Originally called Salinter (or Salintar), Tanjong Pagar in Malay means "cape of stakes", a name that reflects its origins as a fishing village situated on a former promontory. It has been surmised that the name was inspired by the presence of kelong (offshore palisade fishing traps constructed using wooden stakes and cross pieces) set up along the coast stretching from the village of Tanjong Malang to what is now Tanjong Pagar.
A more picturesque account of the naming of this part of the coast was inspired by a local legend. According to the Malay Annals (Sejarah Melayu), the villages along the coast of Singapore used to suffer from vicious attacks from shoals of swordfish. On the advice of a particularly astute boy, the Sri Maharajah (king) built a barricade of banana stems along the coast, which successfully trapped the attacking fish by their snouts as they leapt from the waters.
In the early 19th century, Orang Laut (sea nomads or sea gypsies) and the Chinese were among the early inhabitants of Tanjong Pagar. John Crawfurd, then second Resident of Singapore, noted the presence of an Orang Laut community during a visit to Tanjong Pagar in 1822.
Due to the favourable soil conditions and the hilly terrain in the Tanjong Pagar area, the early settlers in the first half of the 19th century were focused on agricultural activities such as gambier, nutmeg and fruit cultivation. In the 1830s and ’40s, the Europeans and the wealthy Chinese bought large plots of land in Tanjong Pagar. Some of the plantation owners included Charles Spottiswoode, Alexander Guthrie and Tan Tock Seng. These agricultural pursuits attracted men to work on the plantations as labourers. As a result, many villages began sprouting in Tanjong Pagar. The growth of predominantly Hokkien villages were seen in the Duxton and Kampong Bahru areas.
In the second half of the 19th century, the development of what eventually became Keppel Harbour provided the major impetus for the economic growth of Tanjong Pagar. With the advent of steamships in the early 1840s, and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Singapore’s trading activities flourished. The Singapore River estuary, where the early traders were settled, was too open and too small to be developed into a major port. After nearly 40 years of the founding of Singapore in 1819, there was a need for bigger port to cater to the burgeoning port activities. The natural deep harbour in Tanjong Pagar was surveyed, and wharves were built by various shipping and trading firms, which eventually saw the birth of New Harbour. New Harbour was renamed Keppel Harbour in 1900 in honour of Henry Keppel, who had first brought the channel into use as a harbour.
The first dry dock, “No. 1 Dock”, was built by William Cloughton in 1859. He was described as a master mariner who was trading between Calcutta and China. In the 1860s, wharves were built by the privately owned Tanjong Pagar Dock Company. Tanjong Pagar Road was officially opened on 2 July 1892 by then Governor of the Straits Settlements, Cecil Clementi Smith. It became one of the main thoroughfares for the transportation of goods between the docks and godowns along the Singapore River. In 1905, the government bought over the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company and formed the Tanjong Pagar Dock Board. On 1 July 1913, the Tanjong Pagar Dock Board became the Singapore Harbour Board. In 1964, the Port of Singapore Authority replaced the Singapore Harbour Board.
In the last decades of the 19th century, Tanjong Pagar became increasingly urbanised – hills such as Mount Wallich and Mount Palmer were levelled, roads improving access to town were laid, and commercial and housing properties gradually took a larger share of the landscape. Rows of two and three-storey shophouses sprang up along Duxton, Tanjong Pagar and Neil roads. The areas around Anson, Tanjong Pagar, Maxwell, Cecil, Raffles Place, Phillip and Clifford Pier formed the planning zones of the traditional Central Business District within the Downtown Core Planning Area.
Tanjong Pagar Road
Tanjong Pagar in Malay means "cape of stakes", a name which reflects its origins as a fishing village situated on a former promontory. It has been surmised that the name was inspired by the presence of kelongs (offshore palisade fishing traps constructed using wooden stakes and cross pieces) set up along the stretch of coast from the village of Tanjong Malang to what is now Taniong Pagar. It is possibly a corruption of the earlier name Tanjong Passar, a road which led from South Bridge Road to the fishing village and which appeared in G.D. Coleman's 1836 Map of the Town.
