The 13 Streets () is an area in

Ma Tau Kok image:Ma Tou Kok Road No91-113 201108.jpg, Ma Tau Kok Road Old apartments Ma Tau Kok () is a place north of To Kwa Wan, south-east of modern-day Ma Tau Chung and south-west of the former Kai Tak Airport (now Kai Tak Development) in Hong Kong. It w ...

Kowloon City District Kowloon City District is one of the districts of Hong Kong, 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in the city of Kowloon and cut through by Boundary Street. It had a population of 381,352 in 2001, and increased to 418,732 in 2016. The di ...

, Hong Kong. It consists of rows of late 1950s

tenement buildings A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

along 11 parallel short streets named after auspicious animals. The area is known for its abundance of ground floor garages (repair works).

History

In 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 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, a

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven ...

and a

vacuum flask A vacuum flask (also known as a Dewar flask, Dewar bottle or thermos) is an insulating storage vessel that slows the speed at which its contents change in temperature. It greatly lengthens the time over which its contents remain hotter or coo ...

factory replaced the rope factory. 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 A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

class backgrounds, units are often subdivided and rented to more than one tenant. Although the blocks were designed mainly for residential purpose in mind, in the 1960s the ground floors of these blocks were filled with garages. some of these garages still remain in operation today.

Orientation

Hong Kong To Kwa Wan Thirteen Streets Map

It consists of 11 parallel short streets, bordered by Kowloon City Road (west),

To Kwa Wan Road To Kwa Wan Road (Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: 土瓜灣道) is a major thoroughfare in To Kwa Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong, connecting To Kwa Wan with Ma Tau Kok. See also

* Grand Waterfront * To Kwa Wan station * 13 Streets Roa ...

(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."A Helping Hand for Hong Kong's Old Private Buildings"
CIH Asia Pacific Branch 40th International Housing Conference, pp. 7,8 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. Hong Kong To Kwa Wan Thirteen Streets Coverage

Hong Kong To Kwa Wan Thirteen Streets Coverage

Hong Kong To Kwa Wan Pang Ching Street Road Sign

The 11 parallel streets are, from west to east: * Lung To Street () * Fung Yi Street () * Luk Ming Street () * Lun Cheung Street () * Ying Yeung Street () * Pang Ching Street () * Hung Wan Street () * Shim Luen Street () * Yin On Street () * Tsun Fat Street () * Hok Ling Street ()

Redevelopment

Due to deteriorating building conditions, since 2014-15 redevelopment of the 13 Streets have been proposed by the

Urban Renewal Authority The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) is a quasi-governmental, profit-making statutory body in Hong Kong responsible for accelerating urban redevelopment. History The authority's predecessor, the Land Development Corporation (土地發展� ...

. 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. 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. Conversely, In 2024 a DAB campaign to urge authorities to speed up the redevelopment process has amassed 1000 signatures from

To Kwa Wan To Kwa Wan () is a bay and an area of the eastern shore of Kowloon peninsula. The area is part of urban Hong Kong, and is situated between Hok Yuen, Hung Hom, Ma Tau Chung and Ma Tau Kok. Administratively, the area belongs to the Kow ...

residents. Some residents blame the government's neglect to the deteriorating conditions of the flats, fearing another similar collapse after
collapse in 2014

References

External links

Map showing the 13 Streets within the Kowloon City District

{{Kowloon City District Ma Tau Kok