Smithfield, Hong Kong
Encyclopedia
Smithfield is a street with a length of approximately 1,300 m. in Kennedy Town
Kennedy Town
Kennedy Town is at the western end of Sai Wan on Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. It was named after Arthur Edward Kennedy, the 7th Governor of Hong Kong from 1872 to 1877...
, Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km², as of 2008...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. Its northern section is a commercial and residential area, while its southern section is a road connecting it to Pok Fu Lam Road
Pok Fu Lam Road
Pokfulam Road, or Pok Fu Lam Road, is a four-lane road in Hong Kong. Built on Hong Kong Island, the road runs between Sai Ying Pun and Wah Fu, through Pok Fu Lam....
.
Location
The street begins at New Praya, Kennedy Town (堅彌地城新海旁) at the Victoria HarbourVictoria Harbour
Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour situated between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on the South China Sea were instrumental in Hong Kong's establishment as a British colony and its subsequent...
shore of the town, at Belcher Bay
Belcher Bay
Belcher Bay is a bay at Kennedy Town on the northwest shore of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. It is east of Sulphur Channel. The bay is named after Edward Belcher, who surveyed the surrounding water and land in the Victoria Harbour in 1841....
, and extends south into Mount Davis
Mount Davis, Hong Kong
Mount Davis is a hill in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is the westernmost hill on Hong Kong Island.It is named after John Francis Davis, who was the 2nd Governor of Hong Kong, from 1844 to 1848....
. It crosses two main streets of Catchick Street (吉席街) and Belcher's Street
Belcher's Street
Belcher's Street is a main street in Kennedy Town of Hong Kong. It connects east Victoria Road and joins west Queen's Road West. A small section in its west end built a turn around for Hong Kong Tramway....
. To the south, Smithfield forms T-intersections with Rock Hill Street (石山街), Forbes Street (科士街), Pokfield Road
Pokfield Road
Pokfield Road is a road in the west of Mid-Levels, above Kennedy Town, on Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong.The Pokfield Road Bus Terminus is situated at one end of the road. It connects Smithfield and Pok Fu Lam Road.-See also:...
, Lung Wah Street (龍華街). It ends at a junction with Pok Fu Lam Road
Pok Fu Lam Road
Pokfulam Road, or Pok Fu Lam Road, is a four-lane road in Hong Kong. Built on Hong Kong Island, the road runs between Sai Ying Pun and Wah Fu, through Pok Fu Lam....
and Mount Davis Road (摩星嶺道).
Features
- Smithfield Municipal Services Building (士美菲路市政大廈), located at 12K Smithfield. It houses the Smithfield Sports Centre, Smithfield Market and Smithfield Public Library. The fourth floor houses a study corner for the school students who commonly do not have a quiet space at home. The entrances for the different activities are separated and the market is segregated from the library and the indoor games hall.
- Kennedy Town Station of the MTRMTRMass Transit Railway is the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong. Originally opened in 1979, the system now includes 211.6 km of rail with 155 stations, including 86 railway stations and 69 light rail stops...
, under construction - Kwun Lung LauKwun Lung LauKwun Lung Lau is a public housing estate in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong. It is one of the first public housing developments in Hong Kong, built in 1967 to alleviate a housing crisis in the territory. It is on 20 Lung Wah Street....
, one of the first public housing developmentsPublic housing in Hong KongPublic housing in Hong Kong is a set of mass housing programmes through which the Government of Hong Kong provides affordable housing for lower-income residents. It is a major component of housing in Hong Kong, with nearly half of the population now residing in some form of public housing...
in Hong Kong, built in 1967 - Kennedy Town Fire Station, located at the northern end of Smithfield, at the corner with New Praya, Kennedy Town.
- Forbes Street Temporary Playground, located at the junction of Forbes Street and Smithfield
- (former) Kennedy Town Swimming Pool, at 12N Smithfield. It was demolished to facilitate the construction of Kennedy Town Station.
Cattle depot
The area bound by the present day Rock Hill Street and Pokfield Path (蒲飛徑) was historically the site of a cattle quarantine depot and a slaughterhouseSlaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
to house and slaughter live cattle when the animals first arrived in Hong Kong via the piers in Kennedy Town. The Kennedy Town Slaughterhouse was established in 1894.
Smithfield was an area frequented by people who worked as labourers at the cattle station, and the marketplaces nearby that have since become the Forbes Street Temporary Playground (科士街臨時遊樂場) and the North Street (北街) red minibus
Public light bus
A Public light bus is a common public mode of transport in Hong Kong. It mainly serves the area that standard Hong Kong bus lines cannot reach as efficiently. It is also colloquially known as a minibus or a van, defined as a kind of share taxi....
terminus, and for the loading and unloading of sea cargo coming in and out of the piers of Kennedy Town.
The British novelist Martin Booth
Martin Booth
Martin Booth was a prolific British novelist and poet. He also worked as a teacher and screenwriter, and was the founder of the Sceptre Press.-Early life:...
wrote in his 2004 autobiographical Gweilo: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood: "the bellow of a cow in the Kennedy Town abattoir might lift up to me - to be abruptly cut short".