A far more picturesque account of the naming of this part of the coast emerges from the realm of local legend. According to the Malay Annals, there was a time when the villages along the coast of Singapore suffered from vicious attacks from shoals of swordfish. On the advice of a particularly astute boy, the Sri Maharajah built a barricade of banana stems along the coast, which successfully trapped the attacking fish by their snouts as they leapt from the waters.
The original name for Tanjong Pagar is also said to be Salinter, a fishing village. When the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company (1864) was formed due to the growth of shipping activities in the 1850s, wharves were built. Tanjong is "cape" and pagar means "fence" or enclosed space, i.e., wharf where ships were moored. Tanjong Pagar probably referred to the location of PSA Gate 3 near Victoria Dock. Around Tanjong Pagar were mangrove swamps which were filled in with earth from Mount Palmer and other nearby small hills for the extension of the wharves up to Telok Blangah.
Tanjong Pagar Plaza
The site of a complex of HDB flats which replaced prewar shophouses along Tanjong Pagar Road, was formerly Cheng Cheok Street after Khoo Cheng Cheok (1796-1856), believed to be the brother of rice merchant Khoo Cheng Tiong (1820-1896), who was president of the Thong Chai Medical Institution. It was once an important crossroads for traffic between the warehouses along the Singapore River and the wharves. Bullock carts and hand carts streamed through the area carrying goods from one point to the other.
Tanjong Pagar Road was known as tan jong pa kat in Hokkien, which is phonetic.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 502
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No. 57-63 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 65 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 67 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 79-83 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 85-89 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 91-95 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 97-101 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 16-20 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 22-26 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 28-32 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 34-38 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 44-50 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 52-56 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 56-58 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 60-64 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 66-70 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 72-76 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 88-92 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 92-94 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
No. 106-112 Tanjong Pagar Road, June 2021
Map from 1932 showing Gate No. 3 at the end of Tanjong Pagar Road leading to Victoria Dock and Albert Dock.
Source: https://libmaps.nus.edu.sg/
Bernam Street
Named after the river and district in Perak this street name dates from an 1898 municipal resolution to "use names of rivers and districts in the Malay Peninsula as being better adapted to the purpose [of naming streets] than the names of persons or families".
Other Malayan place names which were assigned in the same year to new streets laid out on either side of Anson Road near Tanjong Pagar included Enggor Street, Gopeng Street, Tras Street and Raub Street.
Bernam Road was also known as tan jong pa kat chin seng sha khau in Hokkien, which means "Tanjong Pagar Chin Seng hill mouth", i.e., the road on to which Chin Seng hill opens (or faces) at Tanjong Pagar. Chin Seng hill is referred to as Bukit Kim Cheng.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 52
Blair Road
Blair Road was laid in 1900 and named after John Blair (d. 1898), General Manager at the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company from 1881-1896. Specifically, Blair owned land in the area and also had a substantial house nearer to the port. He succeeded E.M. Smith (1867-1881) as manager of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company in 1881.
John Blair lived in the Spottiswoode Park area. He submitted plans in July 1895 for stables and a bathing house. In September 1895, he submitted plans for a compound house. Blair Road, like Tras Street, Amoy Street and Emerald Hill were all enclaves of the Peranakans. From the beginning of the 20th century to the 1960s, the shophouses and terrace houses in the Blair Plain area were built, upgraded and rebuilt. In the process, many of the houses were built with different architectural styles: Chinese, Malay, Peranakan (Straits Chinese), Art Deco and European design.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 57
Cantonment Road
This was the site assigned by Stamford Raffles in 1819, in his directions to Major William Farquhar, to set up barracks for the East India Company's Sepoy troops. Cantonment refers to a group of lodgings assigned to troops, hence the name of the road. British troops were "cantoned" here between 1824 and 1858. Prior to 1853, Outram Road was also part of Cantonment Road. The Chinese referred to the road as ba suo wei or pa so bue, meaning "end of Bukit Pasoh".
Raffles intended this area for hospitals, magazines, barracks of the army, houses for civil and military offices of the East India Company, as well as godowns and offices of government. In 1922, however, Raffles found that his vision for the Cantonment Plain was violated. The space reserved exclusively for public purposes was occupied by European merchants in masonry buildings.
