The Blue House

The «Blue House’ refers to a four storey balcony-​type tenement block located in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. It is naked after the blue color painted on its external walls. It is one of the few example of Tong Lau in Hong Kong. It is classfied as Grade I historic building. There are a few buildings near by which also painted in brigh colors. It reminds me of those colorful buildings in Bueno Aires — the «La Boca» district, although the one in Bueno Aires are more colorful. There is also a small make shift museum on the ground floor, but it does not open everyday. For me, it is interesting to see what is disappearing very fast in Hong Kong.

You may have heard about The Blue House and you may even have been there, but do you actually know what it is? I’ve been there too and after leaving, I still had no idea what it was about.
The place caught my eye as I was walking up Stone Nullah Lane to grab a tea at Lokali… its name says it all, it’s a blue house! And it stands out from the rest of the buildings in the street. I actually love the architecture of it and for a second a Mediterranean scene came to my mind, with its bright blue color and its balconies, not so common in Hong Kong. As I found out later, it was built back in the 20s as a residential building and maintained through different public projects that finally allowed residents to stay although the standards don’t seem too high (apparently there are no proper toilets!). A little more culture about it: it’s a Grade I historic building, which applies to buildings with ‘outstanding features’ that justified any effort towards its preservation. Prior to it being a four-​storey blue house, it was a lower rise house used as a hospital and a temple but it was later demolished and turned into the house you can see today. It was then used as a martial arts center, and osteopathy clinic, a school offering free education for children; a chamber of commerce for the fishmongers… the house is packed with a ton of history.
Nowadays, it hosts the Wan Chai Livelihood Museum, which is what I visited on that day. They aim at preserving the cultural richness of Wan Chai and they organize exhibitions and workshops to support it. To get the most of your visit to the museum, I recommend you go there informed about what the house and Wan Chai is about. You’ll definitely get to understand this piece of history so much better.