Fan Tan Alley in Art

Fan Tan Alley Entrance. Watercolour painting by Robert Amos, 1998.

Fan Tan Alley is a long, narrow lane that runs between Fisgard Street and Pandora Avenue. Created over time by the construction of buildings on these two streets fronts, then in the spaces behind (including opium factories that were legal until 1908), the alley got its name from gamblers playing Fan Tan from the 1910s to the 1940s. To give the alley new life in the 1970s and 1980s, a number of artists helped renovate dilapidated buildings in exchange for studio space. Now a tourist attraction, the alley contains a number of small stores. These two paintings by Robert Amos show the Fan Tan Cafe in the Loo Tai Cho Building, constructed in 1893 and forming the eastern wall of the alley.

Fan Tan Cafe. Watercolour painting by Robert Amos, 1999.