渣甸藝創坊

JARDINE’S CRESCENT: ARTS & CRAFTS CENTERS

RE-PURPOSING JARDINE’S CRESCENT TO AN ARTS & CRAFTS CENTER

- The Back Garden of Causeway Bay -

Hawkers had played an important role in the past before the appearance of markets. In the 1950s, a large group of mainland immigrants with no education or technical skills flocked to Hong Kong, and they ended up being a street vendor and the hawker culture had reached its peak in 1970s. However, modernization accelerated in 1980s with shopping malls spread over Hong Kong, it had highly affected the livelihoods of hawkers. On the other hand, government has begun to tighten hawker policies, strengthening enforcement against unlicensed hawkers and encouraging licenses hawkers to return their license with financial compensation. These factors have caused the sharp decrease in the number of hawkers in the recent decades.

Jardine Crescent, the last street filled with traditional Hong Kong stall culture in Causeway Bay, is facing the same situation. It’s a narrow street with 100 stalls that sell womenswear and part of it function an extension of the underutilized Tang Lung Chau Market with only 10 stores still functioning in the 4-storeys market. Whilst the refuse collect point connected to the market has caused sanitary problems to the neighborhood, the accumulation of trash became a breeding ground for rats and cockroaches. Even though the street is in a preferable location, the pedestrian flow is extremely low in compared to the vicinity area. Over half of the stalls are operated by elderlies whose children are not willing to succeed the stalls, therefore returning the hawker’s license to the government become an ordinary thing in the recent years.

In order to sustain the future identity of the street and prevent the disappearance of stall culture in the next decades, commoning schemes will be imposed to the street that consist of both outdoor and indoor plans, such as the sharing stall program and the transformation of wet market into two arts & crafts centers for young artists and start-upers. The street is divided into 4 major zones, including art, music, dining and crafts with the back alley is transformed into a temporary market in the day and bar at night. Each zone will have their own programs to arouse the interest of the youth. The idea of ‘portal’ is used to linked up the entire street and it can be adopted widely to different scales, like furniture, leisure facilities, or structural elements for the buildings or bridge. There are three structural configurations (circular, squarish and linear) as to give flexibility to space formation to commoners. Whereas the scale and the spacing of the portal is taking reference from the existing hawker stalls by scaling it up for 1.5 to 2 times.

The industrial-style art and crafts-oriented street aims to become a back garden in Causeway Bay that acts as a respite area from the hustle lifestyle of Hong Kong, offering new programs for young couples and friends to hang around, a resting place for officers nearby. The need and audience in Causeway Bay have changed, selling womenswear in the street could not attract the younger generation that indirectly causing a low usage rate in Jardine’s Crescent. There is a need to repurpose the street as fits with the modern needs.

1890s

Jardine’s Bazaar was marked in the map of 1889 where hawkers were mainly street vendors selling fresh products on the street with no fixed location

1960s

Development began in Jardine’s Bazaar by constructing a carriageway and Tang Lung Chau Market was constructed to relocate part of the hawkers. While the others moved to Jardine’s Crescent and have to stay within the ‘yellow box’. Shortly after, business went bad in the market, so hawkers were sent back to the street

Jardine Bazaar first appeared in the map of 1845, it was named after William Jardines, the founder of Jardine Matheson 1845

The street was used as a temporary market, where there were no fixed stalls and they were all street hawkers selling fresh food on the floor

1970s

Development in Lee Garden Hill began. Government began licensing and regulating the area, assigning a permanent space for hawkers by marking a size of 120x90cm on the floor to restrict their vending area

Formation of Hawkers Association (香港 五行小商販福利會) to negotiate with government department about the improvements of stall design and send representatives to discuss with the triads

1980s

4 Japanese department stores opened in Causeway Bay area. Stalls were transformed to sell ‘dry goods’ like clothes/accessories, to cope with the emerging needs, while keeping a portion to sell fresh products near the Market

2010s

Reform on store types in Causeway Bay. Stores were selling golds, jewellery and cosmetics as to cope with the needs of Chinese tourists. It reduced local’s willingness to shop and affecting hawker’s income. Frequent Sogo thankful week has lowered customer flow to Jardine’s Crescent

2020s

Being affected by Covid-19 where travellers have disappeared. More funding went to hawker’s control team with lesser hawkers in HK.

Government collected over 800 hawker’s license in between 2003-08, but only plan to re-licensing half to the public with no priority given to hawker’s assistant who worked over 5 years. Licenses issued after 2010 were not allowed for further succession or transfer, result in lots of empty stalls

Hawkers’ income was affected by SARs in 2003. Later, HK government signed the CEPA with Mainland China to attracted Chinese tourists to HK, boosting the pedestrian flow in Causeway Bay 2000s

At the same time, FEHD sent people to get hawkers’ consent in returning the hawker’s license by giving a compensation fee of $120,000 HKD, as to create a ‘better streetscape’