Mei Ho House

Mei Ho House was built in 1954.From rickety squatter huts, to pioneering public housing and 21st century flats, Shek Kip Mei Housing Estate has witnessed a fascinating transformation over the past 60 years. Mei Ho House is one of the Hong Kong’s oldest public housing complex. Of a total of 29 concrete blocks built in 1954 to re-home thousands affected by a recent fire, Mei Ho House is the only one still standing today, and is an example of the now-rare H-block shape (two residential wings linked by communal facilities).

Regenerated by the Hong Kong Youth Hostels Association (YHA), this Grade II historic building reopened to the public in October 2013 as the YHA Mei Ho House Youth Hostel. It now contains the Heritage of Mei Ho House museum, showcasing Shek Kip Mei’s public housing history through the 1950s to 1970s through a mixture of donated exhibits and first-hand anecdotes from former residents.

The museum is open to the public as well as hostellers, free of charge.

History

Mei Ho House was built in 1954.It has witnessed a fascinating housing transformation over the past 60 years. Mei Ho House is the only one still standing today which affected by a recent fire, and is an example of the now-rare H-block shape that is two residential wings linked by communal facilities.

Facilities

Regenerated by the Hong Kong Youth Hostels Association, this Grade II historic building reopened to the public in October 2013 as the YHA Mei Ho House Youth Hostel. It now contains the Heritage of Mei Ho House museum, showcasing Shek Kip Mei’s public housing history through the 1950s to 1970s through a mixture of donated exhibits and first-hand anecdotes from former residents. The museum is open to the public as well as hostellers, and it is free of charge.

Mei Ho House is revitalized to be a youth hostel. Revitalizing project reflects the historical significance of the building through a several way, first is preserve the building's spatial morphology and transforms original living units to hostel rooms with major alterations, retain five sets of original dwelling as sample rooms for museum purposes, transforms the building into a cultural landmark is good with commendable concept of preserving the intangible heritage such as the public housing. In addition, there is a "Tourist Information and Visitors' Resource Centre", it conveys information of the early development of Shek Kip Mei Public Housing in the context of the Sham Shui Po district which help enhance overseas and local visitors' understanding of the historic building.

About the design of Mei Ho House, Western design will be adopted to the West Wing of the H-shaped block , while Chinese design will be adopted to the East Wing of the block. Both wings are then connected by escalators, elevators and pedestrian walkways.

The thematic exhibition is located on G/F of the  Heritage of Mei Ho House. The current exhibition features the 1953 Shek Kip Mei Fire and the stories of past residents of the surrounding neighbourhood. The content of the exhibition is including the Memories of the past, Shek Kip Mei Fire, Live in Shek Kip Mei, Mei Ho House is My Home, Affection for Shek Kip Mei, Memories of Shek Kip Mei.