13 Streets

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, a cotton mill and a vacuum flask 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 class backgrounds, units are often subdivided and rented to more than one tenant. some of these garages still remain in operation today. ==Orientation==

It consists of 11 parallel short streets, bordered by Kowloon City Road (west), To Kwa Wan Road (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. 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. , across Ma Tau Kok Road. 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. 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 amassed 1000 signatures from To Kwa Wan residents. Some residents blame the deteriorating conditions of the flats on the government's neglect, fearing a similar disaster to the collapse in 2014. ==See also==