Si Jo Wong Cheung's
Bute Street Gym  

 

In early 1974, Wong Cheung / 黃祥 was able to establish a full-time gym on the 8th floor (roof top) of a building in Bute Street / 弼街 and the corner of Reclamation Street / 新填地街 in Mong Kok / 旺角. Several of his students lived in the building and it is understood that through them he was able to acquire the use of the roof area. Several of his students were skilled builders and and engineers and with their help he was able to build the prefab structure on this roof that would be his gym and living accommodation from this time onwards. This structure was built to Wong Cheung's / 黃祥 own design and covered half the roof space, but still left the other half of the roof as an outdoor area.

  

This was a great location for Wong Cheung / 黃祥, because it was only about 500 metres from the Mong Kok Railway Sidings gym that he used during the mornings and daytime.

 
? , Wong Cheung / 黃祥, Ng Ho leung / 伍浩良  

These photos were taken around 1983 and in the background show the shrine wall area.  

 

The following photos were taken around 1987. Although they were taken in black and white, they are clear and show the details. In the few years, very little seems to have changed around the shrine wall area.  

 
Franco Lok / Lok Wah Fai / 駱華輝, Huang Guoming / 黃國明, Lin Weiyuan / 林偉源  
& Si Jo Wong Cheung / 師祖黃祥

The photo below is the view towards the entrance on the left and behind the wall is Wong Cheungs / 黃祥 private living area.

Si Jo Wong Cheung / 師祖黃祥 watching his disciple Franco Lok / Lok Wah Fai / 駱華輝 practicing on the nine pin grinder dummy / 九齒磨盤椿.

 

  

The 9 Pin Grinder Dummy / 九齒磨盤椿, (cloured photo 1983, black and white photo 1987). Sometime after this, the leg on the right came off.

 

Peter Boczar had trained under Si Jo Wong Cheung / 師祖黃祥 when he lived in Hong Kong from 1977 to 1980. Peter returned to Hong Kong in 1999 to live permanently and  shortly after in the early 2000s returned to the Bute Street gym and had his photo taken, below.  

 

In November 2006, I (Paul Burkinshaw) travelled to Hong Kong accompanied by my good friend and long-term student, Robert Buckler. On the evening of Tuesday the 7th November, we met Eric Tsai /蔡景全 and went to Bute Street / 弼街 in the Mong Kok / 旺角 district of Kowloon / 九龍.       

  

Looking down Bute Street from the Shanghai Street junction  

   

Looking up at the rooftop area where the gym was located.

  

On the left in the balcony fence and bushes  /   Top right, metal prefab walls & roof.

 

After going through the locked front entrance door, we climbed the stairs to the roof area on the 8th floor. After walking through the door onto the roof area there was another small walkway and a few feet on the left another iron mesh door to the prefab structure that was Si Jo Wong Cheung’s / 師祖黃祥 old rooftop gym and residence.       

   

Entrance hall of ground floor                         Passageway on roof to gym entrance

   

Just before the door, there was a window opening which was covered with steel mesh for security. This window looked into Wong Cheung's / 黃祥 personal living area which was a good size.  His personal living area had two windows on the other side that open out onto Bute Street / 弼街 besides the window looking out onto the rooftop.  

 

The door into gym, was constructed of a steel frame with strong quare wire mesh welded to it.

  

Stepping through the door into passageway there was a shrine on the floor and then some free weights and a sign on the wall. On the floor there were several dusty blue hand dumbbell weights. The large red sign behind the weights states, Wong Cheung Martial (Wushu) Association / 黃祥體育會.On the left of this passageway there was a wall which was mainly constructed of wire mesh and looking through the mesh you could see into some of Wong Cheung's / 黃祥 personal living area.         

  

  

The entrance passageway is on left of Si Jo Wong Cheung’s / 師祖黃祥 shrine leading back to door. On the right of the shrine is a wall made of corrugated metal sheets that continues the full length to the external wall on the Bute Street / 弼街side. In line with the passageway was a small concrete wall, approximately one foot high (30cm) that went from the side of the shrine to the opposite outside wall on the Bute Street / 弼街 side. 

  

Against the corrugated metal sheet wall in the far-left corner from the passageway was the area Wong Cheung used as his kitchen, which is shown in the photo on the left. This corner area is the other side of the small concrete wall that extends to the opposite outside wall on the Bute Street / 弼街 side. Approximately six feet along this small concrete wall from the shrine wall was a metal sheet wall that extended from the small concrete wall to the roof in this corner area hiding the kitchen from the main gym hall.

