Lost Neon Signs (Kowloon and New Territories)

Broadway Cinema
673 Nathan Road, Mong Kok
1949

The 1960s was the heyday of neon signs, when Nathan Road would be glimmering with neon lights. With a row of L-shaped neon signs, the Broadway Theatre on Nathan Road stood out with its imposing spectacle. Opened in the 1949 and designed by Messrs. Chau & Lau, the 1100-seat air-conditioned theatre was the newest cinema in Kowloon area at the time. The ground level of the building was designed as storefront for a variety of shops, which explains why there was a signage for “456 Department Store” amidst the neon-covered façade. When the theatre relocated in the mid-60s, these neon signs were dismantled, and eventually disappeared from the street as the new cinema line stopped adopting neon signs as a publicity medium.

Courtesy: University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong

May May Children’s Wear
Nathan Road, Mong Kok
1963

High above the neon cacophony of Nathan Road in the 1970s, the May May children’s wear sign provided a counterpoint to the block lettering and characters of the neon signs around it. Its logotype used both English script and Chinese characters, cleverly incorporating heart shapes into its enlarged double “May” (美) characters.

Courtesy: Old Hong Kong Photo

Leung So Kee Umbrellas
Near Nelson Street ,Nathan Road, Mong Kok
c.1949

Founded in 1885 in Guangzhou, the Leung So Kee umbrella company first opened in Hong Kong in 1941 and has been well-known for its slogan “authentic umbrella spring mechanism, lifetime warranty.” Leaving no question as to what was being sold inside, impressive umbrella-shaped neon signs hovered over its Hong Kong stores, which were located near Nelson Street. In 1994, Leung So Kee shop moved to its current location inside the Dragon Centre in Sham Shui Po, thus eliminating the need for a neon sign.

Courtesy: W! Foundation

National
Nathan Road, Jordan
1962

In 1962, National, the prominent Japanese home appliance brand, installed a neon sign that occupied nearly the entire side of a building in Nathan Road, Jordan. It was topped by yet another large sign, for the cigarette brand “Eagle King.” The growing size of neon signs at the time reflected their increasing importance as advertising mediums for international brands, as well as the expanding presence of those brands on the urban streetscape.

Courtesy: Shun Hing Grou

National Panasonic
Nathan Road, Jordan
1970

In 1970, the building-sized National neon sign on Nathan Road was replaced with an even larger one. The newly-christened National Panasonic sign extended above the building’s roofline, supplanting the “Eagle King” cigarette sign that had previously stood there. As the world’s largest neon sign during the 1970s, (according to the Guinness Book of World Records), the new sign set the National Panasonic logo and English and Chinese brand names on a blazing background of red neon tubes for an even more spectacular effect than before.

Courtesy: Nam Wah Neonlight & Electrical Mfy. Ltd

Chinese Palace Night Club
Nathan Road, Jordan
c.1970

The Chinese Palace was one of Hong Kong’s most prominent nightclubs of the 1970s, with an ornate neon sign topped by a gleaming crown. Reaching out over the street on an elaborate scepter-shaped arm, the round body of the sign contrasted with the yellow neon squares—the colour reserved for China’s emperors that covered the high-end establishment’s exterior façade.

Courtesy: Frank Costantini and Kirk Kirkpatrick

Millie’s Centre
Nathan Road, Jordan
c.1970

In the 1970s the Millie’s shopping centre anchored the corner of Nathan and Jordan Roads, thus making that location one of the city’s most glittering intersections. Millie’s brilliant, peacock-inspired signboard was vastly out of scale with its comparatively small entrance, attesting to the importance of neon to commercial enterprise.

Courtesy: Dusty Sprengnagel

Club BBoss
14 Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
1984

Initially called Club Volvo—it changed its name after legal action by the Swedish carmaker—Club BBoss in East Tsim Sha Tsui was one of Hong Kong’s glitziest nightclubs, from its opening in 1984 to its closing in 2012. An abbreviation of “Big Boss,” the club announced itself with a large neon facade studded with four-pointed stars evocative of the famous 1960s neon sign of the Stardust Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Courtesy: Keith MacGregor

Tai Woo Restaurant
Hillwood Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
c.1990

The L-shaped neon sign of the Tai Woo restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui accommodated both the vertical and horizontal orientations of Chinese and English, respectively, while also pushing the sign—and hence, the restaurant’s visibility—further into the street. Its repeated fish scale pattern and boomerang-shaped fin left little doubt as to the restaurant’s seafood specialty.

Courtesy: Dusty Sprengnagel

Habour Village Restaurant
Star House, Tsim Sha Tsui
1971

With their high visibility on the waterfront, next to the Star Ferry terminal, the exterior walls of buildings along the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade have long been desirable locations for advertisers. In the 1970s, one of the most prominent neon signs in the area was for Harbour Village in Star House, operated by the Maxim’s restaurant group.

Courtesy: Nam Wah Neonlight & Electrical Mfy. Ltd

Precious Gem Restaurant
Tai Po Road, Sham Shui Po
c. 1960

With their associations of glamour and luxury, diamonds were a popular motif for neon signs in the 1960s and ‘70s, and not only for jewelry shops. Located on Tai Po Road in 1960s, the signboard of the “Precious Gem” Chinese restaurant featured a large neon diamond that referenced its name, rather than its business.

Courtesy: University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong

Gao Ning optical shop
Castle Peak Road
Year Unknown

The Gao Ning optical shop readily identified itself with its large eyeglass-shaped neon sign. As with other optical shops of the period, its name was cleverly incorporated within the frame’s lenses, thus playfully integrating typography and typology.

Courtesy: Michael Wolf

Romance Hotel
41 Cumerland Road, Kowloon Tong
c.1975

In 1974, the former house of Bruce Lee was converted into a love hotel called the Romance Hotel, with a neon sign in peach red and willow green – conveying a sense of flirting and teasing.

Courtesy: South China Morning Post

Kai Kee Mahjong, Kwun Tong
Yue Man Square, Kwun Tong
1976

Though in operation since 1933, when it adopted its iconic rooster logo, Kai Kee became Hong Kong’s first officially licensed ‘Mahjong School’ in 1956. Over the years, it expanded from its original home on Temple Street to include multiple locations, including in Kwun Tong, where it opened in 1976. Due to the area’s redevelopment, the Kwun Tong branch of Kai Kee has since closed, and its rooster neon sign has been acquired for the M+ permanent collection.

Courtesy: Living in Kwuntong

Hang Heung Cake Shop
64 Castle Peak Road, Yuen Long
Year unknown

With a history of more than 100 years, the Hang Heung Cake Shop covered nearly the entirety of its original Yuen Long location in neon lights. Framing its corner location in a pattern of circles and lines, while announcing its specialty-baked goods above, the store’s neon signage, like the shop itself, became a landmark of its neighborhood. During renovations in 2013, the neon signage was removed.

Courtesy: Christopher Dewolf