Cheung Sha Wan Abattoir, Former slaughterhouse in Sham Shui Po District, Hong Kong.
Cheung Sha Wan Abattoir is a former slaughterhouse located in the Sham Shui Po industrial area along Lai Chi Kok Road and Tung Chau Street. The building retains the features of a mid-20th century industrial facility with structures designed for livestock processing.
The facility opened in 1969 under operation by the Urban Services Department and later came under management of the Urban Council in 1973. It remained in operation as a meat processing center until the end of the century before ideas for redevelopment emerged.
The abattoir supplied fresh beef, pork and lamb to the Kowloon peninsula, and its closure in 1999 ended that role. After it fell idle, photographers used the derelict halls as a shooting location. The site has since been demolished for the Lai Yue Court housing project.
The abattoir closed in October 1999 and was demolished in 2017; the site is now the construction ground for Lai Yuet Court, a Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme estate of three 36- to 38-storey blocks. There is no building left to view, and the works area is fenced off, so the site can only be seen from Lai Chi Kok Road and nearby streets.
In July 1988 a water buffalo of about seven or eight years old, weighing over ten catties, knelt and shed tears each time workers led it to slaughter. The workers refused to kill it; the Chi Wan Kok Temple adopted it on 30 July 1988, and it lived there until its death on 22 May 1994, after which the temple commissioned a statue of it.
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