In 1961, the government decided that the slaughterhouse was to be relocated to the Kennedy Town Abattoir at Cadogan Street, and it moved in 1968. Despite calls to convert the original slaughterhouse site into a swimming pool, the government said in 1969 that the plan was not feasible until both the cattle depot and the former slaughterhouse complex (then occupied by the cattle depot as well) were released for redevelopment. The cattle depot was closed down in 1986, when the government finally decided that it was to be removed. The land was subsequently developed into the Kennedy Town Swimming Pool (堅尼地城游泳池, now demolished), Smithfield Market (士美菲路街市) and the Smithfield Municipal Services Building.
Air raid tunnel
At the time of the Battle of Hong KongBattle of Hong Kong
The Battle of Hong Kong took place during the Pacific campaign of World War II. It began on 8 December 1941 and ended on 25 December 1941 with Hong Kong, then a Crown colony, surrendering to the Empire of Japan.-Background:...
in 1941, Smithfield was the site of the No. 9 Air Raid Tunnel
Air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelters, also known as bomb shelters, are structures for the protection of the civil population as well as military personnel against enemy attacks from the air...
.
Gasometer
Following the fire at the gasometer in Shek Tong TsuiShek Tong Tsui
Shek Tong Tsui is a town in Sai Wan on the north shore of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. Administratively, it belongs to the Central and Western District....
(formerly known as West Point
West Point, Hong Kong
West Point was a point of land on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. Its location is the shore off the Pokfulam Road and Queen's Road West in 1845, approximately the junction of Western Street and Des Voeux Road West near the Western Police Station...
), the Hong Kong and China Gas Company had by 1936 purchased an area of land situated to the south of the cattle depot and erected a gasometer
Gasometer
A gas holder is a large container where natural gas or town gas is stored near atmospheric pressure at ambient temperatures. The volume of the container follows the quantity of stored gas, with pressure coming from the weight of a movable cap...
to replace the former gasometer at West Point. The gasometer was in existence until the early 1980s when it was demolished to make way for the construction of Smithfield Terrace (嘉輝花園) by Henderson Land Development Co. Ltd, the largest shareholder of Hong Kong and China Gas Company.
Municipal Services Building
Smithfield Municipal Services Building was completed in 1995, and was then called "The Urban CouncilUrban Council, Hong Kong
The Urban Council was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon . These services were provided by the Urban Services Department. The equivalent body for the New Territories was the Regional Council.-History:The Urban Council was first...
Smithfield Complex". The Smithfield Sports Centre inside the building opened in July 1996. The market within the building opened in June 1996. It is divided into three parts, each occupying a separate floor: meat and wet fish market, fruit and vegetable market, cooked food stalls. These retail outlets were previously located in the surrounding streets of Kennedy Town, including the longstanding Smithfield Road Temporary Market, which was a licensed food market, and illegal hawkers
Hawker (trade)
A hawker is a vendor of merchandise that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with peddler or costermonger. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells items or food that are native to the area...
at the junction of Smithfield and Belcher's Street.
Extension
Until the mid-1990s, Smithfield was a dead end street at the top end with Wah Fai House (華輝大廈), Mei Wah Mansion (美華大廈) and Smithfield Garden (士美菲園), which are to the south of the Lung Wah Street junction, marking the end of the street. However, record of the Lands Department shows that Ho Chong (何莊; lit. "Farmstead of the Ho family"), a HotungRobert Hotung
Sir Robert Ho Tung Bosman, KBE , better known as Sir Robert Hotung, was an influential Eurasian businessman and philanthropist in British Hong Kong. It has often been claimed that he was the "first Chinese person to be allowed to live on Victoria Peak" in 1906, two years after the enactment of the...
ancestral family property situated at the hillside beyond the top end of the street, is given the address of "40A Smithfield" and should thus be treated technically as the original top end of Smithfield.
Later the soil on the hillside behind Wah Fai House and Mei Wah Mansion was removed, and a vehicle link between Smithfield and Pok Fu Lam Road
Pok Fu Lam Road
Pokfulam Road, or Pok Fu Lam Road, is a four-lane road in Hong Kong. Built on Hong Kong Island, the road runs between Sai Ying Pun and Wah Fu, through Pok Fu Lam....
was constructed. The link was opened to vehicles in early 1998 and is now known as Smithfield Extension, to be distinguished from the original top end of the street adjacent to Lung Wah Street.
Name
Smithfield is one of the few streets in Hong Kong without the use of words such as "Road", "Street", "Path", "Lane" etc. Other notable examples are QueenswayQueensway, Hong Kong
Queensway is a major road in the Admiralty of Central, Hong Kong. It was originally a section of Queen's Road East to its westmost before the Hong Kong Government separated and renamed it as its present name in 1967...
in Admiralty
Admiralty, Hong Kong
Admiralty is the eastern extension of central business district of the Central on the Hong Kong Island of Hong Kong. It is located on the eastern end of the Central and Western District, bordered by Wan Chai to the east and Victoria Harbour to the north. The name of Admiralty refers to the former...