A landmark in Cantonment Road is the Sri Manmatha Karunya Eswarar Temple, located near the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, which had its origins in the 1940s as a modest wooden shed-like structure set up to serve the large Hindu community working in and living near the shipyards. It was rebuilt in 1987.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 85
Based on old maps the section of Cantonment Road between Neil Road and New Bridge Road was laid first. This map from 1893 shows Craig Hill located between Neil Road and Yan Kit Road, and Mount Narcis located between Yan Kit Road and Tanjong Pagar Road. The chinese temple indicated in the map could be Tudi Gong Temple.
The two unnamed streets off Tanjong Pagar Road with the shophouses were Cheng Cheok Street and Cheng Tuan Street (both expunged).
Khoo Cheng Cheok (1796-1856), brother of a rice merchant named Khoo Cheng Tiong (1800-1896), one-time president of the Thong Chai Medical Institute.
Tan Cheng Tuan (1864-1902), son of Tan Kim Swee, was a Singapore-born Chinese trader and ship chandler. His firm operated under the style of Seng Teck Bee and he was also a director of the China Mutual Life Insurance Company. Cheng Tuan was an elected Municipal Commissioner for Central Ward between 1898 and 1900. He owned land in Tanjong Pagar, and built six shophouses along Tanjong Pagar Road.
The other unnamed street leading to Mount Narcis and Yan Kit Road was Narcis Street named after the Armenian diamond merchant Parsick Barsil Joaquim (1818-1872).
Source: https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/maps_building_plans/record-details/c94529d5-66c8-11e3-bb37-0050568939ad
Source: https://libmaps.nus.edu.sg/
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh
Choon Guan Street
This street was officially named in 1927 after the wealthy Chinese businessman, Lee Choon Guan (1868-1924), son of Lee Cheng Yan. Choon Guan served the colony in various official posts: he was a Justice of Peace, a Municipal Commissioner and towards the end of 1918, Chinese member of the Legislative Council. He was also a member of the Chinese Advisory Board and a committee member of Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Choon Guan was the chairman of the Chinese Commercial Bank and director of the Straits Steamship Company, South British Insurance, and several other rubber companies. He gave liberally to war charities during the First World War, as well as educational institutions such as Methodist College and the Raffles College Endowment Fund.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 109
Cook Street
This short street between Tanjong Pagar Road and Tras Street was named in 1925 after Reverend John Angus Bethune Cook (1854-1926) of the English Presbyterian Christian Mission, which was located on this street. There was some initial hesitation over the naming of this street for fear that Cook Street might be confused with Koek Street, but this was eventually overruled. Cook wrote an account of the people and the results of this missionary work in Singapore, entitles Sunny Singapore, which was published in 1907.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 124
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Craig Road
Named after Captain J Craig, a member of the Merchant Service Guild and an officer of the Zetland Lodge, a club in the early days. Known as gu chia chui kia in Hokkien, it means the "side of Kreta Ayer".
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 125
Craig Road was located next to a hill named Craig Hill later renamed to Duxton Plain.
Duxton Road/Hill/Park
Duxton Hill was formerly owned by Charles Ryan. Charles Ryan was Singapore's first postmaster but his occupation was recorded as a "store-keeper" in the Resident's Report of 1824. The hill was named after him because he owned the land in the area. He sold his estate to Hugh Syme when he left Singapore in 1827. Hugh Syme renamed the area Duxton, but there is no evidence of why the name was chosen. It is likely that the road was named after Hugh Syme's two houses called 'Duxton House' and 'Craig Hill', indicated in the 1840 maps. Despite the fact that the 1823 Raffles Plan segregated the native Asian population in the area south of the Singapore River and the White population in the area north of the Singapore River, Charles Ryan's land purchase on the south side of the river was an interesting aberration of dominant practices of ethnic segregation in early Singapore's history.
Dr J.W. Montgomerie (1797-1856), who first arrived in Singapore in 1819 and became an Assistant Surgeon in the service of the Government, bought over the 32-acre Duxton Estate in 1836. This area sits on 13 hectares of nutmeg plantation (1,800 trees). After Montgomerie's death, the property was sold at an auction in 1856 and fragmented into building lots. The area, however, is still called Duxton Hill and Duxton Road.
