The 1953 Shek Kip Mei fireShek Kip Mei Estate (foreground) in 2006. The area on the left has since been redeveloped to new Shek Kip Mei Estate in 2012new Shek Kip Mei Estate in 2012The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC) is the main art studio and gallery inside Shek Kip MeiRevitalisation of Mei Ho House as City Hostel
At the time of the 1911 census, the population of Shek Kip Mei was 72.[1]
A major fire on 25 December 1953 destroyed the Shek Kip Mei shanty town of immigrants from Mainland China who had fled to Hong Kong, leaving 53,000 people homeless.
After the fire, the governor Alexander Grantham launched a public housing programme to introduce the idea of multi-storey building for the immigrant population living there. The standardised new structures offered fire- and flood-resistant construction to previously vulnerable hut dwellers. The programme involved demolishing the rest of the makeshift houses left untouched by the fire, and the construction of the Shek Kip Mei Low-cost Housing Estate in their stead. The apartments were small, only about 300 square feet (28 m2).[citation needed] Each unit could house five people, and each building had a capacity of 2,500 residents.[2] The rent was HK$17 per square foot per month, while the rent for a commercial store downstairs was HK$100 per month. Foreign tourists visiting the apartment complexes referred to them as "prisons". Some scholars have argued that the government has been overstating the role of the fire in the history of public housing in Hong Kong.[3]
At the north of Shek Kip Mei is Tai Wo Ping (大窩坪), along Beacon Hill. This was a cottage area (a type of resettlement accommodation) from the 1950s to 1970s, but it has been developed into a public housing estate, Chak On Estate (澤安邨), and two private housing estates, Beacon Heights (畢架山花園) and Dynasty Heights (帝景峰).[4][5]
Present
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The Government has backed off from its plans to redevelop the area, following great opposition from many who believe they symbolised the history of Hong Kong. An alternative plan to renovate it for use as a hostel and museum has been completed. The museum includes restored rooms, resident stories and photos, and documentation of the history of public housing estates.
Shek Kip Mei now has several types of housing including the public apartments, Pak Tin Estate and private housing such as Beacon Heights and Dynasty Heights. Several malls and churches can also be found in the area now.
Shek Kip Mei is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 40. Within the school net are multiple aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money) and two government schools: Fuk Wing Street Government Primary School and Li Cheng Uk Government Primary School.[6]
^Wiltshire, Trea. [First published 1987] (republished & reduced 2003). Old Hong Kong – Volume Three. Central, Hong Kong: Text Form Asia books Ltd. Page 7. ISBN Volume Three 962-7283-61-4
^Smart, Alan. (2006). The Shek Kip Mei Myth: Squatters, Fires And Colonial Rulers in Hong Kong, 1950–1963.
