An Antiquities Advisory Board appraisal records two leather factories on Peng Chau, probably established in the early 1930s. Workers were residents of the island rather than staff housed in the factory compound. Industrial work therefore connected the factory floor directly with local households.
From the journal
Peng Chau’s Leather Factories and Island Work
Leather manufacturing employed Peng Chau residents. The former factories trace island work through wartime interruption, postwar decline and adaptive reuse.
In this district · Islands ↗Factories in an island economy
War, recovery and decline
The larger Fook Yuen factory stopped operating during the Japanese Occupation and restarted after the war. Its business later declined as cheap imported leather and plastic footwear reduced demand. The factory closed in 1975, following a sequence of interruption, recovery and changing competition.
A factory site with a new public life
The former Fook Yuen Leather Factory has been revitalised as an arts space. That newer use gives the site a public role, while the appraisal records its earlier industrial purpose and island employment. The buildings have been altered, but the place still links contemporary cultural activity with Peng Chau’s manufacturing past.