Duxton Road was also popularly known by the Cantonese as Jinrickshaw Place (and sometimes Kampong Ah Lai) because of the many rickshaw pullers who parked their vehicles there at the close of day due to the road's proximity to the rickshaw station. Opium and gambling dens, as well as cheap brothels, used to flourish on Duxton Road and one writer describes it as a slum area and a notoriously vice-ridden environment. The lofty and exquisitely designed shophouses along Duxton Hill used to house rich Straits Chinese.
Duxton Road was known colloquially as kampong kia nai in Hokkien, meaning "within a small village". The Chinese residents (surnames of Teo, Ho and Chng) were mainly from Hui Ann county in China. The strong clan ties of the rickshaw pullers that created territorial domains in the street led to a lot of fighting in the area. Whenever the Ho's, Teo's and Chng's in Duxton Road had disputes, the Hui Ann Association was asked to be the mediator. Duxton Road was known to the Hokkiens as zu chia chui kia, meaning "at the side of Kreta Ayer". Duxton Park extends from New Bridge Road to Yan Kit Swimming Pool.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 141
Enggor Street
This street was named after a Malayan place in 1898. Other Malayan place names which were assigned in the same year to new streets laid out on either side of Anson Road near Tanjong Pagar included Bernam Street, Tras Street and Raub Street. The Hokkiens referred to Enggor Street as chin seng sua khau, meaning "Chin Seng hill mouth".
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 154
Everton Park/Road
This road was named after one of Jose d'Almeida's houses (Everton).
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 158
On the edge of the busy Chinatown district is Everton Park, a motley collection of some of the oldest shophouses in Singapore amidst a quiet residential district. This neighbourhood is a favourite for coffee enthusiasts and serious bean lovers, and you will find various hipster cafes and retail outlets popping up amidst the more traditional sundry shops. Also popular in this area are the growing number of heritage murals and other street art.
NUS Baba House
The Peranakans are a unique mix of the Straits Malay and immigrant Chinese cultures found mostly in Malaysia and Singapore. This bright blue house is a prime example of the traditional Peranakan terrace-house, and was once the home of a Peranakan man or Baba called Wee Bin, whose descendants lived in this home for many generations. The furniture and artefacts inside are all relics from when the house was inhabited by the family, making it a genuine representation of Peranakan life and culture in Singapore in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Gopeng Street
This street was one of several in the Tanjong Pagar area officially named in 1898-99 after Malayan places. The Hokkiens referred to this street as cho su kong khau, meaning "mount of the Cho Su Kong temple". This name represented a number of streets in the Tanjong Pagar district, where the streets had no fixed names.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 179
Hoe Chiang Road
This road was named in 1929 after the Chop Hoe Chiang, the brand name of the coffee factory belonging to Lim Teck Kim (1883-1938), the proprietor of Happy Valley amusement park in Tanjong Pagar. The site of the Hoe Chiang coffee factory is now home to the St Andrew's Mission Hospital, at the junction of Hoe Chiang and Tanjong Pagar Roads.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 194
Kee Seng Street
This road was named after Cheong Kee Seng (1880-1932) who was a local businessman, auctioneer, real estate agent and a member of the first Rotary Club of Singapore. Another view of the street name is that it comes from the name of a chop (shop) loh Kee Seng (Loh Ki Sens, Loh Kie Seng) on Market Street dealing in Chinese sundry goods. The shop was owned by Yow Nan Pan (1864-1930), Cantonese community leader, born in Singapore. Educated at St Andrew's mission school, he went to Hong Kong in 1880 to be trained at the Loh Kee Seng's main office for one year.
