to these features, with green-grey brick walls and granite stone foundation. The width of each of the tenements on Gutzlaff Street is in the range of 4m to 5m and the depth is about 20m. There was a !cookhouse at the end of each tenement.! According to the house plans, each of these back-to-back tenements have a small open yard which separates the cookhouse from the main part of the building. This feature is likely to be the result of an initiative announced in the Government Gazette of 27 July 1878 which stated that landowners would be allowed to build verandas over Crown Land if an open yard be incorporated between the kitchen and the rest of the house. This initiative came about as the government’s call for alley space to be maintained behind tenement houses had met with strong resistance from local property owners. The government did not force its way but offered a privilege in exchange for some degree of improvement in ventilation and natural lighting. Our subject back-to-back tenement houses, built in 1879, seem to have followed this requirement.! With the prevalence of overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions in the City of Victoria, Bubonic Plague broke out in Hong Kong in 1894, taking thousands of lives in its first year. The Great Plague was to haunt Hong Kong for many years. In June 1895, the Assistant Sanitary Superintendent identified illegal basement dwellings in Nos. 25, 29 & 31 Cochrane Street. During the half-year !ending 30 June 1901, there was a case of bubonic fever reported at No. 2 Gutzlaff Street.! Major changes came in 1903 when the government enacted the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance which set new standards for the design and occupancy of tenement houses. Clause 179 required the provision of open space and a scavenging lane of at least 6 feet (about 1.8m) wide behind newly-erected buildings. This means that rows of Tong Lau facing parallel streets could no longer be built back to back, and the back lane helped improve sanitary conditions by having the space to allow in natural light and air, as well as for waste disposal. Henceforth, tenements were built according to this regulation and back-to-back tenements were gradually !replaced.! !

!Cochrane Street in the 1890s, the subject tenements should be those far up on the right! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Inland Lot 104 under Robert Ho Tung and Ho Kom Tong! The group of ten back-to-back tenement houses on Inland Lot 104 remained and unaffected by the new regulations but their ownership changed in the early 20th century. In January 1900, Robert Ho Tung 何東 , influential Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist, purchased the houses at Inland Lot 104 R.P. (Nos. 25, 27, 29, 31 & 33 Cochrane Street) from John Douglas Lapraik. Ho Tung was a Eurasian by birth but he considered himself Chinese. By the age of 35, he was said to be the richest man in Hong Kong. After his purchase of the site, he hired Palmer & Turner Surveyors to produce measured plans of the five houses prior to resale to other buyers. Inland Lot 104A (Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10 Gutzlaff Street) was purchased by Ho Kom Tong 何⽢棠 (Ho Tung’s half brother) in 1916 from Robert Endicott. He hired A. Abdoolrahim Architect and Surveyor to produce measured plans of the five houses prior to resale to other buyers.! ! ! Plan of Victoria 1901 showing the ten back-to-back tenements! (Crown Lands & Survey Office)! ! !!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! Samples of measured plans from 1900 and 1916:! (Left) Plan of No. 2 Gutzlaff Street, 1916! (Right) Plan of No. 25 Cochrane !Street, 1900! ! ! !Subdivided and overcrowded tenements! The ownership of Inland Lot 104 were further subdivided and bought by different owners - mostly Chinese but occasionally a Parsee or Indian. With drastic increase in the territory’s population in the post-war years, many units of the tenements were subdivided into cubicles, cocklofts and bunks for rent by the working class and small shopkeepers. These tenements accommodated many people and families in overcrowded living conditions. The ground floor shops were mainly small businesses like tailors, carpenters or rice dealers. We can have a glimpse of how the units were subdivided by looking at the plans of these tenements drawn by government officers in the !1970s before the buildings were subsequently demolished.! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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! ! ! ! ! ! ! The interior plans of ground floor, first floor and second floor of No. 6 Gutzlaff Street in 1972 ! !(from Demolished Buildings Case File)! ! ! By the 1960s and 70s, the tenement houses were in poor conditions and were eventually demolished. Luckily, the demolition did not remove the tenements entirely. Parts of these tenements survive in the form of the structures we find between Cochrane Street and Gutzlaff Street today. The redevelopment of the Gutzlaff Street houses in the 1970s allowed for a scavenging lane and the new houses were set back from the 1879 structures. The construction of the mid-levels escalator in the early 1990s resumed part of the site for the widening of Cochrane Street, but some structures of the 1879 tenements still lie adjacent to and below Cochrane Street level. Today, these remains of back-to-back tenement houses offer a rare insight into the living !conditions of people in this neighbourhood from the pre-plague era to the post-war years.! ! !

