:''Western Market is also a former name for
Plaza Miserere
Plaza de Miserere is one of the main plazas (squares) of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is located alongside the Once de Septiembre Station of the Ferrocarril Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (Sarmiento railroad) in the heart of the Balvanera neighborhood ...
.''
Western Market is one of the oldest structures in
Sheung Wan
Sheung Wan is an area in Hong Kong, located in the north-west of Hong Kong Island, between Central and Sai Ying Pun. Administratively, it is part of the Central and Western District. The name can be variously interpreted as ''Upper Dist ...
,
Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island is an Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong, island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
. The current structure, built in 1906, was the North Block of the original Western Market. It is the oldest surviving market building in the city.
[Urban Renewal Authority: Western Market](_blank)
/ref> The former South Block was demolished in 1981 and its site is now occupied by the Sheung Wan Complex.[Central and Western Heritage Trail: Western Market (South Block)](_blank)
/ref>
Location
Western Market is located at 323 Des Voeux Road Central
Des is a masculine given name, mostly a short form (hypocorism) of Desmond. People named Des include:
People
* Des Buckingham, English football manager
* Des Corcoran, (1928–2004), Australian politician
* Des Dillon (disambiguation), severa ...
.[Declared Monuments in Hong Kong: Western Market](_blank)
/ref> The market occupies a whole city block and is surrounded by the following streets: Des Voeux Road Central (South), Morrison Street (East), Connaught Road Central
Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Delbhn ...
(North) and On Tai Street (West).
Sheung Wan Complex, now called the Sheung Wan Municipal Services Building, the site of the former South Block, is located at 345 Queen's Road Central
Queen's Road is a collection of roads along the northern coast of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong, within the limit of Victoria, Hong Kong, Victoria City. It was the first road in Hong Kong, constructed History of Hong Kong (1800s–1930s), by t ...
. It is surrounded by: Queen's Road Central (South), Morrison Street (East) and Bonham Strand
Bonham Strand (Chinese: 文咸街) is a combination of two streets in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong: Bonham Strand (文咸東街) and Bonham Strand West (文咸西街).
As the name suggests, it was a strand and close to shore in the past though current ...
(North).
History
Western Market came into business in September 1844. Western Market later consisted of two separate blocks: South Block (demolished) and North Block (the current "Western Market").
The South Block at Queen's Road Central was built in 1858. Vendors were evicted and moved to the Hollywood Road Temporary Market in August 1980. The Victorian period South Block was demolished thereafter and replaced by the Urban Council Sheung Wan Complex, opened in 1988. The Edwardian period North Block and the Hollywood Road Temporary Market were closed at this time and vendors were relocated to the new complex.
The North Block, smaller and more compact in design, was preserved and renovated by Land Development Corporation
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) is a quasi-governmental, profit-making statutory body in Hong Kong responsible for accelerating urban redevelopment.
History
The authority's predecessor, the Land Development Corporation (土地發展 ...
. This building, of the Queen Anne Revival style of the Edwardian period
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
, was built in 1906 as an extension of the then existing Western Market. It was the former site of Harbour Office that had been moved to a reclamation
Reclaim, reclaimed, reclaimer, reclaiming or reclamation means "to get something back".
It may refer to:
* Land reclamation, creating new land from oceans, riverbeds, or lake beds
* Dedesertification, reversing of the land degradation in arid ...
area in Central District for a larger space to cope with its increasing workload. The old building of the Harbour Office was pulled down to build the North Block of Western Market.[Central and Western Heritage Trail: Western Market (North Block)](_blank)
/ref>
It operated as a food market until 1988. The building was damaged during the construction of Sheung Wan station
Sheung Wan is a station on the of the Hong Kong MTR network. The station serves the neighbourhood of Sheung Wan and the western part of Central District. The livery colour of this station is khaki.
The station was originally planned in 19 ...
, and remediation works were undertaken afterward. Half the site was rezoned to facilitate a proposed widening of Morrison Street, which would have necessitated the building's demolition.[ In 1990, it was declared a ]historical monument
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...
and the renovated market building re-opened as "the Western Market" in 1991. Further refurnishment work was conducted in 2003.
Architecture
The four-storey building is in Queen Anne Revival style that was popular in the British Empire during the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods. The brickwork on the four corner towers is "bandaged", giving a polychromatic effect. It was blue, but was later painted red to suit the architectural style.
Tenants
Current tenants include:
* Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
n-style bakery
* Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
dessert shop
* several curio shops
On the first floor there is a wide range of fabric merchants and cafés. The top floor is a restaurant with dancing and live music and a banquet hall used for weddings.[DeWolf, Christophe]
"9 Hong Kong tourist traps – for better or worse"
CNN. 27 October 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2012 On the footbridge next to Western Market are a few old pictures with explanations from times long gone.
Gallery
File:Western Market Enterance 201008.jpg, Western Market Entrance
Image:Western Market Stairs.jpg, Stairs inside the building
Image:HKWesternMarket TheGrandStage 1.jpg, A wedding ceremony
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding tradition
African customs
Ethiopia
The Wedding procedure starts with the groom's side sending elders (Shimagle) who then request a union between the parties. The ...
held in Western Market
Image:HKWesternMarket TheGrandStage 2.jpg, The Grand Stage, Western Market
See also
* Central and Western Heritage Trail The Central and Western Heritage Trail is a Heritage trails in Hong Kong, Heritage Trail in Hong Kong, that was designed by the Antiquities and Monuments Office of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
It covers the Central and Western Dist ...
* List of the oldest buildings and structures in Hong Kong
The following is a list of the oldest buildings and structures in Hong Kong.
Before 1800
Although Hong Kong was sparsely populated prior to the arrival of the British, the area has a number of historic structures:
19th century
Most of the ...
References
External links
DiscoverHongKong – Western Market
Film Service Office
1906 establishments in Hong Kong
Commercial buildings completed in 1906
Declared monuments of Hong Kong
Landmarks in Hong Kong
Retail markets in Hong Kong
Sheung Wan
{{Coord, 22.28723, 114.15040, display=title