Anyone know of Man Gee Wong?

[PopT]

There was a Chinese family who owned a laundry on Middlewood Road for years

 

My brother and sister went to Hillsborough County school with the son in the late 20's,early thirties.

 

I believe their surname was Wong and the son was Peter.

 

These are the earliest Chinese in Sheffield that I can remember.

 

Maybe someone from the Chinese community can tell us who were he first Chinese familes in Sheffield?

 

Happy Days!

[kingkey]

Didn't Man Gee Wong run the RICKSHAW on Devonshire street.

I'm sure i did a job for someone buy that name.

Spoke perfect english.

[Michael W]

I am the eldest son of Man Gee Wang (sometimes known as Wong) who owned and started the Rickshaw Restaurant in Sheffield in the late 50s. During the 1960s it was the only place in Sheffield that had an alcohol license after 10.30pm, and so many famous folk (e.g. Shirley Bassey, the Rolling Stones, etc.) would queue to get in the restaurant after they had performed at the City Hall. My father did indeed open a Chinese Boutique shop next door to the restaurant on Division Street. He sold the restaurant in the early 1970s and it became a wine bar called "Mr Kite's". There were also Chinese restaurants in Castleton and Rotherham, and a coffee bar popular with students in the 60s on Devonshire Street, all of which were owned by my father. He went on to run a road surfacing and construction business based in Nethergreen, Fulwood. He retired from these business ventures in about 1990. About 6 years ago he and my mother moved from Knowle Lane, Ecclesall, and now live in peaceful retirement in Harrogate, near to their daughter and her family.

[harrison_595]

great read this thread :-)

[Helen1005]

I am looking for Man Gee's brother,Man Yow Wang.My Father went to school with him in Sheffield,and would love to get in contact with him again.

[old tup]

There was a Chinese family who owned a laundry on Middlewood Road for years

 

My brother and sister went to Hillsborough County school with the son in the late 20's,early thirties.

 

I believe their surname was Wong and the son was Peter.

 

These are the earliest Chinese in Sheffield that I can remember.

 

Maybe someone from the Chinese community can tell us who were he first Chinese familes in Sheffield?

 

Happy Days!

I used to take my stiff shirt collars to the Chinese laundry on Middlewood Rd in the 60s,the collars were in style in those days!.Everyone wore smart handmade suits some 3 piece,white shirts,stiff collars and ties not like the scruffy looking dressed down scroats you see in the pubs and around nowadays!.

[mrs grissom]

I used to take my stiff shirt collars to the Chinese laundry on Middlewood Rd in the 60s,the collars were in style in those days!.Everyone wore smart handmade suits some 3 piece,white shirts,stiff collars and ties not like the scruffy looking dressed down scroats you see in the pubs and around nowadays!.

 

Hi OldTup. It would have been my husband who made your collars so stiff !! He used to earn his bit of pocket money starching and pressing collars in the family laundry .His Dad would turn collars and cuffs too if they were getting a little worn . Hard work and long hours it was with little financial reward . By then it was the H.F Sum Chinese laundry run by my hubby's parents and coincidently he used to do my Dads collars too , long before we met and fell in love . Just talking to him now he seems to remember the previous owners to them were called Chun or Chung so possibly the Wongs were the owners before that .

[Michael W]

I am sorry to report that my father Man Gee died on Friday 4th September 2015 at his home in Harrogate after a long illness. He was comfortable and not in pain, and his sister Mary, brother Man You and daughter Sarah were with him when he died. He was 87 years old. He had a good life, made many friends (not least through the restaurant, which was the first Chinese in Sheffield opening in 1957, and also through scouting). By the late 1960s Man Gee was managing three restaurants (in Sheffield, Rotherham and Castleton) and a pioneering espresso coffee bar, very popular with university students, on Broomhall Street. In 1975 he closed the Rickshaw and the premises became Mr Kite’s wine bar, presently the Green Room. He opened a Chinese boutique shop on Devonshire Street selling Chinese carvings and chong-sam silk dresses and then shortly after, he founded a civil engineering company based in Nethergreen.

As a young man he had trained as a metallurgist at Sheffield University and went on to work for Daniel Doncaster's special steels as a research metallurgist, before opening the Rickshaw. He always believed that once a person had a university education, they could do anything, and he put this into practice in his own working life. He came with his parents and older brother, from Sum Gem, Canton Province, China as one of the first Chinese migrant families to settle in Sheffield in the 1930s when he was four years old. He was educated at Hunters Bar Junior School and then Nether Edge Grammar. His parents ran a Chinese laundry at 497-499 Ecclesall Road from 1932 and through the war years.

He leaves two sons and a daughter and ten grandchildren. His wife, Pat, died in December 2012: they had been married for 60 years. He was a loving, loyal and generous husband, father and grandfather and was committed not only to his immediate family but also to his extended family and that of his wife. He will be greatly missed.

[Leah-Lacie]

Sorry to hear that Michael. Best wishes to you and your family.

[Jim Hardie]

I never met Mr Wang but knew one or two asphalters who worked for him (late 70s/early 80s?) and they always spoke highly of him.

My condolences Michael.