The north-south running common back wall shared by five houses facing Cochrane Street and five facing Gutzlaff Street. The space between the party walls are the cookhouse space !of the Gutzlaff houses! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Hung Mo Kew Kai 紅⽑嬌街 ! Gutzlaff Street 吉⼠笠街 has been known as Hung Mo Kew Kai 紅⽑嬌街 by locals for many years. Some writers had previously interpreted Hung Mo Kew 紅⽑嬌 as western prostitutes who were said to be active along this street years ago. Another interpretation is that Hung Mo Kew refers western ladies who came to Gutzlaff Street to have their shoes repaired, as there were many cobblers on this street. Our research as well as the research of local historian Carl Smith has established that Hung Mo Kew in fact refers to Ng Akew, the Chinese Tanka lady who was given Nos. 2-10 Gutzlaff Street by her protector James Bridges Endicott and had lived there for many years. Not only did she own five out of the eight houses on Gutzlaff Street*, she might also have engaged in brothel business there. Ng Akew was such a legendary and colourful character and had been so well-known in the community during her time in Gutzlaff Street that the street could !very likely have been given the “nickname” after her.! The name Hung Mo Kew Kai was used rather officially on local newspaper reports in the 1930s. The street was described as “full of history” (此富於史料之紅⽑嬌街 ). This name was still in use on !newspapers in the 1950s.! * Gutzlaff Street which runs from Queen’s Road Central to Lynhurst Terrace had only eight numbers (Even Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and single No. 3) according to the Index to the Streets, House numbers, and Lots (1910). Ng Akew’s estate (Nos. 2-10) took up the majority of the !properties on the street! ! 天光報 , 1933-10-16!

華僑⽇報 , 1958-08-10! ! ! !Cultural Significance of the Tenement Remains! !Architectural/Cultural Value, Rarity and Authenticity! (Please refer to the report by Ken Borthwick titled Cochrane Street/Gutzlaff Street Historic Tenement Remains - Architectural Appraisal. The following is a summary of the architectural !significance)! Back-to-back tenements were prevalent in 19th-century Hong Kong. Property owners in the City of Victoria had repeatedly resisted government’s call for scavenging lanes to be reserved at the back of the houses, stating that back-to-back houses was a customary way of building in Chinese cities. It was only after the bubonic plague broke out in 1894 claiming tens of thousands of lives that a new legislation (1903) forbade the construction of back-to-back tenements. Thereafter, back-to- !back tenements gradually became extinct in Hong Kong. ! Today, the subject walls and structures of 10 tenement houses in Cochrane Street and Gutzlaff Street are the only surviving remains of back-to-back tenements in Hong Kong. Estimated to be built in 1879 after the Great Fire, they are the remains of the oldest tenement cluster in the urban area. They are rare specimens of the kind of housing that accommodated a large population in the City of Victoria during the pre-plague period and beyond. Their configuration reflects the crowded living condition and substandard hygiene of the tenements in that era. They are important for our understanding of urban development and public health development of 19th- and 20th-century !Hong Kong.! We can also learn a lot from the building materials and construction methods. Aside from the granite foundation at the base of the common back wall, the walls are built with Canton green-grey bricks (廣東⻘磚 ). These bricks were imported from southern China due to the lack of local brick production. The granite stones were from local quarries. The stone- and brick-laying methods are clearly revealed as they are not covered by plaster or concrete. The tenement remains, which are preserved in their authentic condition, offer a valuable resource for the study of local building !techniques of more than 135 years ago.! !Social Value and Local Interest! The tenement remains are linked to important social changes and social relations in the City of Victoria for over a century. Built after the historic Great Fire of 1878 which destroyed a large are of Central, the tenements survived the Bubonic Plague, the war and Japanese occupation and continued to provide shelter for people of the working class as well as small businesses up to the second half of 20th century. The site had been under the ownership of important historical figures in Hong Kong, including Douglas Lapraik, James B. Endicott, Ng Akew, Robert Ho Tung and Ho Kom Tong - people who are representatives of their social classes in their time. The famous “protected woman” Ng Akew had given Gutzlaff Street its most colourful name: Hung Mo Kew Kai. The remains are important physical evidence to tell the stories about the interplay between the Western and Chinese communities in early Hong Kong, including the