The Stone House is the last structure remaining from the former Tai Hom squatter village. The building is located at No. 4 Tai Koon Yuen (), Tai Hom, in the

Wong Tai Sin District Wong Tai Sin District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is the only landlocked district in Hong Kong. It is located in Kowloon, and is the northernmost district in Kowloon. It borders the districts of Kwun Tong to its southeast, Ko ...

of Kowloon,

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 Delta i ...

, China. In 2002, Hong Kong's

Antiquities Advisory Board The Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB) is a statutory body of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with the responsibility of advising the Antiquities Authority on any matters relating to antiquities and monuments. The AAB was establish ...

recognized Stone House as a Grade III historic building."''Brief Information on Proposed Grade Nil Items''", pp.319-320

Antiquities and Monuments Office
Retrieved 25 July 2010. Tai Hom

History

The Stone House was built in the 1940s. It was built of granite from the Diamond Hill Stone Quarry, and was a typical structure within the area.〈留住香港荷李活藝人「發迹地」倡建創意電影工業園〉

《明報》
��2008年4月16日。 The construction of the Stone House was based on one of China's four great classical novels, ''

Dream of the Red Chamber ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known fo ...

''. In 1947, land was bought by Yang Shou-ren (), who named it Tai Koon Yuen; several film studios were subsequently set up in the area. Several businessmen then set up two–storied stone houses, providing residence for artists and film makers. The Stone House was owned by Wu Jun-zhao (), ex-manager of the former Shanghai Bank of Communications, who rented it to the actor

Roy Chiao Roy Chiao (16 March 1927 – 15 April 1999) was a Hong Kong actor, most notable in the United States for playing the minor villain Lao Che in the 1984 movie '' Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom''. Biography Chiao was born in Shanghai in 1927 ...

between the 1950s and 1960s.The Conservancy Association: Tai Hom Village
The house at 5 Tai Koon Yuen, now demolished, was once the accommodation of film director Li Han-hsiang.

Redevelopment

On September 6, ''

Oriental Daily ''Oriental Daily News'' is a Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong. It was established in 1969 by Ma Sik-yu and Ma Sik-chun, and was one of the two newspapers published by the Oriental Press Group Limited (). Relative to other Hong Kong ...

'', the best-selling Chinese-language daily in Hong Kong published a story explaining that the government proposed to downgrade the building to "nil grade" classification. The newspaper article suggested that the proposed new classification may be aimed at easing construction of the

Sha Tin to Central Link The Sha Tin to Central Link (abbreviated SCL; ) is an extension of the MTR rapid transit network. It is divided into two sections. The first section, named "Tuen Ma line (Phase 1)”, runs from Tai Wai station in the New Territories to Hu ...

. The "nil grade" classification was confirmed on August 31, 2010.List of the 1,444 Historic Buildings in Building Assessment (as of 27 December 2013)
/ref>

References

External links

. Historic Building Appraisal
Stone House, No. 4 Tai Koon Yuen, Diamond HillPictures
{{Coord, 22.339577, 114.200188, type:landmark_region:HK, display=title Wong Tai Sin Nil grade historic buildings in Hong Kong