On this day | How Hong Kong Fringe Club got its start in a historic building in Central in 1984 — from the SCMP archive
- Four decades after the Fringe Club found a home in a heritage building at the junction of Wyndham Street and Lower Albert Road, we look back at how the Post covered the lead up its opening
- For years, the non-profit arts centre was home to the annual Fringe Festival before turning it into a permanent exhibition and performance space
By Liz Block
The Hong Kong Festival Fringe has found a home.
For the duration of Fringe ‘84 from Saturday (January 21) until February 19, the old Dairy Farm Building at the junction of Wyndham Street and Ice House Street, Central, will house the Fringe Club, a place where Fringe members can gather and relax and where Fringe and Arts Festival performers can showcase their works in an informal atmosphere.
For Fringe manager Mr Benny Chia, allocation of the space to the Fringe represents the fulfilment of a long-held dream.
“Where else can you find a loft like this outside Soho?” he said.
The building used to be a warehouse for cold storage.
“I grew up in this area and I’ve walked past this building as long as I can remember.
“But I didn’t actually walk in until the summer of 1982 — the summer before our first Fringe — and I knew then that this was the right place for a Fringe Club.”
But obtaining the space, though thrilling for Fringe staff and volunteers, also represented a major challenge.
For the long-empty rooms were in a state of total disrepair.
And the opening of the Fringe was only five weeks off.
“The place was a mess,” Benny said.
“It has had to be cleaned out, rewired, repainted and hopefully this week ‘retoileted’.
“It’s been an enormous task but it looks like we’re going to make it — almost entirely on volunteer help.”
The work stated immediately.
“Nick Ratcliffe, an engineer with BMMK Ratcliff and Hoare, did the preliminary survey on a volunteer basis, Tse Chiu-wai from Hong Kong University’s School of Architecture drew up the design and our volunteers began carting out mountains of rubbish.
“Except for professional electricians and plumbers, it’s all a volunteer effort.”
A recent visit to the Dairy Farm site revealed a very intense level of activity.
Against a background of hammering, volunteers swarmed around the future theatre/cabaret area, scrubbing wide expanses of white tile wall while others perched on ladders to attack the higher reaches with mops and long-handed brushes.
Among other difficult tasks, rusty ceiling beams had to be laboriously scraped and repainted.
I feel like a pioneer. And if I don’t get a job in my field, I can always paint
Shrouded in shower cap, face mask and pink rubber gloves, volunteer Catherine Lau, a former air hostess who will serve as Fringe Club manager, stopped scrubbing long enough to explain her view of the Fringe Club.
“It’s a place where you can belong without being an artist.”
“We have all sorts of people involved - students, clerks, workers, editors and even a doctor.
“They have worked incredible hours — we are all aware that the time is so short.”
“The volunteers are doing things we never thought we could ask them to do,” said Emma Li, Fringe secretary and the only paid staff member besides Mr Chia.
“They have done so much, very dirty work and they have worked weekends — even Christmas and New Year’s weekends.
“Just cleaning up the place took many days.”
Most of the volunteers thought they would be doing “clean” work like writing press copy or liaising with artists when they approached the Fringe, Emma added.
But once the Dairy Farm building was allocated, everyone was drafted into manual labour. Despite the lack of a “doing-it-yourself” tradition in Hongkong, the volunteers plunged into painting and building repair with enthusiasm.
Hong Kong Fringe Club to have lease renewed on its historic Central base
“I feel like a pioneer,” said English literature and linguistic graduate Elaine Yeung, waving a paintbrush.
“And if I don’t get a job in my field, I can always paint.”
Volunteer Li Chai-ka provided invaluable leadership for the do-it-yourselfers, Emma said.
“He’s an expert on carpentry and he taught us what tools to get and how to patch walls and paint.
“We learned so much from him.”
Given the urgent time frame, volunteers learned other lessons as well.
For example, Miss Yeung, who volunteered for the Fringe with fellow Hongkong University graduate Jacqueline Li, also learned about bureaucracy.
“They put me in charge of making calls to government offices to get permits and licences,” Elaine said.
“I kept getting the run-around.
“I’m usually shy but I had to learn to be tough and to press.
“Sometimes you just can’t be polite.”
Many companies made welcome contributes to the club, Mr Chia said.
“On Christmas Eve, National Lacquer and Paint Products donated 150 gallons of paint.
“That was a wonderful Christmas present.
“We started painting the next day — Boxing Day.”
When completed, the ground floor of the Dairy Farm building will house the cabaret and cafe-bar and the upper floor will be used for the Fringe offices.
Benny, who did his “arts apprenticeship” with the Arts Centre, hopes to find permanent housing for the Fringe Club.
“I feel that artists would benefit from it all year around,” he said.
“They need a place to exchange ideas and test out new concepts.
“All these artists in Paris in the old days who made Montparnasse so famous - they had places to hang out together.
“That’s what Hong Kong needs right now.”
