Kennedy Town

Coordinates: 22°16′48″N 114°07′30″E / 22.280°N 114.125°E / 22.280; 114.125

Victoria City boundary stone at Sai Ning Street.

Kennedy Town (Chinese: 堅尼地城; jyutping: gin1 nei4 dei6 seng4) 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. Administratively, it is part of Central and Western District.

Due to its distance from major commercial cores and lack of subway access prior to 2014, town development was less vigorous than in other parts of urban Hong Kong; this was expected to change when the MTR was extended to the area.^[1]

Geography

Kennedy Town occupies the northwestern part of Hong Kong Island. It is bordered by the Belcher Bay of Victoria Harbour to the north, by the Sulphur Channel to the west, Shek Tong Tsui to the east and Mount Davis and Lung Fu Shan to the south.

In 1886, when Arthur Edward Kennedy was governor, land was reclaimed along the coast of Kennedy Town. It formed a narrow coastal strip of land that included the Kennedy Praya and the coastal area from Beach Street via Collinson Street to Shek Tong Tsui. Additional land was reclaimed along the coast of Kennedy Town between 1933–1939, but works were suspended before the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941. Further reclamation was conducted at the end of the 20th century.^[2][3]

For district council elections purposes, the area roughly corresponds to the "Kennedy Town and Mount Davis", "Kwun Lung" and "Sai Wan" constituencies.^[4] The boundaries of such constituencies may be subject to modification.^[5]

History

Kennedy Town is the western section of the historical Victoria City. In 1903, the Hong Kong Government erected seven boundary stones for the city, inscribed "City Boundary 1903". One of them is located next to the Kennedy Town Temporary Recreation Ground at Sai Ning Street (西寧街).

Features

Streets

Catchick Street

Streets in Kennedy Town include:

• New Praya, Kennedy Town (堅彌地城新海旁)
• Kennedy Town Praya (堅彌地城海旁)
• Catchick Street (吉席街). Named after Sir Catchick Paul Chater, it was named "Chater Street" until 1909,^[6] and was renamed to avoid confusion with the street in Central.
• Belcher's Street
• Smithfield
• Davis Street
• Pokfield Road
• Victoria Road.

Housing

Kwun Lung Lau, viewed from Smithfield.

Two of the earliest public housing estates of Hong Kong are located in Kennedy Town: Sai Wan Estate, completed in 1958, and Kwun Lung Lau, built in 1967. The Merton, completed in 2005, is a high-rise private housing development in the area.

Following the new MTR extension, new land for potential property developments in the district is in high demand. In a District Council meeting concerning the development of west Kennedy Town in March 2015, the proposed rezoning plan gained general support despite some expressing their worries about the community's carrying capacity. Outlined areas to be rezoned and redeveloped include the ex-Mount Davis cottage area on Victoria Road, the Hong Kong Academy temporary campus and former Police Married Officers Quarters on Ka Wai Man Road, as well as the ex-Kennedy Town Incinerator and Abattoir site on Cadogan Street. The project is expected to provide about 3,000 public and private residential units. For the long-discussed redevelopment project regarding the district's half-century old buildings, the Housing Authority admitted they have no plans to implement it after considering the costs and effects to rebuild and relocate, which will foreseeably increase the public housing burden.^[7]

Historical buildings

Lo Pan Temple

Historical buildings and places in Kennedy Town include:

• Lo Pan Temple, a Grade I historic building
• Elliot Pumping Station & Filters Senior Staff Quarters,^[8] No. 77 Pok Fu Lam Road, a Grade II historic building
• Elliot Pumping Station & Filters Workmen's Quarters, a Grade III historic building
• Elliot Pumping Station & Filters, Treatment Works Building, a Grade III historic building
• Ex-Western Fire Station, No. 12 Belcher's Street, a Grade III historic building. Converted into the Po Leung Kuk Chan Au Big Yan Home for the Elderly.^[9]

Facilities

Kennedy Town Swimming Pool

• Smithfield Municipal Services Building (士美菲路市政大廈), located at 12K Smithfield, at the corner with Rock Hill Street
• Kennedy Town Community Complex, located at 12 Rock Hill Street, adjacent to Smithfield Municipal Services Building. The 16-storey building was completed in May 2006^[10] and won a Certificate of Merit in the 2006 Design Award Scheme^[11]
• Kennedy Town Swimming Pool, located at 2 Sai Cheung Street North,^[12] next to Belcher Bay Park. It opened on 11 May 2011, replacing the swimming pool at Smithfield, demolished to facilitate the construction of Kennedy Town Station.^[13]
• Kennedy Town Fire Station, located at the northern end of Smithfield, at the corner with New Praya

Parks

• Belcher Bay Park
• Cadogan Street Temporary Park
• Forbes Street Temporary Playground
• Kennedy Town Temporary Recreation Ground at Sain Ning Street

Demographics

The neighbourhood is primarily Chinese, but a growing number of expats are moving into a number of luxury buildings built along the waterfront.

Transport

Western head of the Hong Kong Tramways line, next to The Merton in Catchick Street.

The western terminus of the Hong Kong Tramways is located in Kennedy Town.

Kennedy Town is also served by Kennedy Town Station, opened in 2014 as part of an extension of the Island Line of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR).

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kennedy Town.

• Pang, Yee-han, "Urban revitalization of Kennedy Town", University of Hong Kong, 1996