Amoycan Industrial Centre – Kowloon Bay – connection to Amoy Canning? – major fire June 2016
James Chan: I came across this industrial building when out for an urban walk. The Amoycan Industrial Centre, Block no.1 at 7 Ngau Tau Kok Road, Kowloon Bay. The “Amoycan” part of the sign is very similar to the script used by Amoy Canning. I wonder if this building had a direct connection to the latter company?
I took the photos on 20th December 2014.
HF: On the 21st June 2016 fire swept through the building claiming the lives of two firefighters and becoming Hong Kong’s longest-running in decades. See the linked SCMP articles below. Thanks to Rod Parkes for alerting me to this tragic event.
JC: If you are not familiar with Hong Kong style industrial buildings you may be interested in what goes on in a contemporary one.The sign at the entrance shows a church, printing companies – I think “Menorah” is an American Jewish publishing house, a storage facility plus more traditionally, metal manufacturing and a weaving factory…
Location of the Amoycan Industrial Centre
This article was first posted on 20th January 2015.
See:
- Battling exhaustion, Hong Kong firefighters continue to combat deadly blaze at Ngau Tau Kok industrial building SCMP 23rd June 2016
- Deadly industrial building blaze claims life of second Hong Kong firefighter… with no end in sight SCMP 23rd June 2016
- Photos of ‘unimaginable’ Hong Kong fire released for first time SCMP 24th June 2016
- Deadly Ngau Tau Kok blaze finally extinguished more than 108 hours after it started SCMP 26th June 2016
Related Indhhk articles:
- Amoy Canning – a brief history since 1908
- Amoy Canning – connection to WW2 POWs and a particular Englishman?
- Amoy Canning – Cheng Yum Kwai Senior Manager, Production, Amoy Food Limited
- Amoy Canning locations – Ngau Tau Kok Road, Amoy Gardens, Ngau Chi Wan – clarification needed?
- World War Two – BAAG reports, Amoy Canning (Tinning) Co.
Hi there,
From Amoy’s own website (http://www.amoy.com/en/amoyHistory.php) it reads “1929 – Amoy set a factory in 53 Ngau Chi Wan, Hong Kong. For soy sauce and canned foods manufacturing.”
The lot would probably cover the whole city block, including present day Amoy Gardens. I wonder if the other blocks of the Industrial Centre had been redeveloped into the blocks surrounding the existing building.
T
Hello Thomas
Thanks for your comment.
I’ve posted a new article, Amoy Canning locations – Ngau Tau Kok Road, Amoy Gardens, Ngau Chi Wan – clarification needed?
Perhaps you can clear up the exact location of the Amoy site (bounded by which streets?) in Kowloon Bay?
Hugh
Some years ago, property company Hang Lung Group bought up Amoy, then disposed of the food business (still operating under the Amoy name), while retaining Amoy Properties, later renamed Hang Lung Properties. This building – in the news today after a fatal fire there – is owned by Hang Lung, who also developed Amoy Gardens. The name is a residue of the Amoy Canning connection.
Yes the Amoycan Industries was having a huge lot stretching from this building on fire all the way to the now Regent Gardens, porcelain carboys with a rattan ‘hat’ covering the opening were seen lined up on the open yard to permit fermentation process that go slowly to produce ‘Soy Sauce’
The Amoycan Industrial Building { 淘大工業村第一座 } did not have a Phase 2 development
Amoy Gardens, not Regent Gardens. Sorry
Further information about this building on flickr –
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27747234@N04/3636172978/in/photolist-z2KtE9-6xjkxy-cSWQE5-7zqwY3-8GRikD