Exclusive | Top Hong Kong arts venue finally deals with its famously smelly toilets
Unfragrant bathrooms at Cultural Centre, formerly something of a laughing stock, renovated as part of HK$10 million facelift
After years of holding their noses when visiting the toilets at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, the city’s art lovers can breathe easier as the government has finally flushed away the problem of the venue’s stinky washrooms.
The pungent bathrooms – a laughing stock in regional arts circles, and far removed from the sophistication of the venue’s programme – have been renovated as part of a recently finished facelift which has given the centre a fresher look, a new events space and a recycled chandelier.
“We refurbished the public toilets by treating them as our home lavatory. That’s where the difference lies,” Elaine Yeung Chi-lan, assistant director at the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, said.
“Toilets should be the very starting point of the renovation showing our new thinking, which is tasteful.”
The centre, on the southernmost tip of the Kowloon peninsula, welcomes 600,000 or so visitors annually. It underwent a year of substantial upgrades in its common areas, including the spruced-up restrooms, without having to close for a single day.
“The renovation is a part of the gradual facelift of the cultural facilities on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront that started in 2015,” Yeung said.
