IamtheUrbex (2025)

19/07/2025

Shih Chung Branch School in Penang, Malaysia is an abandoned school that was opened in 1938 by rich Hakka millionaires and closed in 1994 after declining student numbers had facilitated a move to a different location. These declining student numbers are less to do with the type of demographic pressures we are currently witnessing around the world and more to do with the fact that more and more families were moving from the city centre of Penang to new suburbs.

Originally this building was a mansion and it was built in 1880. From 1908-1910 it acted as the Chinese consulate and then a hotel for 5 years called Raffles-by-the-Sea and then Hotel Norman. After that it was a girls school for 5 years and then a government school. However it is most famous for having a reputation as being haunted due to rumours of tortures and executions that probably took place there during world war 2 when this was used by the Japanese military as a administrative center and they most likely detained prisoners there. This is a common phenomenon in most Asians countries which were occupied by Japanese forces during world war 2. Suffice to say I did not see, feel, hear or smell anything that suggests I should have brought a proton pack.

The reason why this building has remained in this overgrown, dilapidated state for over 30 years is due to its historical and architectural value which has led to the Penang Island City Council to block any attempt at developing this site that did not preserve this site for example one proposed plan was to turn it into a columbarium. Lots of negotiations have taken place between the council and the landowners to explore redevelopment options but they have so far been fruitless. In my opinion such strict heritage preservation requirements should be applauded.

These photos were taken in May 2019 with a Nikon D610 28-300mm f3.5-5.6

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15/07/2025

Located near Stanley on Hong Kong island, this former tennis changing room is all that is left of Palm Villa which was a typical example of the classical style mansions that used to dot Hong Kong and have now mostly disappeared into the pages of history. This mansion was built in 1920 and demolished in 1982 in order to give birth to what would become the American Club and Pacific View Condominiums.

Palm Villa is most famous for having some of the mansions grounds being used as filming locations for the Bruce Lee film. Enter the Dragon, which is his best film and a film a surprisingly large number of people in Hong Kong have never actually watched, especially among young people. The tennis courts were transformed into the arena for the martial arts competition and the hut itself is visible during these training scenes. This hut was also used by both Bruce Lee and co-star Ahna Capri as a changing room during the shooting of this film. Whether they used it at the same time or together I have no idea and only the crumbling walls know if any shenanigans ever took place.

These photos were taken in May 2021 with a Nikon D850 20mm f1.8 & 24-70mm f2.8

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29/06/2025

St. Joseph's Home for the Aged in Kowloon, Hong Kong was set up by the French Roman Catholic society, the Little Sisters of the Poor, who bought the site in 1926 and has the distinction of being the first purpose-built home for the elderly in Hong Kong. The main building itself was built in 1919 and before that, it was a farm that was used as a base for revolutionaries who were trying to overthrow the Qing dynasty. It went on to serve refugees from mainland China who had fled the Japanese invasions in the 1930s.

The facilities ceased operation in 2004 when the home itself was moved to a site in the north of Hong Kong which is most likely due to a 2000 decision to totally redevelop the site for public & private housing though the villa, gate house, and dormitory will be preserved for posterity, in part because they were awarded Grade 1 Historical buildings in 2009. Such awards are not always a guarantee of protection but these buildings are still there and it does look like they are going to be kept.

I went early on a Sunday yet I still had to dodge the security for the site but at this point as one can see, the site had already been gutted inside so such on-site vigilance did strike me as overkill. More than 4 years on the little progress seems to have been made in developing this area in-spite of all the work that has continuously taken place.

These photos were taken in April 2021 with a Nikon D850 20mm f1.8

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15/06/2025

Tor Po Mansions in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong was built in 1962 and is a typical example of the abandoned "Tong Lau" apartments that Hong Kong used to have lots. They are famous for the surprising number of personal items which have been left behind, almost as if the tenements were abducted by aliens.

In some cases, it can take up to a decade for these sites to be finally demolished in order to build brand new, shiny, high rises. When I first went in 2021 there were still a few tenants who had yet to leave, though it seems the last was finally bought out in 2023, 4 years after Henderson Land and Swire Properties started buying the apartments in order to demolish the site.

I recently went back and had a look and found most of the apartments had been locked up and in most cases they have already been cleared out so I am guessing that Tor Po Mansions will soon meet the same fate as the iconic Swiss House apartments which used to lay a few minutes up the road.

These photos were taken in March and June 2021 with a Nikon D850 24-70mm f2.8 & 20mm f1.8

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25/05/2025

I stumbled upon this site quite by accident while wandering around rural Tuen Mun in Hong Kong though I'm not quite sure where exactly this is, partly because of all the wild dogs in and around these buildings which had me more focused of self-preservation.

It looks like this used to be some sort of small scale pig farm, though I could be wrong and seems to have been abandoned for a very long time based on how decayed this cluster of buildings appeared. However I came across a newspaper from 2011 so either Hong Kong has been especially unforgiving to these buildings or someone decided to read a newspaper inside and left it when they were done. There was also a Chinese New Year calendar for the year of the Roaster which could mean it was from 1993 or 2005.

Hong Kong is full of such abandoned rural houses which people have left to rot as they migrate abroad seeking greener pastures.

These photos were taken in April 2022 with a Nikon D850 20mm f1.8

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17/05/2025

It is always nice when you are out and about and you randomly come across abandoned sites you had no idea were there or even existed. This house is somewhere around the Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail but I never recorded a pin of the location because I forgot due to the excitement of having found somewhere new. I also suspect that the fact that the door was opened was a bit of a fluke and that it would not be long until one of the neigbours had locked it up because the area is quite well populated. It looks like this house had been left empty for around 20 years and the lack of personal items, which are often left in abandoned houses in Hong Kong, makes me think that the previous occupants were leaving for good.

