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Kowloon Station (KCR)

Kowloon
九龍
KCR station
Kcr tst 1916.jpg
A train departing from Kowloon Station, picture taken in 1916.
Location Yau Tsim Mong District, Hong Kong
Coordinates 22°17′38″N 114°10′13″E / 22.29389°N 114.17028°E / 22.29389; 114.17028Coordinates: 22°17′38″N 114°10′13″E / 22.29389°N 114.17028°E / 22.29389; 114.17028
Owned by Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation
Operated by Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation
Line(s)   Kowloon–Canton Railway (British Section)
Connections Bus, public light bus
Construction
Structure type At-grade
History
Opened 1 October 1910 (1910-10)
Closed 1974 (1975)
Location
Hong Kong MTR system map
Hong Kong MTR system map
Kowloon
Location within the current MTR system

Kowloon Station (九龍車站), located in Tsim Sha Tsui on the present site of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, was the former southern terminus of the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR).

The first Kowloon station was a temporary structure built near the Post Office on Salisbury Road in 1909 and served until the permanent station was completed in 1910. Regular service began at the second station on 1 October 1910. The building consisted of a two-storey L shaped terminal building with a clock tower. On the north end of the station was a covered walkway which led to two covered elevated platforms. A freight station was located a mile north of the station.

After its relocation to Hung Hom (also replacing the old Hung Hom station) in 1974, and until 1994, "Kowloon" had been the name of present-day Hung Hom Station, the new southern terminus of the KCR, the railway which was renamed KCR East Rail in the late 1990s.

Owing to lacking of space for expansion, the southern terminus of the railway was moved from Tsim Sha Tsui to a new station of the same name on the new reclaimed land from Hung Hom Bay in 1974. The Hong Kong Cultural Centre was constructed on the site. The new Kowloon Station was renamed to its present name, Hung Hom, in the late 1990s.

A campaign was mounted to preserve the 60-year-old red brick terminus. The Kowloon Residents' Association wrote to the Colonial Secretary in 1970; the Tsim Sha Tsui Neighbourhood and Welfare Association also wrote to the Colonial Secretary in 1975, and again in May 1977.

A petition was mounted by the Heritage Society, and sent to the then Governor, Murray MacLehose on 29 July 1977. The Government rejected the petition, and its request for an independent inquiry into the draft area development plan. It argued that a new cultural complex would assume the role enjoyed by the building, and that the plans for a new cultural complex to be erected on the site were too far advanced to be altered. The Heritage society charged that the Government was engaged in dirty tricks, and was misleading the public.


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Wikipedia

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