if these walls could talk

Photographers Ian Lambot and Greg Girard spent years documenting the Kowloon Walled City before it was razed. On the eve of a new exhibition, they reflect on the infamous city and its enduring legacy

By Oliver Giles

“People thought we were mad,” remembers British photographer, architect and publisher Ian Lambot. “No one could quite understand why we were interested in the Kowloon Walled City. It had this reputation as a terrible place where terrible things would happen to you. My Chinese friends would ask me, ‘Why would you spend time there?’” But Lambot wasn’t deterred and visited the Kowloon Walled City hundreds of times between 1985 and its demolition in 1994. At first he explored out of personal interest. Then in 1988 he joined forces with Canadian photographer Greg Girard to document this much-maligned corner of Hong Kong, which at the time was the most densely populated place on the planet and was said to be packed with brothels, gambling parlours and drug dens. “Hardly anyone had been…

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Tatler Hong Kong (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2019

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