Witness of history: a case study of street signs at Pei Ho Street as an important urban heritage in Hong Kong

Abstract

A street sign is a kind of traffic sign displayed along the street to show the street name so that both pedestrians and drivers can know where they are. It is believed to be originated from the massive pillar or milestone built by the Romans in the ancient time. In ancient China, sometimes at the entrance of the main path in a village or town would have a small gateway showing the path name, bearing the function of the street sign. Nowadays, street signs with different designs and materials can be seen everywhere.

Hong Kong was originally a small fishing village in South China for many years with paths connecting different areas. Since 1842, Hong Kong was officially become a British colony. The first formal street built on the colonial land was Hollywood Road and street signs of modern meaning appeared since the mid 19th century. Street signs of different designs for a long time are functioning as a mark of a place, but they are also the living witnesses of history. However, when we review the present heritage conservation policies and works done by the government, the focus of conservation falls mainly on large-scale artefacts and small relics have always been neglected. Street signs, although small in size and changing from time to time, can definitely be regarded as the important heritage of the past and present Hong Kong.

The key issue addressed by this dissertation is that street signs are not only a mark of a place, but also have significant heritage value which can be regarded as one of the important urban heritage in Hong Kong’s streetscape as different street signs can reflect the historical development and social-political transformation of Hong Kong in the past years in terms of designs, materials, locations, mounting methods and naming system.

This dissertation will focus on the street signs at Pei Ho Street in Sham Shui Po as a case study. There is a great variety of different kinds of street signs in the street which are worth for further research and analysis in both tangible and intangible manners. The purpose is to reveal the significance of my street sign study in the area of heritage conservation, and to show the distribution of different street signs in Pei Ho Street and their characteristics, so as to set up a template for analysing other street signs in Hong Kong and establish their significance in the local history for future study.