Rusted and empty, the old Royal Air Force hangar stands obscured by thick undergrowth and high-rises, its wartime role half a century ago remembered only by a few aviation and history buffs trying to prevent it from falling further into obscurity.
'To some it looks like a rusty heap, but it has such potential,' says Cliff Dunnaway, chairman of the Hong Kong Historical Aircraft Association. He and other members of the association want to convert the hangar into a museum of local aviation history.
They have produced a model with visions of glass walls and solar panels on the roof, and hope their museum will house some of the planes and replicas of some of the first aircraft to fly in Hong Kong.
'It would be great if it could be moved next to the Aviation Club,' says Gordon Andreassend, vice-chairman of the association, 'Make it part of what I like to call Kai Tak Corner. It would be most meaningful.'
The Aviation Club sits on the northwest side of the old Kai Tak airport, which was famous for being one of the most challenging landings in the world. The corner also houses the Hong Kong Air Cadets Corps.
Despite repeated suggestions from the club, the hangar's future is unknown, with the MTR Corp's Sha Tin-to-Central link set to pass beneath its foundations near the present Diamond Hill station. The corporation says it is working with the government to dismantle and move the structure temporarily in 2012 but has not said where it would be moved. Its fate, they and the government say, will be decided after a public consultation at an undisclosed date.