 

This photo shows the kitchen area looking towards the Bute Street / 弼街 external wall. There is a sink against this wall and it is section off from the main gym hall in this corner with a metal sheet wall from the small concrete wall (one foot / 30cm high) to the roof.

This photo above shows the nine pin grinder dummy / 九齒磨盤椿 and behind that is the small concrete wall. The shrine for Wong Cheung / 黃祥 is on the left of the photo and the metal sheet wall starts in line with the dummy / 九齒磨盤椿 and continues to the far right outside wall on the Bute Street side / 弼街of the gym. The small concrete wall needs to be stepped over to get into this kitchen area. 

The photo above was taken at an angle so that the kitchen area can be seen behind the metal sheet wall. Also notice the small one foot high concrete wall that the metal sheet is fixed to.

This photo shows the left corner of the main gym hall where the metal sheet wall meets the outside wall on the Bute Street / 弼街 side of the gym. At this corner there is a doorway leading onto a balcony that overlooks Bute Street / 弼街. Next to this doorway there is a sink.

This photo shows the bottom of the doorway and part of the balcony that overlooks Bute Street / 弼街. The channel in the floor is for draining away the water from the sink.

 

This photo shows the top of the open doorway. The wall was approximately four foot high (120cm) that the sink was attached to. The outside exterior wall on the balcony has mesh fencing attached to it for safety.

  
Looking towards Shanghai Street                  Looking towards Canton Road

These photos were taken from the balcony that overlooks Bute Street / 弼街.

  

 

These photos above show the four-foot wall on the Bute Street / 弼街 side of the gym from the sink onwards towards the start of the metal corrugated sheet wall. Next to the to the sink there was a small shrine near the top of the four-foot wall. This wall was open above the sink and the shrine for approximately eight feet from the doorway (240cm). Then metal corrugated sheeting extends this wall to the roof for the remainder of this external wall into the corner. The photo on the right above shows the metal corrugated wall above the four-foot concrete wall.

  

On this wall there was a wooden board attached that had a clock, mirror, and various certificates and photos on it.

 

  

  

 

 

After this board and moving towards the corner there was a ventilation fan in the corrugated sheet wall with a gong and small drum hung below.   

Turning to face the right is the back wall (Reclamation Street / 新填地街 side) which was one large shrine area taking up nearly all of the wall. This wall was constructed of prefab corrugated metal sheeting as well above the four-foot concrete wall. There was four large shrines and then at the end on the right were several shelfs full of porcelain figurines.      

   

  

  

The photos above show the various shrines on the back wall of the gym hall (Reclamation Street / 新填地街side). These shrines extended from the back wall by approximately two feet (60cm).

  

Under the shrines was a storage area for various boxes, containers and several  weapons.                                                                                 

 

This photo above shows where the prefab corrugated wall then comes across the origanal roof floor of the building to section off the hall to the outside roof area. This prefab wall was attached to a small concrete wall one foot (30cm) high.This photo shows the doorway out onto the open roof area that was approximately four feet from the corner where the shrines were.

The photo on the left shows the other side of the doorway (from the outside looking in). It is easier to see the small concrete wall that has to be stepped over to enter or exiting into the gym area. A lion dance drum can be seen on the inside of the doorway.

  

On top of the drum was a lion head in a bag to keep the dust off. The lion was very old and had lots of damage as can be seen below. On the wall above the lion was a pair of old boxing gloves and a headguard hung up.

  

From the doorway there was approximately eight feet of metal corrugated wall that had a ventilation fan fitted close to the roof. Then there was a large concrete square structure that was part of the original building that was about four foot high and was about six foot long. From this there was then another concrete structure which then
protruded into the gym hall area. The photo above on the left shows the four foot concrete structure that has metal corrugated wall extending to the roof. The photo on the right above shows the the six foot square concrete structure that then pertruded into the gym hall area. 

On this wall was a shrine and a red panel above the shrine. This red panel was used during training to write the name of the deity for worshipping. Next to the shrine were several wooden staffs and the around the corner a wooden desk with lots of paperwork etc on it. This photo shows the square conctete structure that pertruded into the gym area. The wooden desk is at the bottom left and above it on the right was a clock and notice board.

