Hong Kong House of Stories

Still remember a research on the Blue House was my school project back in the days of early millennium.(Well, Blue House is actually a group of 3 tenement houses with shared party-​walls– a wall separating 2 parties, and hence may be considered as one building)
At that time, not much information could be found on this old and decaying house, but some old drawings from the Buildings Department and libraries. In that research, we found that the house was built in the 1920s after World War II, in a typical style of the time. Back then, houses were built with a narrow street front, due to the limitation of loads to be taken by wooden horizontal beams across 2 stone party-​walls. The living space was then extended deep from the street side into the lot, so not much sunlight can penetrate into the living space, the kitchens doesn’t have windows (precious windows are reserved to the bedrooms and living rooms, a bit like the studio flats that are getting popular around town nowadays) and private lavatories were not common. The house also underwent several alterations to upgrade the standards over in the 40s. 3 of the 4 houses in the block were acquired by the government and conveniently painted with the left over blue paint of the government Works Department during renovation in 1990 (the colour commonly used on metal parts of government buildings), and was listed as Grade 1 historical building.
Finally in 2007 St. James’ Settlement’s set up the Wan Chai Livelihood Place, at its G/​F shop as a small communal private museum to showcase the livelihood and culture of local Wanchai residents (a bit like the small museum in Tai O, which I have a separate review). In 2010 its revitalization proposal with museum on G/​F, whilst letting the original tenants living on the upper floors with improved sanitary conditions, was officially accepted by the URA and implemented. It was subsequently renamed Hong Kong House of Stories in 2012 with the sponsorship from Hong Kong Bank Foundation, and it has live music events and guided tours organized regularly to promote culture in Wan Chai. When I passed by recently it seems it is under another flux of change of Phase II revitalization called the Viva Blue House, let’s see how it would turn out~
The current: —
The Future: —