Ngau Tau Kok has a long history of
Hakka inhabitants. In the early colonial days of Hong Kong, it was one of the "
Four hills of Kowloon" () in eastern Kowloon where
granite was extracted. The granite from Ngau Tau Kok was transported to
Victoria City on
Hong Kong Island across
Victoria Harbour. Some stone was even exported to
Canton City for the construction of its
Sacred Heart Cathedral. At the time of the 1911 census, the population of Ngau Tau Kok was 440. The number of males was 314. Before being a residential area, Ngau Tau Kok was an industrial area.
Amoy Food sited a factory in Ngau Tau Kok to manufacture
soy sauce. A high-density private housing estate,
Amoy Gardens was constructed on the factory site. A
reservoir in
Jordan Valley formerly provided fresh water to Ngau Tau Kok but is now disused and used as a
landfill area. An
artillery battery was also located in Jordon Valley but it was removed to make way for the urban development project. The site of the
MTR Kowloon Bay
Depot was formerly the Ngau Tau Kok Industrial Estate.
SARS outbreak During the spring of 2003, Ngau Tau Kok was severely impacted by the
SARS outbreak. A concentration of cases of the deadly disease occurred in
Amoy Gardens (), mainly in its Block E. The drainage design (which was widely used across Hong Kong) was later criticised and amended.
Town gas explosion On 11 April 2006, a fatal underground explosion occurred on
Ngau Tau Kok Road and Jordan Valley North Road: two people died and eight were injured.
Wai King Building () was seriously damaged by the blast which was caused by leakage of
town gas from underground pipes belonging to
Hong Kong and China Gas, a major local utility.
2016 fire Ngau Tau Kok was the site of the
Amoycan Industrial Centre fire in which two firemen were killed. ==Transport==