From Pawn to People: One Bite Social Activates Historic Wan Chai Landmark as Community Hub
Hong Kong, 25 August 2026 — Funded by the Lion Rock Heritage Foundation, One Bite Social is proud to present Project House@Chun On Pawn, a heritage activation project that transforms the former site of the 80-year-old Chun On Pawn Shop in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, into a shared community space, passing on the spirit of “exchange” and “safekeeping”.
Starting on 17 August 2026, the project invites local residents and visitors to rediscover the pawn industry’s rich heritage while sparking new community possibilities through a curated series of programmes running until 19 December 2026.
This pawn shop was more than an integral part of the Wan Chai Road landscape; it played an important role in the social fabric of the bustling dockland area, serving as both a financial lifeline for working-class families and temporary storage for belongings to ease the constraints of limited living space. The Grade III historic building witnessed Hong Kong's post-war era, when pawnbroking was crucial in helping families navigate hardship by offering short-term loans against personal items.
Reopening for the first time since its closure as a functioning pawn shop in 2024, this former site of distant transactions is now a place of connection—where visitors no longer exchange objects, but share time, stories, and moments of pause. Amid the fast pace of Wan Chai, Project House @Chun On Pawn invites visitors to slow down and revisit history through a rich curation of exhibitions, regular programmes, and community gatherings, including a dedicated history corner showcasing pawn heritage and local Wan Chai stories.
One Bite Social, the charitable arm of One Bite Design Studio, was registered as a charity in 2023. It curates and organises human-centric activations and programmes that reconnect urban space, design, and community. This collaboration with Lion Rock Heritage Foundation is the latest milestone of the Project House initiative born in 2017.
Grounded in onebite’s expertise in placemaking, multi-disciplinary design and community engagement, this one-of-a-kind initiative uses a pop-up strategy to tackle the phenomenon of vacant shops and the social demand for community spaces. Before Chun On Pawn, the initiative activated spaces in Sham Shui Po, Wan Chai, Aberdeen, as well as the ongoing and multi-award-winning activation in Sheung Wan, known as Project House@1QRW.
From 17 August to 19 December 2026, a diverse line-up of partners will take over Project House@Chun On Pawn for a rich calendar of activities that blend heritage interpretation with community engagement. For programme details, see here.
Project House@Chun On Pawn
91 Wan Chai Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Monday–Thursday: 9am–6pm
Friday: 12pm–9pm | Saturday: 12pm–6pm
About One Bite Social
One Bite Social is a charitable arm established by One Bite Design Studio and registered as a recognised charitable organisation in 2023. The community-empowering initiative curates and organises social, creative activations and programmes that reconnect urban space, design, and community. Guided by a community-driven and human-centric approach, onebite Social reimagines the relationship between city spaces and development.
About Lion Rock Foundation
The Lion Rock Heritage Foundation (LRHF) is Hong Kong’s first privately funded heritage trust. The mission is to transform heritage properties into spaces that serve the local community, and the vision is to have an iconic heritage shophouse at the centre of each community. The building represents the grassroots history of that neighbourhood, and the spaces inside are used for the purposes of connecting and enhancing the lives of the community around it.
Photos courtesy of Chan Kit
