The road once hosted shipyards, fish, meat and vegetable wholesale markets, which were moved closer to the coast after extensive reclamation.

[citation needed] Lai Chi Kok is classified by the Hong Kong government as a primary distributor road.

Lai Chi Kok Road was created in the early 20th century after New Kowloon was acquired by the United Kingdom under the 1898 lease of the New Territories.

[2] Some of the first residential buildings in the redeveloped Sham Shui Po were completed in 1911 along Lai Chi Kok Road between Pei Ho and Kweilin streets.

In 1959, the British Forces gave 9.69 hectares of the Sham Shui Po Camp to the Hong Kong government so that Lai Chi Kok Road could be extended to the new reclamation area in Cheung Sha Wan.

The historical four-storey building Lui Seng Chun (Chinese: 雷生春) is on 119 Lai Chi Kok Road.