What happens after : a critical review of the post-grading stage of privately-owned historic building grading system in Hong Kong

Abstract

Heritage buildings are regarded as essentials and in socio-cultural development nowadays to embrace and accomplish sustainable urban development and it is no exception in the case of Hong Kong in which historic buildings engraves the history of Hong Kong with abundant collective memories. Under the existing policy, only heritage buildings that have been designated as declared monuments are protected by the Antiquities and Monument Ordinance (Cap 53). For other graded buildings, the required measures to protect the historic structures descends and the least requirements are suggested for Grade III buildings. Government’s passive take towards graded sites could well be detrimental for conserving the site fully and comprehensively and complexity in terms of ownerships, especially those falls under private ownerships complicated the issue in conserving them with sufficient conservatory treatments. The cases of King Yin Lei building and State Theatre saga showed that there is a lack of follow-up measures in the historic building grading system in Hong Kong that should be initiated by the government in the first place and without those timely measures, those historic sites may not survive from the wrecking ball and that reveals the problem of post-grading treatments for privately-owned historic buildings and subsequent problems derived from the untimely treatments. With a view to improving the follow-up of the historic building grading system in Hong Kong, an investigation of the current heritage conservation system in Hong Kong from a privately-owned heritage perspective and ordinance under various conservation bodies will be conducted. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of the grading system of privately-owned graded heritage sites, as well as review their associated problems and challenges from social and community aspects. Finally, the thesis will provide several recommendations to improve conservation of privately-owned graded historic buildings in Hong Kong.