In 1959, large parts of Kwun Tong were mountains and coastal areas. The left hand side area of this picture was Tsui Ping Estate, town centre was in front of it, the middle area was the industrial area, and the right hand side was the Garden Estate in Ngau Tau Kok. All these buildings are still in Kwun Tong, but the district has been developed into a lively city.
Industrial buildings at Hoi Yuen Road and Kwun Tong Road in 1963. You may feel confused to recognize them, but that building with three big Chinese characters should be familiar to you. Hence, you should know where those buildings were located and figure out what have been changed.
It shows the Garden Estate in 1960, which had been built for one year. It was the earliest public estate in Kwun Tong. Since the development of Kwun Tong in 1953, many factory owners set up factories at the industrial area at Hoi Bun Road . More workers came to work there, leading to a greater demand for housing. As a result, the Hong Kong Government allocated land to the Hong Kong Housing Society for building the Garden Estate to house the workers.
The picture shows the Kwun Tong Resettlement Estate in 1960. It was the first resettlement estate developed in Kwun Tong, commonly known as “ 雞寮 ” (kai liu). The space of a flat in resettlement estate building was very small. There was no kitchen or washroom inside the flat. R esidents had to cook outside the flat Toilets and bathrooms were shared. There was even a public water tap room for cloth washing. The roof was commonly used as school classrooms and community activities area. Nowadays, the area has been reconstructed as Tsui Ping Estate.
Block 15 of Lam Tin Estate was not just an old-fashioned public estate building, it was also the 500 th public estate building constructed by the Works Bureau. In 1970, the Works Bureau held a ceremony to celebrate such milestone. In addition, a flying dragon was painted on the wall of Block 15, making the building special and unique. Afterwards, some legendary stories about this flying dragon were circulated.
Developed in the 70's, the Ngau Tau Kok Resettlement Estate, was separated into upper and lower estates, housing more than ten thousand residents. With the implementation of the "Comprehensive Redevelopment Programme" by the Government, all blocks of Lower and Upper Ngau Tau Kok Estate have been demolished. The picture shows some old-fashioned buses which are no longer in service now.
In 1974, Jordan Valley was a large-scale resettlement area. The picture captures the students of a school in Jordan Valley cleaning the building area. Until early 1983, the Government demolished the resettlement area in order to develop the Ngau Tau Kok area. The resettlement factory area was replaced by the Ngau Tau Kok bus terminal.
This picture was taken in a plastic flower factory in the 60's. Manufacturing of plastic flowers played an important role in the manufacturing industry at that time, and such factories were mostly located in Kwun Tong. With the advancement of technology and relocation of manufacturing plants to the Mainland China, plastic flower factories had become a history in Kwun Tong.
In the 60's, resources were serious lacking after the Second World War. As many children were out of school, some church groups proposed to the Government to use the roofs of resettlement buildings as school campuses to provide education to those children. The proposal was approved by the Government. Afterwards, residents in resettlement buildings moved to public estates. The “roof schools” were gradually closed down due to less demand and eventually they became a history in Hong Kong education.
The picture was taken in Ping Shek Estate in 1970. Family-type workshop was popular at that time, many families owned a sewing machine at home and housewives could work at home to earn extra income while taking care of their families. This was a typical family life style at that time.
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