[2] The area bound by the present day Rock Hill Street and Pokfield Path (蒲飛徑) was historically the site of a cattle quarantine depot and a slaughterhouse to house and slaughter live cattle when the animals first arrived in Hong Kong via the piers in Kennedy Town.

[15][16] Smithfield was an area frequented by people who worked as labourers at the cattle station, and the marketplaces nearby that have since become the Forbes Street Temporary Playground (科士街臨時遊樂場) and the North Street (北街) red minibus terminus, and for the loading and unloading of sea cargo coming in and out of the piers of Kennedy Town.

The British novelist Martin Booth wrote in his 2004 autobiographical Gweilo: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood: "the bellow of a cow in the Kennedy Town abattoir might lift up to me – to be abruptly cut short".

[15] An abattoir and pig depot existed on the other south west side of Smithfield from the late 19th century until at least 1970.

[23] The gasometer was in existence until the early 1980s when it was demolished to make way for the construction of Smithfield Terrace (嘉輝花園) by Henderson Land Development Co. Ltd, the largest shareholder of Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

It started as an area to house live cattle from the country before they were slaughtered and sold at the meat markets in the City of London.

The area was frequented by people of the grassroots of society who worked there as labourers and traders of meat and other foodstuff in the marketplaces nearby.

Smithfield, London, as a landmark was promoted by literary works such as Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist and Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper.

The street is often mistakenly written as Smithfield Road by local residents, affected by the Chinese suffix 路 (lo, lit.

On 18 October 2007, the Government amended the proposal and announced that only the Chinese name of the street would be changed (from 士美非路 to 士美菲路).

The Kennedy Town station of the MTR rapid transit railway opened to the public on 28 December 2014.

This route has a bus stop named "Kennedy Town Swimming Pool" despite its demolition to make way for the MTR station.