I visited the Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market last weekend - it is really quite fun. Located between Ferry Street, Waterloo Road, and Reclamation Street with Shek Lung Street passing thru it, it was built in 1913, and it was originally called the Government Vegetables Market which sold fruit and vegetables and later fish. In 1965 the vegetable and fish stalls moved out. It is a rectangular-shaped 1.5 hectre site with one and two storey high shophouse buildings with stalls (the upper floors were probably used for living quarters, now used for storage), constructed of brick and stone with covered pedestrian walkways with projecting upper floor balconies. A few hundred wholeshale fruit stalls operate here, primarily in the early morning hours. There are Dutch Gables and pediments with signs with family and traders shop names. The condition of the buildings is not good, but there is a lot of character and local presence in this historic market. The market is a listed Grade III historic building.
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Vegetable and Fruit Market Market in 1913
When the market opened in July 1913, it was much smaller compared to today - see the 1920 map on Gwulo.
The Public Works Report for 1912 refers:
95. Yaumati—Vegetable and Fruit Market.—This market is of a very simple type, consisting merely of a roof of ferro-concrete, measuring 190' x 60', supported on brick pillars: It is open all round, the floor being concreted and suitably arranged for drainage.
A contract for the work was let on the 27th September and at the end of the year the brick pillars had been built and the necessary centering for the roof and ironwork for reinforcing same were well advanced.
The Public Works Report for 1913 refers:
125. Yaumati— Vegetable and Fruit Market.—This structure was described in last year's Report (para. 95). It was completed in July and handed over to the Sanitary Department, all liabilities being discharged before the close of the year.