Author: Hugh Farmer

Hugh Farmer has lived in Hong Kong since 1989. He founded the Industrial History of Hong Kong Group in November 2012 to preserve and share information about the city's fast disappearing industrial heritage. This website was started in October 2013.

Homi Villa – built by Jehangir Hormusjee Ruttonjee during the construction of Hong Kong Brewers and Distillers Ltd Brewery

Articles, Fishing and Agriculture, Food and Beverages, People

Homi Villa, a distinctive white building, was built by Jehangir Hormusjee Ruttonjee, 律敦治, as a convenient place from which to oversee the construction of the Hong Kong Brewers and Distillers Ltd Brewery at nearby Sham Tseng. It’s located on an attractive promontory at 401 Castle Peak Road overlooking the Ma Wan Channel. It was subsequently purchased by the Hong Kong Government […]

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Charcoal burning in Hong Kong, 1971 RASHKB article

Articles, General, Traditional Industries, Utilities

James Hayes has kindly given permission for several of his articles published by the Royal Asiatic Society (HK Branch) to be posted on our website. Here he writes about Charcoal Burning in Hong Kong which was included by the RASHKB in its Journal Volume 11, 1971. James mentions several locations where charcoal was produced, namely:- Kwun Tong Lamma Island Tong […]

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The E. On factory building, Aberdeen – celebrating the ordinary

Hong Kong Companies, Industrial Buildings + Demolitions, Manufacturing

HF: The New York Times of 9th July 1984 contained an article about a very ordinary, common, multi-occupant, multi-storey factory building in Aberdeen. The E.On. It is that very standard, simple, cheap design and construction and multiple tenants that makes it, and others like it worth recording. The industrial part of Aberdeen of which the E. On is at the […]

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Facebook: ‘Photos of Taikoo and Kowloon Dock Families’ group – additional images

Articles, Hong Kong Companies, People, Shipyards + Shipping, Transport

Simon left a comment about Image 9 below which I have added to the script about Image 9 on 30th May 2022. HF: Geoff Douglass, the creator and administrator of the Photos of Taikoo and Kowloon Dock Families Facebook site, contacted me in May 2016. Geoff very kindly offered to be of any help to our group after I suggested we would […]

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Francesco de Pinedo – Italian aviator – lands near Lai Chi Kok 1925 – further information

Articles, People, Transport

IDJ has sent the following book extract about Italian Francesco de Pinedo and his 55,000 kms 1925 flight. This included landing close to the Asiatic Petroleum wharf at Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong. Source: Wings Over Hong Kong, Odyssey Guides, Crecy Publishing Ltd, 1998 See: Information about the book Wings Over Hong Kong This article was first posted on 11th February 2015. Related […]

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Orient Tobacco Manufactory – HK factory location, map and plan of works layout

Articles, General, Hong Kong Companies, Industrial Buildings + Demolitions, Manufacturing

Edward Schneider: The Orient Tobacco Manufactory works was on a site in Kowloon bordered by Nathan Road, Dundas Street, Soy Street and Kwong Wa Street.  It had a total surface area of 307,095 sq.ft. (approximately 3 hectares) and was registered as Lot numbers 1421 and 2629. It was acquired as a grant on 1 January 1908 for $86,124.40. The buildings cost $278,485.45. […]

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Hong Kong’s Klondike, prospecting for wolfram ore in 1951

Articles, Mines, Quarries + Dredging
Lin Fa Shan 3

IDJ has sent the following newspaper article about what he calls “Hong Kong’s Klondike”. If you are not familiar with this: The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of Yukon, in north-western Canada, between 1896 and 1899. The image below comes from Tymon Mellor’s article, Lin Fa Shan Mine, linked below, and bears a passing resemblance, except for the […]

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56 Dairy Farm Company – do the small concrete dams built in the 1930s still exist?

Queries + Answers
Dairy Farm, Pokfulam, HK Historical Phtographs Of China

Our recently posted article Dairy Farm Company employees – a compilation, features Peter C. Jackson. His son Nick Jackson contributed information about his father and several images. This includes the following, “Have the dams in the hills survived? At some stage my father – who had started in about 1933 – had arranged for simple small concrete dams to be […]

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