Heritage Advisory Panel on Peel Street/Graham Street project
A heritage advisory panel newly set up under the Central &
Western District Advisory Committee (C&W DAC) of the Urban
Renewal Authority (URA) met today (Wednesday) to study and
recommend ways to promote heritage conservation features in the
Peel Street/Graham Street redevelopment project.
The URA intends to preserve three pre-war shop houses at 26A-26C
Graham Street for adaptive re-use as well as the façade of Wing Woo
Grocery within the project site, where structurally feasible.
"We attach a great deal of importance to this $3.8 billion project
which is sited at a bustling location full of interesting
historical features. Over the past two years, a bottom-up
approach has been adopted to solicit community views on the way
forward for the project. A Master Layout Plan for the project
has been drafted and submitted to the Town Planning Board earlier
this year for approval," a spokesman for the URA said.
"We also intend to preserve the open-air hawker bazaar at Graham
Street, a well-known local characteristic, as well as to create an
old shop street there."
"The creation of an old shop street is such a new and innovative
idea in Hong Kong that we deem it very important to engage the
local community, the District Council as well as experts in the
field to study and recommend ways on the possible way forward," he
added.
The C& W DAC has therefore set up a heritage advisory panel
for the project and invited representatives of the local District
Council, District Office and the community to join in.
Chaired by Mr Kam Nai-wai, who is also a member of the C&W
District Council, the committee comprises DC members Mr Yuen
Bun-keung, Mr Chan Chit-kwai, Mr Chung Yam-cheung and Mr Lam
Kin-lai; representatives of the Central & Western District
Office and the URA; residents' representatives Mr Kan Kei and Mrs
Lee Lui Siu-ling, a representative of the hawkers Mrs Yau Luk
Chiu-ying. A veteran heritage conservationist, Mr Cheng Po-hung, is
appointed as advisor to the panel.
Another important task of the panel is to make suggestions on how
hawking activities at Graham Street and Peel Street may be
preserved.
Before meeting for the first time today, the panel members carried
out an inspection of the site and the pre-war architecture
there.
Occupying a ground area of about 57, 240 square feet, the project
site currently has 37 buildings, including four pre-war blocks,
mostly built in the mid-50s and late-60s.
END