After returning to Singapore, he assumed the position of manager of Loh Kee Seng Singapore until 1906. He was Loke Yew's agent from 1909 to 1917. He had an illustrious business career, serving as a director of the Straits Steamship Co. Ltd, co-founder of Kwong Yik Bank and a director of Lee Wah Bank. He was appointed as Justice of Peace, and a committee member of Poh Leung Kuk and the Chinese Advisory Board. He was also the co-founder of Yeung Ching School and Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 274
Lim Teck Kim Road
The road was named after Lim Teck Kim (1883-1938) in 1929. He was born in Kinmen. Besides owning pineapple estates, he operated a trade in coffee powder. He established the Lim Hoe Chiang Co., a general store which marketed the "Global Brand" coffee and W.D & H.O Wills of Bristol and London "Flag Brand" cigarettes at 250 Tanjong Pagar Road. Teck Kim was also the proprietor of Happy Valley amusement park in Tanjong Pagar.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 303
Murray Street
This street was named after Colonel Alexander Murray (1850-1910), Colonial Engineer and Surveyor-General of the Straits Settlements at the turn of the century.
Murray spent 38 years in the colonial service and retired in 1909. He served both in Ceylon and the Straits Settlements. Personally, he was known to be an amiable and kind gentleman, qualities that soon earned him wide esteem in this settlement. He had only been in Singapore just over a year when he was appointed to the command of the Singapore Volunteer Artillery, succeeding Major R. Dunman. He extended the usefulness of the corps and was responsible for the raising of the S.V. Rifles (since disbanded), the S.R.E.(V.) and the S.V.I. In 1902, he was made Lieutenant-Colonel commanding all the units and on relinquishing the command in 1905 was made a full colonel, with permission to retain his rank and to wear the uniform of the corps.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 351
Murray Street Food Alley
A row of three-story Art Deco shophouses built in 1929 and restored in 1977 by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, it comprises restaurants on the 1st floor and offices on the upper floors.
Neil Road
The former Salat Road was part of a nutmeg plantation that flourished on Duxton Hill till the late 1850s. The Malay road name was changed by the Municipal Commissioners in March 1858 in honour of one of the British heroes in the 1857 Indian Mutiny, Colonel James George Smith Neill (1810-1857) who served with the Madras Fusiliers in India. Neil Road, named after Colonel James Neill, has only one '1' in the spelling of the road name. Having being located in a plantation, the Neil Road area developed much later than the surrounding parts of Chinatown.
The Chinese used to call it goo chia chwee sia lo in Hokkien, which means the "buffalo water cart road or street".
House Number 147 Neil Road was the home of Lee Hoon Leong, who bought it in 1920 for $25,000. Mr Lee was the grandfather of Singapore's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. Lee Kuan Yew lived in the house for a few years with his grandfather and parents.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 360
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No. 74 to 80 Neil Road, December 2022
No. 56 Neil Road, December 2022
Eng Aun Tong
This three-storey building at 89 Neil Road was built by Aw Boon Haw for his new pharmaceutical factory in the early 1920s. At its peak, millions of jars of Tiger Balm were produced each month. It represented the germination of Singapore's indigenous entrepreneurship and pioneering spirit. It was later taken over by Singapore Crocodile Garments (Pte) Ltd and renamed Crocodile House before restoration in 1994.
Jinrikisha Station
The rickshaw, also known as jinrikisha (meaning “man-powered carriage” in Japanese), is a small, lightweight cart with large wheels that is pulled by a single man. Invented in Japan in 1869, the first rickshaws were imported into Singapore from Shanghai in 1880, and they quickly replaced horse-drawn carriages known as gharries as the primary mode of transportation for the masses due to their affordability. The popularity of rickshaws led to a rapid increase in the number of rickshaws in Singapore in the early years, from only 2,000 in 1883 to around 13,000 in 1893.
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In 1888, the Municipal Commission established a Jinrikisha Department to register and regularly inspect the rickshaws on the streets. Initially, the department rented houses at Beach Road, South Bridge Road and Fort Canning to carry out its work. However, the venues soon became inadequate to deal with the booming rickshaw industry, and it became necessary to erect a new building to house the department headquarters. In 1899, the Middle Road Station, a multistorey building, was constructed at the junction of Middle Road and Prinsep Street at a cost of 34,000 Straits dollars. However, the facilities at the new headquarters also could not handle the continued expansion of the rickshaw population. By 1902, the number of rickshaws had almost doubled since 1893, reaching a figure of 22,629. Hence there was a need for a new building to be constructed so as to ease the heavy load on the Middle Road Station.