Around the corner of this square concrete structure was back to the entrance passageway into the gym as shown in the photo above.

On top of this concrete structure were thethree deities of Fu, Lu & Shou / 福祿壽.

Walking through the door on the right side of the shrine wall led to the outside open roof top area. The photo below was taken looking out the doorway showing most of the roof area.

  

The photo below shows the bricked up exit onto the ledge way that overlooked Reclamation Street / 新填地街 and the photo on the right below shows this ledge area.

  

The next photos below show the right-hand corner of the outdoor roof area.

  

The photos below show the area moving around from the righthand corner back towards the gym structure. The metal bracket on the righthand photo is where a punch bag was hung from.

The photo above also shows a metal bracket coming from the top of the square concrete structure (near middle of photo) that was used to hang a punch bag.

  

The photos above are taken from the opposite side of the roof looking back to the gym. From these photos it is easier to see the prefab structure.

 

These modern maps and aerial photo show the exact location of where the Bute Street Gym used to be.

  

 

Just before my return to the UK, I was informed that the government had given notice that they would be clearing the rooftop structure of the building. (Hong Kong government removal order of what they now classed as unauthorised or illegal structures. This was taking part on hundreds of buildings all over Hong Kong. ) I therefore organised a return trip for the following month of December before the enforced removel of of Si Jo Wong Cheung's Bute Street gym in the New Year. This was primarily to train on the 9 Pin Grinder Dummy and use the actual dummy at the gym.  

  

December 2006  most of the items removed from the large shrine area. Luckily, I was able to save several items from Wong Cheung's gym before the clearance. Theses included two staffs, two cymbals, copies of Wong Cheung's certificates, a brass plaque and a brass lotus lantern / 蓮花燈.  

  

Paul Burkinshaw training on the 9 Pin Grinder Dummy, during December 2006.

  

 

April 2007  

On my return to Hong Kong in April 2007, (just over 3 months since I was last there) the whole roof structure had been dismantled and everything removed. The old tile flooring was gone, and it had now been painted grey. The only things left remaining was a throwing stone lock stuck in a concrete pile to the floor, and a red rectangular area on the concrete wall.

 

  

 

The photos above show the red rectangular area that was originally above a shrine and used to write the name of deity on during worship.

  

The phot on the right above shows the stone throwing lock in a concrete pile connected to the roof floor.

 

March 2013

 

March 2013 Robert Buckler and Paul Burkinshaw travelled to Hong Kong in March 2013 to meet with Franco Lok and Alan Low. At this time, they returned to the site of the Bute Street gym to see what had become of the area.

At the street entrance to the Bute Street building Alan Low, Franco Lok, Paul Burkinshaw & Robert Buckler.    

Since 2007, several of the walls had been painted yellow and the concrete square structure now had a picture painted on it.

  

           Alan Low, Paul Burkinshaw, Franco Lok & Robert Buckler             

The photo above shows the original outside training area on the rooftop.                                          

 

 

March 2014

 

In March 2014, I (Paul Burkinshaw) returned to Hong Kong with three students to train and attended the annual dinner. During this trip, we again visited the site of the old Bute Street gym. Half the flooring had been painted green and had a large tarpaulin over it.

  

 

April 2015

 

In April 2015, I (Paul Burkinshaw) travelled to Hong Kong with eight students (three of which were my children) to train and attended the annual dinner.

From left to right - Cameron Burkinshaw, Marius Dunkley, Paul Cowley, Charlotte Burkinshaw, Callum Burkinshaw, Daniel Nghiem, Leung Mei Kit (Maggie), Paul Burkinshaw, Yeung Wong Hing (Bentley), Andy Docker, Ho Wai Man, Sean Krauth, Low Shiu Lun (Alan) & Lok Wai Fai (Franco).

 

       

 

 

Items salvaged from Wong Cheung's Bute Street Gym  

 

The several items that I managed to salvaged from the Bute Street Gym, I cleaned up and have them on display in my martial arts academy in the UK.

        Brass Lotus Lantern / 蓮花燈                                Brass Plaque Award                          

  

 Alan Low explaining what the certificates are for to Robert Buckler.

All the certificates shown in these two photos above, the brass plaque award, the brass Lotus Lantern / 蓮花燈 the two cymbals and the two wooden staffs were also salvaged from Wong Cheung's Bute Street Gym.