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shop on the ground floor, and a residential unit above, often with a cockloft above that, and a tiny yard at the back, backing onto an alley which separated the rebuilt shops from the rest of Upper and Lower Streets, where the shops remained as before, facing onto those streets. The shops on the western side of Wang Tau Street were also built as shop-houses. There were about 40 shop-houses in this upper part of Wang Tau Street in 1925. Most of the other shops in Upper and Lower Streets had also been rebuilt as shop-houses by 1925.
58
In 1853, the Basel missionaries had found all the shops in the town single-storey structures, usually consisting of two buildings separated by a courtyard, and often with a yard at the back. These premises functioned as shops only, but not as permanent family residences. At that date, while the shop-owner and his staff usually slept in the shop in pallets in the shop cocklofts, their families remained at home in the ancestral village. By 1925, however, only the shops in the less-frequented parts of town remained as single-storey buildings, elsewhere they had been replaced by shop-houses. This move away from single storey units to shop-houses seems to have been a frequent development in the region in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: after 1898, descriptions of New Territories market towns normally refer to shop-houses in the main shopping areas, and single-storey structures elsewhere in the towns.
This redevelopment of the shops at the western ends of Upper and Lower Streets as shop-houses facing into Wang Tau Street led to the removal of the old Upper and Lower Gates. The East Gates, however, especially the Upper East Gate, remained.
It is likely that this move of the economic centre of the market, from Lower (Main) Street to Wang Tau Street had begun before 1898. At least three of the shops recorded on the 1894 tablet recording donations to the rebuilding of the temple at Shan Tsui39 were, in 1925, in the upper section of Wang Tau Street between Upper and Lower Streets. Almost certainly they did not all move between 1898 and 1925 from sites within the walls to sites outside - the most likely scenario is that they were already on their 1925 sites in 1894, and that, therefore, the move towards Wang Tau Street had begun somewhen between 1853 and 1894, and therefore arose from the steady increase in the town's prosperity in the later nineteenth century, and was thus not a response to the changes in the town's economic fortunes following the marking out of the new frontier in 1898.
170
shop on the ground floor, and a residential unit above, often with a cockloft above that, and a tiny yard at the back, backing onto an alley which separated the rebuilt shops from the rest of Upper and Lower Streets, where the shops remained as before, facing onto those streets. The shops on the western side of Wang Tau Street were also built as shop-houses. There were about 40 shop-houses in this upper part of Wang Tau Street in 1925. Most of the other shops in Upper and Llower Streets had also been rebuilt as shop-houses by 1925.
58
In 1853, the Basel missionaries had found all the shops in the town single-storey structures, usually consisting of two buildings separated by a courtyard, and often with a yard at the back. These premises functioned as shops only, but not as permanent family residences. At that date, while the shop-owner and his staff usually slept in the shop in pallets in the shop cocklofts, their families remained at home in the ancestral village. By 1925, however, only the shops in the less-frequented parts of town remained as single-storey buildings, elsewhere they had been replaced by shop-houses. This move away from single storey units to shop-houses seems to have been a frequent development in the region in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: after 1898, descriptions of New Territories market towns normally refer to shop-houses in the main shopping areas, and single-storey structures elsewhere in the towns.
This redevelopment of the shops at the western ends of Upper and Lower Streets as shop-houses facing into Wang Tau Street led to the removal of the old Upper and Lower Gates. The East Gates, however, especially the Upper East Gate, remained.
It is likely that this move of the economic centre of the market, from Lower (Main) Street to Wang Tau Street had begun before 1898. At least three of the shops recorded on the 1894 tablet recording donations to the rebuilding of the temple at Shan Tsui 39 were, in 1925, in the upper section of Wang Tau Street between Upper and Lower Streets. Almost certainly they did not all move between 1898 and 1925 from sites within the walls to sites outside -the most likely scenario is that they were already on their 1925 sites in 1894, and that, therefore, the move towards Wang Tau Street had begun somewhen between 1853 and 1894, and therefore arose from the steady increase in the town's prosperity in the later nineteenth century, and was thus not a response to the changes in the town's economic fortunes following the marking out of the new frontier in 1898.
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