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Peck Seah Street
This street was named after Seah Peck Seah, son of Seah Eu Chin and brother of Seah Liang Seah. He was the proprietor of Ho Hong Steamship Company and a partner of the Chin Huat Hin Oil Trading Company. He also served as a Justice of Peace. The Seah family was prominent in the Ngee Ann Kongsi and controlled it for many years.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 389
Seng Wong Beo Temple, 113 Peck Seah Street, April 2021
Seng Wong Beo Temple, 113 Peck Seah Street, May 2017
The humble origins of the Seng Wong Beo Temple can be traced back to 1898. It is decorated lavishly in gilded green tiles and blazing red lanterns today, but temple devotees first worshipped in a simple wooden house.
The Seng Wong Beo Temple’s fascinating history is intimately connected to the lives of its founders—Khoo Seok Wan and Reverend Swee Oi. The former was a literary scholar while the latter served as abbot at Hong San See Temple. Both admired each other’s talents and were close friends.
Khoo financed the rebuilding and inauguration of the temple in 1905. Employing artisans and imported materials from China, the temple was constructed to resemble the village temples of Southern China.
Incorporating elements of traditional Chinese architecture, the syncretic temple combined Buddhist and Taoist worship under one roof. In addition to the Provincial City God—protector of the living and patron saint of the departed—other deities such as the White Tiger General, Yama King, and Azure Dragon are also worshipped.
After the Seng Wong Beo Temple was constructed, Khoo and Swee were known to have had lively conversations about poetry and art in the backyard. For a time, the temple also served as the working premises of Swee’s disciples. The temple grounds were eventually requisitioned by the Singapore government in 1985.
An interesting historical fact lies behind the wooden tablet standing within the temple’s main prayer hall: in 1907, Tsao Ping Lung, then-Chinese Consul of Singapore, graced the temple with the gift of a personally written tablet.
Today, the temple is perhaps best known for its practice of conducting ghost marriages—requested by parents on behalf of their deceased children. Shrouded in mystery, this ancient ritual has been carried out by the temple for over a hundred years.
No. 76 Peck Seah Street, April 2021
No. 70-74 Peck Seah Street, April 2021
No. 64 Peck Seah Street, April 2021
Nanyang Khek Community Guild No. 20 Peak Seah Street
As one of Singapore’s earliest Chinese cemeteries, Qing Shan Ting was the resting place of the first batch of Chinese settlers – 31 of them whom were said to have settled on the island before Sir Stamford Raffles’ arrival in 1819.
Located in Tanjong Pagar’s Peck Seah Street, Qing Shan Ting was acquired by the British colonial government and demolished in 1907; subsequently, these Chinese pioneers were reinterred at the Hokkien Heng Suah Teng cemetery near Tiong Bahru. The land, however, was left vacant for many years.
Finally, it was decided that a clan association for the Hakka (or Khek) would be built here, to give Hakka immigrants in Singapore a venue where they could feel a sense of belonging. This led to the establishment of the Nanyang Khek Community Guild on 23 August 1929, with Mr Aw Boon-Haw as the chairman. The association promoted cultural education and took care of the well-being of the Hakka population by building schools and libraries.
Though nondescript, much thought was put into the design of this building. The bland outlook of the building conceals a functionalist-universalist impression, which is a subtle reflection of the practical and unsentimental attitude of the community it represents: the Hakka community. It is representative of Singapore’s emerging stages of modern architecture, constructed of modern reinforced concrete and metal frame windows.
While the Nanyang Khek Community Guild was initially set up to unite the Hakka immigrants in Singapore and instil a sense of belonging, many of them decided to settle down in Singapore permanently. The focus of the association’s role has since evolved with time and is now primarily focused on the preservation and promotion of traditional Chinese arts, customs and cultures, especially Hakka cuisine and music.
