In the early 1840s, Jardine Matheson & Co. acquired East Point at southern Causeway Bay to set up its headquarters. The site was deemed advantageous because it guaranteed access to fresh drinking water from Tai Hang and provided a bay for the fleet to anchor. At East Point the company put up its pier, warehouse and factory, and on Jardine’s Hill the company built its office and tai-pan mansion. Down below the Hill was where the Jardine’s staffs lived, and with such a cluster the marketplace also took shape. Under the Jardine’s influence, there appeared in the area a number of streets with names related to the company and its business, such as Yee Wo Street, Jardine's Crescent, Matheson Street and Sugar Street. After the acquisition, Jardine-Matheson kept at the formation works of the East Point waterfront to increase land area and to facilitate vessel anchorage.

The industrial development Jardine-Matheson brought to East Point attracted a throng of Chinese workers to settle in the area. Fishermen, too, began to use Causeway Bay as their typhoon shelter, turning it into an even more bustling district. However, as the fisherfolk was not given to any hygienic practice, the bay became badly soiled with junks and other leavings; in 1883, the government resolved to fill up these coastal swamps, using the 26 acres of filled ground mostly for warehousing and partly for roads building. In addition, the low-lying land between Causeway Road and Tung Lo Wan Road was transformed into a sports ground, which served the British Army, the students of Central College (Queen’s College today) and the Chinese Recreation Club.