Recalling the Transformation of Kowloon City (Part 3)
Ma Tau Kok and
Ngau Tau Kok – Once a Pair of "Opposing Corners" Gazing at Each Other Across the Water –
And it all began with a cattle yard
When you walk through To Kwa Wan, Ma Tau Wai, and Ma Tau Kok today, you probably think of these names as nothing more than a vague blur lumped together under the generic label "old district". But their original names were actually tied to the physical landscape, each with its own distinct character – not vague at all.
"Ma Tau Wai" was originally a sizeable village, hence the character "Wai" (enclosure). "Ma Tau Chung" sat next to a stream that ran from the inland area down to the seafront, hence "Chung" (stream). Ma Tau Kok was the most prominent landform of the three – the part that jutted out farthest toward the sea – hence "Kok" (corner). And directly across the inner harbour of Kowloon Bay, facing it from the opposite shore, stood "Ngau Tau Kok". This gave the bay the delightful oddity of a "horse's corner" facing off against an "ox's corner".
This little geographical curiosity has since been buried by reclamation and high-rise buildings. You can no longer see those two corners facing each other.
But what truly gave Ma Tau Kok "its own story" was neither the horse nor the corner – but a cattle yard.
Let's go back to 1907. The Cattle Depot Artist Village you see today on Ma Tau Kok Road was, back then, a slaughterhouse. Why did it end up here? Because the Kowloon–Canton Railway project required the expropriation of land in Hung Hom, so the original slaughterhouse there was relocated to the shoreline near Ma Tau Kok. This building became the earliest man-made structure in the Ma Tau Kok area that survives to this day.
And that cattle yard unexpectedly shaped the destiny of the entire neighbourhood.
In 1957, the Public Works Department published the first "Ma Tau Kok Outline Development Plan". The planners did something that, in hindsight, looks remarkably honest: they kept the waterfront for factories and the inland areas for workers' housing. The land near the coast, with its access to sea transport, was zoned for industrial use. And clustered around the cattle yard, various related trades and light industries naturally emerged – so much so that certain lots were explicitly designated for "offensive trades", including soap factories, fur factories, breweries, and blacksmiths' workshops.
In those days, no one shied away from the word "offensive". The planning was direct, and so was life.
At the same time, the land along Ma Tau Wai Road and Ma Tau Chung Road was zoned for higher-density residential development to house the large workforce. To Kwa Wan Road, meanwhile, became a mixed-use zone for both housing and light industry – and during its heyday in the 1960s and 70s, it was bursting with small and medium-sized workshops engaged in printing, engraving, and parts manufacturing.
Today, when you walk past the Cattle Depot Artist Village, you may no longer smell the odours of soap and leather, nor hear the clang of blacksmiths' hammers. But the genetic code of this neighbourhood was written the moment that cattle yard was built back in 1907.
Next time you pass through Ma Tau Kok, take a moment to think: the old district beneath your feet was once a place that honestly embraced "offensive trades". And its beginning was not a hipster café, not a luxury tower – it was a cattle yard.
#UrbanLegends #RecallingTheTransformationOfKowloonCity #MaTauKokAndNgauTauKok #ThePastLifeOfTheCattleDepotArtistVillage #TheToKwaWanYouNeverKnew