The 13 Streets (Chinese: 十三街) is an area in Ma Tau Kok, Kowloon City District, Hong Kong. It consists of rows of late 1950s tenement buildings along 11 parallel short streets named after auspicious animals. The area is known for its abundance of ground floor garages (repair works).
13 Streets
Chinese: 十三街 | |
|---|---|
Area | |
 13 Streets (foreground) | |
  13 Streets | |
| Coordinates: 22°19′18.84″N 114°11′33.04″E / 22.3219000°N 114.1925111°E | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Special administrative region | Hong Kong |
| District | Kowloon City |
| Place | Ma Tau Kok |
| Time zone | UTC+8:00 (HKT) |
History
editIn 1900, the area was a timber yard. It was subsequently purchased by the Hong Kong Rope Factory to build a new factory in 1924. After World War II, a cotton mill and a vacuum flask factory replaced the rope factory.[1]
During the mid-1950s to early 1960s, Hong Kong witnessed a sharp increase in population, stimulating real estate developers to build more domestic units. It was in this period from 1959 to 1961 that San Nam Yang Construction and Investment Company Ltd. Built a large cluster of seven-storey residential blocks at the 13 streets. Originally alphabetically named Block A to L, many of the residents of these blocks come from grass-roots class backgrounds, units are often subdivided and rented to more than one tenant.[1]
Although the blocks were designed mainly for residential purpose in mind, in the 1960s the ground floors of these blocks were filled with garages.[2] some of these garages still remain in operation today.[3]
Orientation
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It consists of 11 parallel short streets, bordered by Kowloon City Road (west), To Kwa Wan Road (east), Mok Cheong Street (north) and Ma Tau Kok Road (south). Their names are mostly related to auspicious animals, namely dragon, phoenix, deer, unicorn, eagle, lark, egret, cicada, swallow, horse and crane.[4]
There are 83 buildings in the 13 Streets area, built between 1958 and 1960. They contain a total of about 2,500 residential flats and 418 shops at the street level. Due to lack of maintenance, the buildings are in a dilapidated condition.[4]
The 11 parallel streets are, from west to east:
- Lung To Street (龍圖街)
- Fung Yi Street (鳳儀街)
- Luk Ming Street (鹿鳴街)
- Lun Cheung Street (麟祥街)
- Ying Yeung Street (鷹揚街)
- Pang Ching Street (鵬程街)
- Hung Wan Street (鴻運街)
- Shim Luen Street (蟬聯街)
- Yin On Street (燕安街)
- Tsun Fat Street (駿發街)
- Hok Ling Street (鶴齡街)
Redevelopment
editDue to deteriorating building conditions, since 2014-15 redevelopment of the 13 Streets have been proposed by the Urban Renewal Authority. But due to lack of sufficient funds, and various difficulties including safety hazards from the adjacent Ma Tau Kok Gas Plant, redevelopment plans have been delayed.[5][6]
Residents' opinions on the 13 streets redevelopment have been mixed. Some residents who have been living there since the 1960s oppose the redevelopment, saying that they are used to their established communities.[7] Conversely, In 2024 a DAB campaign to urge authorities to speed up the redevelopment process has amassed 1000 signatures from To Kwa Wan residents.[8] Some residents blame the government's neglect to the deteriorating conditions of the flats, fearing another similar collapse after a collapse in 2014.[9]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b HISTORICAL CUM SOCIAL STUDY ON KOWLOON CITY DISTRICT IN CONNECTION WITH KAI TAK AREA (PDF) (Report). December 2009. pp. 80–90.
- ^ "Industrial development in To Kwa Wan: distributions of factories and of industries". Hong Kong Memory. 13 December 2012.
- ^ "Kowloon City Stories / Urban Planning - 13 Streets". kowlooncitywalkingtrail.hk. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
- ^ a b "A Helping Hand for Hong Kong's Old Private Buildings", CIH Asia Pacific Branch 40th International Housing Conference, pp. 7,8
- ^ "土瓜灣十三街重建料蝕60億 市建局指重建油旺需萬億 要私人參與". HK01 (in Chinese). 18 July 2023.
- ^ Yeo, Rachel (24 July 2022). "Hong Kong's Urban Renewal Authority looks into feasibility of redeveloping 2 old areas in Kowloon City, cites planning challenges". South China Morning Post.
- ^ "A mixed community sentiment towards To Kwa Wan". Hong Kong Memory. 8 May 2013.
- ^ "土瓜灣爭取重建「十三街」，居民與發展局及市建局代表會晤". DAB 民建聯 (in Chinese). 14 May 2024.
- ^ "十三街重建 懶懶閒 居民飽吃驚風散". 東方日報. 25 July 2023.
External links
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