These photos were taken in October 2021 with a Nikon D850 20mm f1.8

IG: IamtheUrbex (https://www.instagram.com/iamtheurbex/)

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04/05/2025

This house was built in the mid-1930s and at one time was the residence of Hong Kong artist Huang Yong-yu as well as other leftist intellectuals in the 1940s and was located in Kau Wah Keng village, which is one of the few remaining villages in Kowloon. It was left uninhabited since the early 1990s and in 2010 it was listed as a Grade III historical building but that did not save it from being demolished in the summer of 2023 because the owners felt it was too run down to renovate and the local village people felt it posed a danger to their safety due to the state it was in. Such concerns I feel were not warranted because it looked sturdy enough on the outside to pose no threat to anyone and the inside was not especially dilapidated. I think the real reason is due to money and rumours of a massive plan of redevelopment for the area. The Antiquities and Monuments Office did meet with the owner to discuss possible conservation options due to its unique blend of Western & Chinese architectural features but this came to nothing most likely due to the cost it would take to renovate the house. This is a common issue with most derelict mansions in Hong Kong.

These photos were taken in April 2022 with a Nikon D850 20mm f1.8 & 35mm f1.4

IG: IamtheUrbex (https://www.instagram.com/iamtheurbex/)

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28/04/2025

Tai Wai public school was a primary school that was established in 1967 and operated for 30 years. It closed in 1997 and lay forgotten about until in 2014 when plans were suggested to turn it into a library but this notion never came into fruition and finally, the site was demolished last year to make space to build village houses. It is amazing that such a place remained unused for almost 30 years in the middle of Tai Wai town.

These photos were taken in April 2021 with a Nikon D850 20mm f.1.8

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23/04/2025

St Hilda's "Iron" Church, is located Rochdale, in north Greater Manchester and in its original incarnation, was built in 1878 as a Roman Catholic Church made out of metal sheets on Featherstall Road. The reason for using metal sheets rather than convention brick is because of how much cheaper and quicker it was to build structures with such materials then. It was later bought by the Church of England, who dismantled it and rebuilt it in 1931 to where it is today. The cost was about 6000 pounds which in 2025 money would be nominally around 400,000 pounds or 450,000 pounds if you take into account purchasing power, which is still a bargain when one considers the price of property in the UK nowadays.

The church closed in 1998 because of structural problems that deemed it unsafe and large areas of the floor have already collapsed or are about to. If one looks at photos of this church from 5 or 6 years ago, one can see that the flooring is still intact, I wonder how long it will be before the organs collapse through the floor. The church was recently sold at auction for £172,000 in 2022, though there is no evidence of any attempt by the new owners to refurbish or renovate the site.

There have been some reports of potential paranormal activity going on at this location but when I was there I didn't see, feel or hear anything to suggest it was, though the light coming in was particularly strong and caused quite a lot of light distortions and light flares in my photos which require a lot of editing to fix. I was actually very relaxed here, much more than usual asides from having to keep one eye on the floor at all times. The biggest danger, aside from the flooring, is the horrendously sharp nettles that surround the way into this place. Even with my thick trousers, they still got me!

These photos were shot in August 2024 with a Nikon D850 20mm f1.8

16/04/2025

This house is located in the Shek Mun Kap area of Lantau island in Hong Kong and seems to have been abandoned for a long time ago. Unlike like this house, most Hong Kong abandoned houses in rural areas tend to be full of personal items, almost as if the owners are away on holiday or maybe even prison and intend to come back soon. The most remarkable thing about this place is the large number of vintage TV sets left to rot. It has subsequently been locked up by if I had to guess, the local village people or perhaps even other urbexers.

These photos were taken in April 2022 with a Nikon D850 35mm f1.4

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11/04/2025

Located almost exactly in the middle of the seaside town of Ting Kau Hong Kong, this large 3-story house was left in a state of neglected disrepair for probably at least a decade before I was able to enter it after someone had pulled off the metal back door. I was very lucky to have got in here because the first time I went there there was no way in and the various other people who have noticed this building over the years never got in. It did not take long for the door to be sealed up. As someone who is based in Hong Kong I am eternally grateful for the reckless handful of urbexers who never let a locked door get in their way. The humidity was insane in this house, with some of the rooms covered in wall to wall mold and it took around half an hour for the condensation to clear from my camera lenses. From what I have heard this house has been renovated and is no longer an urbex site.

These photos were taken in June 2021 with a Nikon D850 24-70mm f2.8 & 20mm f.1.8

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31/03/2025

Sheng Kun Hui kindergarten in Jardine's Lookout was a Hong Kong Kindergarten that opened in 1975 and was operated by the Anglican church. This is one of the most affluent areas of Hong Kong and this institution attracted a mostly wealthy cohort of pupils. It closed in 2012 and moved to Causeway Bay due to a plan to redevelop the area, but the local residence managed to have these plans scrapped because of traffic concerns so it was closed for nothing. Last year, it was finally demolished after 12 years of lying empty.

This used to be one of the most well-trodden abandoned sites in Hong Kong because of the ease of entry and the lack of any type of security and even when I first visited a pair of girls were arriving as I was leaving. This makes what happened when I went back in 2023 quite surprising. Just as we were about to leave, a security guard arrived and started coming towards us. We legged it through the bush to the main road even though it seemed that he was not really making much of an effort to make chase. I am guessing we accidentally triggered some type of alarm that had been installed, perhaps in anticipated for the coming demise of the building or maybe one of the residence in the surrounding area spotted us and reported us to whoever used to manage the site.

These photos were shot in November 2018 with a Nikon D610 28-300mm f3.5-5.6

#城市探索 #廢墟攝影 #廢探 #香港廢墟 #廢墟

IamtheUrbex