Our Stories - From Dairy Farm to Fringe Club

 

Standing proudly at the top of Ice House Street in Central, Hong Kong, tthis brick and stucco building was built in 1890 and completed in 1892 by The Dairy Farm Company as a cold-storage depot. By 1913, a new façade, a dairy shop, a smoke room for curing meat, and a deli had been added. Later, the building was the company’s headquarters, right up until the 1970s. After Dairy Farm vacated the premises, the building was boarded up and was waiting to be torn down. Finally, in 1983, the Fringe Club rescued it.

 

How did the Fringe Club, an under-resourced non-profit arts organisation, manage to save and conserve the Dairy Farm depot? A building that was not only unique architecturally, but that also represents a bygone era of Hong Kong?

It’s a story we like to share with you here. You’ll see a timeline of photos with captions. Our story is divided into two parts: the first generation covers the heritage of the building and the history of The Dairy Farm Company, and the second generation covers the Fringe Club in the context of Hong Kong’s socio-political and cultural development.