Kowloon Dairy - 2nd location [1930-1975]

Submitted by annelisec on Sun, 10/25/2020 - 21:25
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed
Date closed / demolished
(Month is approximate.)

..

Kowloon Dairy was previously located on a site north of Boundary Street, but moved here to the New Kowloon Dairy Farm Lot #10 in 1930 on both sides of Clearwater Bay Road.
 

George Ahwee personally held the lease to the land and his private home was there. The limited company that was formed in 1940 and named “The Kowloon Dairy Ltd” did not own the property.  It was a tenant. 

George gave the property to his 4 adult children in 1966, who sold it in 1973 to Ching Chun-Kau, a speculator.

The Government then resumed the property in 1975 to build the Choi Wan Estate. The speculator famously sued for higher compensation and the court case was commonly known as “The Kowloon Dairy Case”.  

Later place(s) at this location
Choi Wan Estate [????- ]

Tags

Photos that show this Place

1924 Trademark application
1924
1924 - Ahwee request for more Dairy Land
1924
1940 - Kowloon Dairy
1940
See more photos of this place

Comments

I have an address from a letter written by Rudy Choy which gives an address for Kowloon Dairy as 53 Waterloo Road.

In the 1941 Hkg Jurors list there is a George Emanuel Ahwee - Farm Superintendent c/o Kowloon Dairy, Customs Pass, Sai Kung Road. also a Henry William Ahwee. Rudy Choy is in the same list as Managing Director Kowloon Dairy.

There is some more info on locations in this link-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Dairy

According to the official website of the Kowloon Dairy (http://www.kowloondairy.com.hk/innerpage.jsp?lang=en&pid=pid_01_01), the farm was founded in 1940 by Ahwee & Choy at Ngau Chi Wan where the present Choi Wan Estate is., in quite a distance from Customs Pass. Maybe the address of the latter was where Ahwee lived?

I managed to locate the farm from the Hong Kong Historic Maps website (see the Map 1970).  It was a more-or-less rectangular piece of land located down the slope from Good Hope School (now the junction at Ngau Chi Wan Street and Fung Shing Street). Seems that some dairy cattle on the pasture can even be seen on an aerial photo (Map 1963.2)!

The address cited as 53 Waterloo Road was in fact a retailing shop of the company(?). To my memory, there were lots of bottles of Kowloon Dairy milk available. The shop was just on the opposite side of Waterloo Road from the school where I was attending in the 1970s.

Was that Kowloon Dairy adjacent to Albert Villa an earlier (and vanished) company bearing the same name?

Besides, the Chinese name for Farm Road in To Kwa Wan is 農圃道. It's most likely a market garden, not a dairy farm.

Thank you for the story about the company.  Good Hope students of the 1950's will remember one entrance which I estimate a short distance west of the location pin.  Next to it was a company name in Chinese, and a large replicate of a milk bottle for display.  Several times after class, I made a detour to walk through the pasture.  There were no fence then, except cows.  Fond memories of the farm and Good Hope!  Peter        

Thank you Ann for the feedback.  On your "link" photo, Good Hope Anglo-Chinese School (their earliest school name) is out-of-picture to the right.  From the right edge of the photo, it is about 7 minutes walk uphill to the school.  On the left of this photo, though hardly visible, is the entrance with the company name and a huge milk bottle display.

I notice you have uploaded a 1949 air photo, which gives better clarity and shows the entrance.  Had the screen capture extended eastward (uphill) by 30 percent, it would have captured Jat's Incline and the site of the future school.    Regards,   Peter