Po Leung Kuk Chan Au Big Yan Home for the Elderly, Grade II historic building in Central and Western District, Hong Kong.
Po Leung Kuk Chan Au Big Yan Home for the Elderly occupies the former Western Fire Station at 12 Belcher's Street in Shek Tong Tsui. The four-storey brick building has a symmetrical facade and louvred shutters on its windows. It has been a Grade II historic building since its fire-station years and now serves as a residential care home for the elderly.
Built in 1923 under the Sanitary Board, the building housed the Kennedy Town Fire Station on its ground floor and basement, staffed by 10 firefighters and equipped with an electric pump; upper floors served as staff quarters. Renamed Western Fire Station in 1937, it passed to the Urban Services Department in 1950, which let space to its staff union for a primary school from 1951 to 1976. The Social Welfare Department took over in 1986 and leased the building to Po Leung Kuk in 1991 for an elderly home.
The building's name honours Chan Au Big Yan, a donor whose contribution enabled Po Leung Kuk to open the home in 1991. From 1951 to 1976 the Municipal Services Department staff association ran a primary school inside the building, a use that has left no trace in the current care home.
The building stands at 12 Belcher's Street in Shek Tong Tsui, on Hong Kong Island, not on Peel Rise. It is a residential care home, so the interior is not open to the public; the brick facade, symmetrical front and louvred windows can be seen from the street.
The building's ground floor and basement once held the Kennedy Town Fire Station, staffed by ten firefighters and equipped with an electric water pump. The upper floors housed quarters for Sanitary Board staff, a split arrangement that ended when the station was renamed Western Fire Station in 1937.
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