The Tung Wah Coffin Home has its origins in the Slaughter House Coffin Home, which was built next to the Slaughter House Cemetery in Kennedy Town in 1875 with funds from Man Mo Temple and which was initially run by the temple’s general committee, but later brought under the management of Tung Wah Hospital with the public’s overwhelming backing. In 1899, Tung Wah received the support of the government in relocating the facility to its current site in Sandy Bay, at the same time renaming it the Tung Wah Coffin Home. With the aim of preserving the original appearance of the cluster of buildings from different eras, the TWGHs launched a restoration project in 2003 that went on to win the Award of Honour in the Heritage Preservation and Conservation Awards (2004) from the Antiquities and Monuments Office of the Hong Kong government and an Award of Merit in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2005 in recognition of the success of the project and of Tung Wah’s achievements in conservation.
