14 C O N T E X T 1 4 5 : J U LY 2 0 1 6 The need for a shift was understood as early as 1881, if not before. It was in this year that Osbert Chadwick (1844–1913), a former Royal Engineer, was commissioned by the Colonial Office to investigate sanitary conditions in Hong Kong, especially those in Taipingshan. The investigation was in response to complaints from the commander of the local military garrison, who blamed the poor sanitation inTaipingshan for the high mortality rate among soldiers.The result of the investigationwas published in the 1882Mr Chadwick’s Report on the Sanitation Condition of Hong Kong (more commonly known as Chadwick’s Report). The section entitled ‘Chinese Houses’ would become the basis for Hong Kong’s first comprehensive set of building regulations (Public Health and Buildings Ordinance 1903) more than 20 years later. Unfortunately, the recommendations made in the 1882 report were resisted by both the European and Chinese business communities due to the extra cost involved in building shophouses with better living spaces and improved sanitation facilities. Chadwick’s recommendations would not receive appropriate attention until 1894, with the deadly bubonic plague outbreak inTaipingshan. Even then,matters dragged on. In a particularly cruel twist of fate, Chadwick was commissioned to write a second report, Preliminary Report on the Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong.The report,which reiteratedmuch of the 1882 report, was presented to the Legislative Council in April 1902, eight years after the deadly outbreak. Resistance to Chadwick’s earlier 1882 report is clear, as the opinion of another British specialist,WJ Simpson, professor of hygiene at King’s College and lecturer in tropical hygiene at the London School of Tropical Medicine, was sought after the 1894 outbreak. Simpson prepared a memorandum to the Sanitary Board, dated March 1902,which highlighted the unsanitary conditions found in Taipingshan shophouses, reinforcing what Chadwick had said years before. With the combined recommendations made by Chadwick and Simpson, the aforementioned Public Health and Buildings Ordinance of 1903 was drafted. It was this ordinance that established standards for the design of shophouses.The new regulations followed Chadwick’s 1882 recommendations closely, stipulating the following: Provision of open space and a scavenging lane of at least six feet wide (about 1.8m) behind buildings (Clause 179).This regulation ensured that the backs of shophouses could have windows for light and air, and that the collection of rubbish, night soil and pig swill could be done from the back. Building height limited to the width of the fronting street, and not more than four storeys, or higher than 76ft (about 23m) (Clause 188).This regulation controlled the height of shophouses so that fronting streets could receive adequate sunlight and fresh air. Building depth limited to 40ft (about 12m) (Clause 151). This regulation helped to curb the number of subdivided tenement cubicles in long narrow shophouses. In Hong Kong the traditional approach of categorising shophouses based on style is problematic, as early shophouses are generally devoid of stylistic markers and later shophouses can exhibit an exotic stylistic cocktail. However, having documented a representative number of extant shophouses, the authors have been able to group shophouses by construction periods, noting, in particular, materials and techniques.They have chosen to refer to the different periods as different generations, each distinctive, but genetically related. First-generation shophouses, 1840s–1890s Not surprisingly, the first generation of Hong Kong shophouses replicated traditional southern Chinese shophouses, which were constructed of Chinese grey brick (walls), timber (beams and floorboards) and clay tiles (roofing).The absence of ornamentation reflected clearly the economic state and preferences of the local Chinese community. The only known extant example of the first generation shophouse is No 120Wellington Street, completed in 1884. Second-generation shophouses, 1900s–1920s The second generation of Hong Kong shophouses reflected the requirements of the first set of building regulations (introduced in 1903), and the availability of new building materials and advanced construction technology.The local production of Portland cement, which began in 1890, encouraged the use of reinforced-concrete construction. However, as an emerging technology, it was used sparingly, and mainly for the construction of No 120Wellington Street, an example of Hong Kong’s firstgeneration shophouses (Photo: Ho-Yin Lee)
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