Tymon Mellor: With continued water shortages on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, pressure was on the Shek Pik construction team to complete the reservoir as fast as possible. The situation was so bad that during a particularly bad drought in the summer of 1963, the Government hired 13 tankers to ferry water from the Pearl River to a new terminal […]
» Read more
Tymon Mellor: With the growing population in both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon there was a growing demand for drinking water, the existing supplies, primarily the Tai Tam reservoirs and Kowloon Reservoir were insufficient to meet such needs. With the failure of the spring rains, water famine became a common occurrence, and a quick fix was required. Water Shortages Following […]
» Read more
Tymon Mellor: In the summer of 1963, with severe water restrictions of only four hours every fourth day in urban Hong Kong, the Colonial Government was searching for new water supplies that could be expeditiously developed. A number of schemes had been explored and these were presented to the Executive Council in October, 1963. In addition to the Plover Cover […]
» Read more
Preece, Cardew and Rider were the consulting engineers for a proposed extension of Hok Un power station, Hung Hom in the 1930s. “In 1934 a committee consisting of directors and senior staff was formed to deal with the extensions proposed. It met regularly for the next several years and made many important decisions based quite often on the advice of […]
» Read more
HF: I would be very interested if anyone could tell me some of the companies that occupied space in Cheung Sha Wan Factory Estate, or about other factory estates in Hong Kong. Cheung Sha Wan Factory Estate was a factory estate in Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong, owned and managed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. It comprised up […]
» Read more
York Lo: Lap Shun – the Fallen Knitwear Giant Law Shiu-lun (left) of Lap Shun Textiles presented with a congratulatory gift by Tai Tung-ngok, chairman of Yau Yat Chuen Development on his appointment as District Councilor of Sham Shui Po. (Kung Sheung Daily News, 1982-11-18) In the mid-1980s, a wave of major business failures took place in HK and […]
» Read more
Tymon Mellor: Within the first 15 minutes of the opening of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel on the 3rd August, 1972 over 700 vehicles had driven through the tunnel, signalling the future success of the project and allowing the tunnel to become part of the Hong Kong DNA. But from the outset, construction of this new icon had many hurdles to overcome […]
» Read more
For anyone over the age of 35, and if you came to Hong Kong before 1998, you are likely to remember the first time you landed at Kai Tak. It may have been the dramatic approach from the north-west, skimming over the buildings where you could see the laundry hanging on the washing lines. Or if arriving over the sea, […]
» Read more
Tymon Mellor: At the turn of the 19th century, railways and steam ships were changing the world and demanding new infrastructure to support them. With the construction of the Kowloon-Canton Railway – British Section in full swing, attention turned to the location of the terminus station in Kowloon. There were many competing requirements for the location; resulting in the site […]
» Read more
HF: I have slightly adapted the script below from the original booklet. Thanks to SCT for proofreading the script. Pokfulam reservoir was the first reservoir in Hong Kong, and was completed in 1863 to provide a stable water supply to the City of Victoria. It was one of the first large scale infrastructure projects in the early days of colonisation. […]
» Read more