community of protected women, their Eurasian offspring and the cosmopolitan nature of the Middle Bazaar area. The historic tenement house remains have high social value and would be of great local interest if !preserved and interpreted properly.! !Group Value! Situated within the oldest street market in Hong Kong, the back-to-back tenement remains in Cochrane/Gutzlaff Streets contribute to the group value of a heritage cluster which includes the nearby Wing Woo Grocery (永和雜貨店 ), the three pre-war at No. 26A-C , the granite roadside drainage channels along Graham and Peel Streets, as well as the Pak Tsz Lane steps (Grade 1 heritage). Together they could form a heritage trail which serves to illustrate the vibrant life of the street market that has existed in this area since the early days of the city. They are also within a short walking distance to the 1939 Central Market, the Central Police Station Compound and the PMQ. The historic tenement remains, which embody the spirit of Old !Central, will be a great addition to our historic city area.! !Recommendations for Conservation! Due to its rarity and cultural significance, the historic tenement remains must be conserved with great care. The remains should be preserved in-situ in accordance with international best practice, such as The China Principles (Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China). There are numerous examples of preserving such historic remains in-situ in overseas countries and in China, such as The Big Dig site in The Rocks, Sydney, Beijing Road Ancient Avenue and the Nanyue Wooden Watergate in , amongst others. Locally, the foundations of the Central School have also been preserved in-situ within the revitalised PMQ compound. As the historic tenement house remains are located within the public open space of the future redevelopment area, there is great opportunity for the remains to be preserved in-situ - and with good interpretation, they will enhance public appreciation and understanding of the history of urban development in Central! ! An example of in-situ conservation of the historic tenement remains between Cochrane Street and Gutzlaff Street (a preliminary proposal)! !Reference Materials! Hong Kong Government Maps! Plan circa 1856 of Victoria, 1:2640 (PRO)! Plan of the City of Victoria Hong Kong 1874 (map showing area destroyed by the fire of 25th & 26th Dec 1878) (PRO)! Topographic map, Plan of Victoria, sheet number 11, 1901! Topographic map, 1:600, sheet number 196–SW–10, 1955 & 1967! !Topographic map, 1:1000, sheet number 11–SW–8D, 1975, 1983, 1992, 1996! The Land Registry, Land Register! !Property Particulars of Inland Lot 104, 104A & Remaining Portion! Public Records Office! Rates Assessment, Valuation and Collection Books, 1858-1917! Demolished Buildings Case Files of Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 Gutzlaff Street and Nos. 25, 27, 29, 31, 33 Cochrane Street! I.L. 104 Crown Lease! The Last Will and Testament of James Bridges Endicott! “Issue of a closure order in respect of Nos. 2, 4 & 6 Gutzlaff Street under the Demolished Buildings (Redevelopment of Sites) Ordinance, 1963”! “Issue of a closure order in respect of 25, 31, 33 & 35, Cochrane Street under the Demolished ! Buildings (Redevelopment of Sites) Ordinance”! Hong Kong Government Gazettes and Publications! Hongkong Government Gazettes, 1856–1903! Mr Chadwick’s Reports on the Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong, London: Colonial Office, 1882! Index to the Streets, House Numbers, and Lots of the City of Victoria…. in the Colony of Hong ! Kong. Hong Kong Government: 1910! Books and Academic Publications! Smith, Carl T., “Protected Women in 19th-Century Hong Kong” in Maria Jaschok & Suzanne Miers (eds.) Women and Chinese Patriarchy: Submission, Servitude and Escape. Hong Kong University Press, 1994, pp. 221-237! Smith, Carl T., “Ng Akew, One of Hong Kong’s ‘Protected’ Women,” in A Sense of History: Studies in the Social and Urban History of Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 266-275! Smith, Carl T., “Abandoned into Prosperity: Women on the Fringe of Expatriate Society,” in Helen F. Siu (ed.) Merchants’ Daughters: Women, Commerce, and Regional Culture in South China. Hong Kong University Press, 2010, pp. 129-142! Chan Chi Ming, “Ng Akew” in Clara Wing-chung Ho (ed.) Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women, The Qing Period, 1644-1911. New York: 1998, pp. 160-162! Lee Ho Yin, “Pre-war Tong Lau: A Hong Kong Typology”, revised and updated version, 19 April 2010! Lim, Patricia, Forgotten Souls: A Social History of the Hong Kong Cemetery. Hong Kong University Press, 2011! Nebbs, Adam, The Great Fire of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: 2010! 《中國婦⼥傳記辭典：清代卷（ 1644-1911）》，劉詠聰編，澳洲悉尼⼤學出版社， 2010年， pp. 119-120! !《⾹港中區街道故事》，夏歷著，三聯書店 (⾹港 )有限公司， 1989年 ， pp. 24-34! !Old Newspapers! Old photos! Old photos of Cochrane Street kindly supplied by Mr Tim Ko!