In the early colonial days, the government had looked over Wong Nai Chung with a view to develop it into an urban district. The idea was soon abandoned because, for one thing, mephitis and infectious diseases pervaded in the area, and the swamp needed to be cleared up. Only the British Army stationed at the nearby Morrison Hill. As many of the troops there died of poor hygiene, the Army put up a cemetery at the foot of Wong Nai Chung to bury them. It was the Hong Kong Cemetery, which survived through today. Apart from the marsh, the low-lying land of Wong Nai Chung was also brought under cultivation. Later the British purchased the farmland and turned it into a racecourse.

In the 1850s, the Central District reclamation scheme Bowring proposed met its Waterloo, and the Governor had to look for coastal land that involved no property rights problem. Ngo Keng, therefore, was picked out for the purpose; located between Wan Chai and East Point, it was a suburban district out of the Victoria City.