Hollywood Road is the centre of the art and antiques trade in Hong Kong, a winding thoroughfare lined with dozens of shops selling all manner of bits and pieces from the oriental past, from period furniture to Mao memorabilia. Start your walk at Possession Street where the British Royal Navy landed in 1841 to claim Hong Kong Island in the name of Queen Victoria.
Along Hollywood Road you will pass dozens of antiques shops filled with furniture, ceramics and objets d’art. When it’s time for refreshments to review your finds, there are plenty of options in SoHo (from South of Hollywood Road, though it now extends either side). A detour left down Aberdeen Street will lead to a kind of monument, the Lin Heung, one of the best traditional tea and dim sum houses, and on Hollywood Road itself is Vietnamese Song.
You can also rummage for relics and old photos of Hong Kong at the Low Price Second Hand Shop, an open-fronted bric-a-brac shop on the corner of Lyndhurst Terrace, or find an ironic take on Hong Kong culture at GOD (Goods of Desire), across the road. The Mid-Levels Escalator crosses Hollywood Road here and heads up Shelley Street. Bacar is a good place to stop off for food.
Art galleries and antiques shops start giving way to boutiques and restaurants on the remaining part of Hollywood Road. The imposing buildings across the street are the former Central Police Station and Victoria Prison. The earliest of these monuments to colonial law and order were built in 1864, and new buildings were added over 60 years. Now declared ‘monuments of Hong Kong’, their future use is under discussion. Climb steep Old Bailey Street to take in the view of the former prison.