, Broadway (百老匯街) in Mei Foo
Mei Foo Sun Chuen
Mei Foo Sun Chuen or simply Mei Foo is a large private housing estate in Lai Chi Kok , Kowloon, Hong Kong. Mei Foo Sun Chuen was the first private housing estate in Hong Kong and at the time of completion, the 99 tower complex was considered the largest private housing development in the world,...
and Glenealy in Mid-levels
Mid-levels
Mid-levels is an expensive residential area on Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. It is located halfway up Victoria Peak, directly above Central...
.
London namesake
Smithfield, Hong Kong, was probably named after its London namesake by the British colonialBritish Hong Kong
British Hong Kong refers to Hong Kong as a Crown colony and later, a British dependent territory under British administration from 1841 to 1997.- Colonial establishment :...
administration. Smithfield, London
Smithfield, London
Smithfield is an area of the City of London, in the ward of Farringdon Without. It is located in the north-west part of the City, and is mostly known for its centuries-old meat market, today the last surviving historical wholesale market in Central London...
, is an area in the north-western part of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
with a history of over 800 years. It started as an area to house live cattle from the country before they were slaughtered and sold at the meat markets in the City of London. The area was frequented by people of the grassroots of society who worked there as labourers and traders of meat and other foodstuff in the marketplaces nearby. Though situated in England, Smithfield, London, has been a symbol of Scottish patriotism after William Wallace
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....
was executed there in 1305. Smithfield, London, as a landmark was promoted by literary works such as Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" and Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper".
The old cattle stations in both Smithfield, London and Smithfield, Hong Kong have ceased to exist and the locations were both replaced by a market. Both areas have since been redeveloped to accommodate middle class residents as well.
Name change
The street is often mistakenly written as Smithfield Road by local residents, affected by the Chinese suffix 路 (lo, lit. road) and in Chinese, 士美非路 was often mistaken as 士美菲路 too.On 2 February 2007, the Lands Department proposed to rename Smithfield (士美非路) as Smithfield Road (士美菲路). However, the idea to add the word "Road" was opposed on the ground that the street name was unique in that it was named after and had a similar historical development as Smithfield, London
Smithfield, London
Smithfield is an area of the City of London, in the ward of Farringdon Without. It is located in the north-west part of the City, and is mostly known for its centuries-old meat market, today the last surviving historical wholesale market in Central London...
. On 18 October 2007, the Government amended the proposal and announced that only the Chinese name of the street would be changed (from 士美非路 to 士美菲路). The name change became official on 14 December 2007.
Transportation
Smithfield is served by tramsHong Kong Tramways
Hong Kong Tramways is a tram system in Hong Kong and one of the earliest forms of public transport in Hong Kong. Owned and operated by Veolia Transport, the tramway runs on Hong Kong Island between Shau Kei Wan and Kennedy Town, with a branch circulating Happy Valley...
, buses and minibuses. The Kennedy Town Station of the MTR
MTR
Mass Transit Railway is the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong. Originally opened in 1979, the system now includes 211.6 km of rail with 155 stations, including 86 railway stations and 69 light rail stops...
rapid transit railway is under construction. It will be located under Smithfield, the former Kennedy Town Swimming Pool and the Forbes Street Temporary Playground. It has a proposed exit on Smithfield.
In the 1990s, road traffic in Smithfield was considered as "extremely heavy throughout the day", and as a consequence, the vehicular entrance of the Smithfield Municipal Services Building (completed in 1995) was assigned to the Rock Hill Street.
See also
- List of streets and roads in Hong Kong
- Sheung Shui SlaughterhouseSheung Shui SlaughterhouseThe Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse is a slaughterhouse situated in the outer area of Sheung Shui, New Territories, Hong Kong. The installation was built by China State Construction. Construction began on February 1997, at a cost of HK$ 1.858 billion...
Other places named "Smithfield"
- With origin as a marketplace:
- Smithfield, LondonSmithfield, LondonSmithfield is an area of the City of London, in the ward of Farringdon Without. It is located in the north-west part of the City, and is mostly known for its centuries-old meat market, today the last surviving historical wholesale market in Central London...
, United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(sometimes referred to as West Smithfield) - Smithfield, BirminghamSmithfield, BirminghamSmithfield was an inner-city area of Birmingham, England, southeast of the Bull Ring markets.-Smithfield Market:The area was originally the site of the Birmingham Manor House in which the De Birmingham family had lived for centuries...
, United Kingdom - Smithfield, DublinSmithfield, DublinSmithfield is an area on the northside of Dublin. Its focal point is a public square, formerly an open market, now officially called Smithfield Plaza, but known locally as Smithfield Square or Smithfield Market....
, IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
- Smithfield, London
- As a thoroughfare (i.e., a road or street):
- East SmithfieldEast SmithfieldEast Smithfield is the name of a road in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in east London, part of the A1203 road. It was historically an alternative name for the liberty and parish of St Botolph without Aldgate....
, London, United Kingdom
- East Smithfield