Smithfield Cattle Depot (abattoir until 1961) [????- ] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Smithfield Cattle Depot (abattoir until 1961) [????- ]

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Submitted by philk on Mon, 2008-10-20 09:31

Now closed, it has been earmarked as the location for the Kennedy Town MTR station when the ISland Line is extended.

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golden boy
chapter 8
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Photos that show this place

1963

Comments

Submitted by David on Tue, 2008-10-21 17:28.

Hi Phil,

The new MTR station will be a little further inland. You're right that the abattoir site will be part of the MTR extension project though - it will be used as a works area during that project, then handed back to the government for redevelopment.

When I moved to Kennedy Town in 1992, you'd often hear (and smell!) lorryloads of squealing pigs on their way to abattoir. The abattoir was relocated to Sheung Shui in 1999 though, so it's been empty for quite some time.

Here's a photo of how it looked, and another with the demolition underway. I'm not sure if there's still anything left of it, or if the site is already cleared.

I wonder when it was built? ... google, google, google ...

Uh oh, it looks as though Booth's quote "the bellow of a cow in the Kennedy Town abattoir might lift up to me - to be abruptly cut short" isn't quite right.

The abattoir was talked about a lot in the 1950s, but wasn't finally built until the late 1960s. Here are a few mentions of the abattoir in Legco's papers:

  • 16 Mar 1949: Discusses provisions in the budget for a new abattoir in Kennedy Town, which "which would make a start on construction possible during the year 1950-51."
  • 5 Nov 1952: A new bill is read that will start reclamation work that "extending some 600 feet beyond the end of the existing sea wall, will provide sufficient land to accommodate a new abattoir and the necessary facilities for the landing of livestock"
  • 29 Feb 1956: Mentions draft estimates for the year include over $22 millions for "the construction at Kennedy Town of a new modern abattoir to replace the two present slaughterhouses which date back to the Victorian era."
  • 6 Mar 1958: Back to the drawing board - "After much delay the scheme for the abattoir at Kennedy Town has now been reconsidered by the Urban Council and the decision has been made that instead of one large abattoir for the whole Colony there shall be two smaller such institutions, one at the designated site at Kennedy Town, and the other at Cheungshawan."
  • 31 Jan 1962: More delays - "... it would take about 18 months for the consultants to prepare working drawings and contract documents. Construction could not, therefore, commence until then ..."
  • 10 Mar 1966: Construction is underway.

So the bellows that Booth heard in the 1950s would have come from the Smithfield cattle depot / slaughterhouse area in Kennedy Town. Now it turns out that when they closed, their site was used to build the Kennedy Town Swimming Pool. That in turn will be closed and demolished to become the site of the new Kennedy Town MTR station - so you were right after all!

MrB

Submitted by tngan on Wed, 2008-10-22 23:48.

Hi there,

If you want to know how the old Cattle Depot in Kennedy Town looked like there is still one such site in Ma Tau Kok Road. The site is now being called the Cattle Depot Artist Village.

T

Submitted by philk on Tue, 2008-10-21 19:10.
Actually, I remember my first forays into HK in the mid-90's when I came to visit friends and I always remember a big smelly cattle/pig truck trundling past on the KCR (can't remember which direction though?). I always wondered where these were coming from/going to? Were they taken to the abattoir mentioned by T above? Perhaps they only ever headed north? I can't remember :-(

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2008-10-21 19:45.
Freight trains full of pigs came down from the north daily and were unloaded into road trucks in sidings that curve off just before the KCR Hung Hom station. The smell trailing behind the trains was horrendous plus the noise of squealing pigs could be heard over a wide area. Presumably they were destined for abattoirs in Kowloon. The sidings are still there but now used for track maintenance trains and equipment. I believe these sidings were part of the track's route from TST in pre-electification days.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2008-10-21 20:02.
When the Kennedy Town abattoir was in full operation, cattle used to arrive on ships from overseas that moored on buoys off the abattoir and the cattle were off-loaded by the ship's derricks and slings into Junks and barges. Often they wriggled out of the slings and ended up in the harbour. Those that successfully swam to the shore or escaped while being unloaded from the Junks on the waterfront, created mayhem in Kennedy Town until these large horned frightened beasts could be cornered and usually shot. The smell from the vessels could be 'enjoyed' a long way down wind.

Submitted by fungchai16 on Thu, 2020-05-07 00:59.

Hi all,

 

link 1:

https://youtu.be/SjIYD5ZNXqc?t=30

 

the youtube video title: "【中環人語】長實改名再改名　李澤鉅攬住個正印" by NEXT Digital News in 2017

 

This Video is about the change of tycoon LI Ka-shing's Cheung Kong business. One of the Mr. Li's plastic flower factory was located in Smithfield.

At the 30s of the video, a red arrow pointed to one of the industrial buidlings along Belcher's Street near Smithfield.  It did not mention the building name but the present location is the McDonald's restaurant, at the T-junction of Rock Hill Street/Smithfield.

 

I was not very very interested in LI's exact factory location. Instead what attracts me is it's a quite clear picture showing Smithfield, Forbes Street , Cattle Depot & Luen Tak Apartment (聯德新樓), but exact time information.

a. Luen Tak Apartment's completion is around 1966, according to some property websites.

b. in the photo Luen Tak Apt looks new

c. this angle appeared to be taken from Kwun Lung Lau which was completed in 1967.

so i guess the photo used in the video is around from 1967 to 197x?

 

link2:

http://www.weshare.hk/uploads/12155/Y80EG6mAGp0vcTZrcJzpNA.jpg

a. it shows the junction of Smithfield/Forbes street 1970 before/after (the fan described it was taken in around that year).

b. The appearance of Forbes street is similar to that in photo link 1.

 

link 3:

https://youtu.be/iveH1OMFeYM?t=30

It's the intro of a local HK movie named "Cops and Robbers" (in Chinese "點指兵兵"), which is released in 1979. At the beginning of the moive a kid who grew up in Kennedy Town ran around Kwun Lung Lau and ran into the "chicken duck market" ("雞鴨欄") in front of the Kwun Lung Lau Stairs. 

I marked time stamp at 00:30 but actually it's worth continue watching until 01:08 when the kid ran around the street corner nearby. I guessed that was Forbes Street into Davis Street but I'm only 50% sure. (A big wall, which is very likely to be the Forbes Stone Wall Tree, was caught in camera). At the same moment (01:08) the small factory named "Leung Yick Lard Manufactory Limited" ("良益豬油廠有限公司" )

I checked the name of this factory in Companies Registry(https://www.icris.cr.gov.hk/csci/). The record shows that the company was incorporated in 1978 and then dissolved in 1994 but I did not further learn about its registered address (costly).