The last days of Fleet Arcade at Fenwick Pier in Hong Kong, hang-out of foreign navy crews for decades and a dining destination for residents
- For over 20 years it welcomed visiting navy personnel whose ships docked at Fenwick Pier, but since 2016 the arcade has been landlocked following reclamation
- Tailor Anthony Wong and a former US Navy officer recall its heyday, while Gia Trattoria restaurateur Gianni Caprioli looks to be busy for its final few weeks
These past few weeks Anthony Wong Man-fu has been calling his customers, reminding them to pick up their tailor-made shirts and suits at the Fleet Arcade at Fenwick Pier in Wan Chai before his shop closes on January 22.
His and a handful of other businesses there have been given notice to move out by February 3. The arcade, which serviced foreign sailors for over 20 years before land reclamation cut it off from Victoria Harbour, will close on February 11 when it is handed back to the Hong Kong government under a plan to secure more urban land for redevelopment.
Retired US Navy officer Andrew Ehlers, who visited Hong Kong many times between 1993 and 2014, has fond memories of the Fleet Arcade at Fenwick Pier, describing it as “a mini shopping mall where sailors could get suits and jewellery at good prices”. In 1997, he worked at the pier in the Ship Support Office, which helped get supplies, from food to fuel, onto ships.
“Sometime in 1997, my boss, a US Navy lieutenant commander, invited me to lunch at an Indian restaurant, and the owner introduced himself as Bob. Over the next two hours Bob ordered plates of food and explained their origin, the spices and elements that gave them their flavour, and how each was cooked,” Ehlers said in an email.
“At one point he brought us back to the kitchen to see the tandoori ovens and show us how naan bread was made. I asked him about his family origin, and he told a great story that was not uncommon in Hong Kong – a family that came with nothing and built something special.