Spottiswoode Park Road
This road was named after the merchant, Charlie (Charles) Spottiswoode (1812-1858), who lived in this area. Together with John Connolly, he started a merchant firm in 1824 called Spottiswoode and Connolly. After John Connolly died in 1849, the company changed its name to Spottiswoode and Company the same year, with offices in the Change Alley. In 1854 there were three Spottiswoodes listed as partners in the Company: Archibald, Charles and William. Charles Spottiswoode died in Singapore on 13 June 1858 and was buried at the Christian cemetery in Fort Canning. His tombstone continues to stand sentinel in the cemetery.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 474
Tras Street
This street name dates from an 1898 municipal resolution to "use names of rivers and districts in the Malay Peninsula as being better adapted to the purpose [of naming streets] than the names of persons or families". Other Malayan place names assigned in the same year to new streets laid out on either side of Anson Road near Tanjong Pagar included Bernam Street, Enggor Street and Raub Street (expunged).
The Chinese name for this street, zu shi gong kou, takes after the temple on this street. It is known as cho su kong khau in Hokkien, which means "mouth of the Cho Su Kong temple"
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 522
No. 32 Tras Street, April 2021
No. 33 Tras Street, April 2021
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No. 64 Tras Street, April 2021
No. 66 Tras Street, April 2021
No. 78 Tras Street, April 2021
Wallich Street
This street was officially named in 1899 after the Danish botanist, Nathaniel Wallich (1785-1854), Superintendent of the Botanic Garden in Calcutta and a good friend of Sir Stamford Raffles. Wallich visited Penang and Singapore in 1822, partly for reasons of health and partly to collect botanical specimens from the region. Wallich worked for the British East India Company's Bengal medical services. During this time botany became Wallich's main passion.
In 1815, Wallich became the temporary superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Gardens and in August 1817, Wallich's post as superintendent was made permanent, a position he held until his retirement in 1846.
In Singapore, he was appointed by Raffles along with two others to serve on a committee to report on the suitability of the southern bank of the Singapore River for building European warehouses. He was responsible for setting up the first Botanical Garden on the slopes of Government Hill (later called Fort Canning) and carried out much of the early classification of Singapore's flora. He is directly related to Aubrey Wallich of Bousteads.
The hill, which was to become Mount Wallich, was allotted to Wallich by Raffles, who originally suggested that the hill should be named Daimebrog Hill after the Danish Knighthood of the Order of the Dannebrog, which had been conferred on Wallich in 1819.
From the 1820s, part of Mount Wallich was used as a Cantonese/Hakka burial ground, known as ging shan ting or "green hill-top". The graveyard was removed in 1907 when the hill was excavated to provide filling material for the Telok Ayer Reclamation Scheme. Mount Wallich was part of a ridge of four coastal hills: Scott's Hill, Mount Erskine, Mount Wallich and Mount Palmer. These four hills were repeatedly named in several maps of early Singapore.
Wallich Street was known as tan jiong pa ka seng ong kang pe in Hokkien, which means "beside the Seng Ong temple in Tanjong Pagar'
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 539
April 2021
The location of Wallich Street used to be a mount which was completely removed in 1887 to fill in Telok Ayer Bay to create the Shenton Way and Robinson Road Area.
This 1870 photograph shows a view of Telok Ayer Bay and Amoy Street. Telok Ayer Bay was an area set aside by Stamford Raffles for the Chinese community in 1822.
Yan Kit Road
This road was named after Look Yan Kit (1849-1931), a Hong Kong trained dentist who came to Singapore in 1877. Yan Kit Road was one of the few roads that were relatively safe and quiet during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was located in close proximity to Craig Road and Duxton Road, which were notorious for secret society activities.
Yan Kit's skills as a dentist earned him a wide clientele who included members of the royal family, such as Sultan Abubakar of Johore and the Raja of Solo in the Dutch East Indies. He became a wealthy landowner with about 70 houses and two rubber plantations. He was one of the founding fathers of the Kwong Wai Siew Hospital in 1910. Other than the road, the Yan Kit Swimming Pool, the oldest and smallest in Singapore, was also named after him. The Yan Kit swimming pool was opened in 1952 but is no longer in use now. The pool closed in March 2001 due to rising repair costs and dwindling usage.
The site where Yan Kit Swimming Complex stood was formerly a stretch of the old railway line. The swimming pool was surrounded by atta houses during the 1950s and 1970s in a densely populated area.
Source: Singapore Street Names 4th Edition by Victor R. Savage and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, page 553
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