Tak Seng On Pawnbroker's Tower

About

The “Tak Seng On” pawnshop follows the traditional pawnshop layout with two distinct buildings: the pawnshop storefront to deal with clients and the pawnshop tower to protect valuable goods. Built in 1916 by a local merchant Kou Hening in a prominent corner site at Av. Almeida Ribeiro. At the storefront, a high counter separates staff in a higher platform from clients at the street level, to create a position of business advantage and ensure that all transactions were held in a loud voice to prevent corruption. Pawnshop towers served as safe storage facilities for pawnbroker’s firms, with a fortress-like construction, these multi-storey buildings with thick brick walls and narrow vertical windows, were designed to protect goods from assaults while keeping them in good condition. It follows the traditional layout of Chinese pawshops from the early 20th century adapted to the prescriptive building code of this street, incorporating a covered pathway.