This is another photo from the Dairy Farm 1967 Annual Report. This photo shows the East Point ice-making plant operated under the Dairy Farm Refrigerated Trading Division. Dairy Farm started to get involved in the ice-making business in 1918 when it acquired the business of Hong Kong Ice Company. As a result, Dairy Farm’s official name was changed to Dairy Farm Ice and Cold Storage Company Limited. By 1967, Dairy Farm had five ice-making plants, and they were located at Castle Peak, Chekiang Street, and Kun Tong in Kowloon and Aberdeen and East Point on Hong Kong Island. I am surprised that the annual report still calls this location “East Point”. By 1967, this area was commonly known as Causeway Bay. There is a canal allowing the ice from the ice-making plant to be transported by boat. In 1968, a crossover (across the canal) and a conveyor were built, allowing the ice to be transferred to a loading dock at the typhoon shelter instead of at the canal.
I still remember ice making was still popular in the sixties in Hong Kong as the demands were still there. Though in Hong Kong island and in Kowloon, convenience stores all had electric ice water chests to store the soft drinks, this was not the case in the New Territories and the surrounding islands. Convenience store owners still had to buy chunks of ice and put them in the ice chest to keep the soft drinks cold.
A: Daimaru Department Store
B: Old Roxy Theatre (closed in 1974 and redeveloped as high rises)
C: Dairy Farm East Point ice-making plant
D: Victoria Park
E: Yee Wo Street
F: Causeway Road.
G: East Point Canal
H: Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter