Toa Payoh Heritage Trail
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The Toa Payoh Heritage Trail is part of the National Heritage Board’s ongoing efforts to » DISCOVER OUR SHARED HERITAGE document and present the history and social memories of places in Singapore. Jointly presented by the National Heritage Board and Toa Payoh Central Community Club, we hope this trail will bring back fond memories for those who have worked, lived or TOA PAYOH played in the area, and serve as a useful source of information for new residents and visitors. HERITAGE TRAIL Toa Payoh Central Citizens’ Consultative Committee » CONTENTS » AREA MAP Toa Payoh in the 19th Century p. 2 TOA PAYOH Big Swamps and Smaller Relations: Naming Toa Payoh Early History & Mapping HERITAGE TRAIL Life on the Plantations Smallholder Plantations Burial Grounds in Toa Payoh Temples and Villages: The Kampong Era p. 8 1. ChURCH OF THE RISEN CHRIST Cottage Industries in Toa Payoh Kampong Life Gangs of Toa Payoh 2. 1973 SEAP GAMES VILLAGE The Gotong-Royong Spirit 9 Twilight of the Kampongs p. 17 3. CHUNG HWA MEDICAL INSTITUTION Resistance and Resolution How to Build a Singapore Town p. 22 4. TOA PAYOH TOWN PARK Industry in Toa Payoh Neighbourhoods & Memories p. 28 5. TOA PAYOH DRAGON PLAYGROUND Tree Shrine at Block 177 8 1973 SEAP Games Village 6. LIAN SHAN SHUANG LIN MONASTERY Entertainment in Toa Payoh Toa Payoh Town Park Heritage Trees of Toa Payoh 7. SRI VAIRAVIMADA KALIAMMAN TEMPLE Toa Payoh Sports Complex 7 Storied Neighbourhoods 8. UNITED TEMPLE Religious, Community and Healthcare Institutions p. 44 Masjid Muhajirin 9. MASJID MUHAJIRIN 3 5 United Temple Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery 4 6 Sri Vairavimada Kaliamman Temple Church of the Risen Christ Toa Payoh Methodist Church Chung Hwa Medical Institution Mount Alvernia Hospital MARKED HERITAGE SITE Former Toa Payoh Hospital SIA-NKF Dialysis Centre TRAIL ROUTE Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home Grave Hill p. 59 Dragon Playground p. 60 Bibliography and Credits p. 62 Guide to Marked Sites p. 64 1 INTRODUCTION n the surface of things, Toa Payoh seems mosque to be constructed under the Mosque an entirely typical Singapore town. Building Fund (MBF), among other firsts. OWhat differentiates it from nearby Ang Mo Kio, or Tampines to the east? Beneath the veneers of recent history and the lists of institutional milestones however, Indeed, as the first town designed and the stories of life in Toa Payoh run deep. developed entirely by the Housing & From the earliest settlers, plantation owners Development Board (HDB), Toa Payoh is the and workers in the 19th century struggling archetypical granddaddy of all public housing to clear vast swathes of swampland, to the towns in Singapore. Providing a proving ground kampong residents who followed in their for the budding culture and social architecture wake and later the first generation of flat of public housing from the 1960s, as well as dwellers, the theme has been one of pioneer the community institutions that have since lives and hardworking occupations. become ubiquitous, Toa Payoh may well be the quintessential modern Singapore town. This trail booklet explores the history of Toa Payoh as well as sites of significant heritage Fittingly, the list of Singapore ‘firsts’ pioneered interest that can be enjoyed today. At the in Toa Payoh is a long one: first Residents’ back of the booklet, you will find a trail map Association (a ground-up effort that preceded that marks nine sites with storied heritages the Residents’ Committees of today), first and the numerous community memories town to employ the neighbourhood police associated with it. The map provides an post system, first cooperative supermarket in accessible way of touring Toa Payoh, and the Singapore (NTUC Welcome, the forerunner trail text also suggests additional places of of today’s NTUC Fairprice), first Mass Rapid interest. Enjoy exploring Toa Payoh through Transit (MRT) station to be built and first this heritage trail! 2 » OUR HERITAGE TOA PAYOH IN THE 19TH CENTURY BIG SWAMPS AND SMALLER RELATIONS: A 1849 article from The Singapore Free Press NAMING TOA PAYOH newspaper sheds more light on the name of Toa Payoh. It stated: he name Toa Payoh has long been accepted to mean ‘big swamp’, from “In marshy or muddy places, where the erection of a Tthe words toa (big in the Hokkien and Teochew dialects) and payoh (a loanword from regular path would be impossible or very expensive, the Malay word for swamp, paya). the Chinese cut large trees which they throw into the marsh or mud in order to form an imperfect Writing in the Journal of the Straits Branch of path. Such a path is then called Pyoh, to which the the Royal Asiatic Society in 1889, H. T. Haughton word Toah, long or large, or Kyjah or Soeh, small or noted this particular origin of the name and it little, is put to distinguish it from others situated in has been the most commonly cited one since. the same district.” As early as 1848, an article by Seah Eu Chin in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern The article goes on to mention Toah Pyoh Asia established that the word payo was used by Penkang, an area near Jurong, and Toah Pyoh the Chinese to describe swampy or marshy land. Lye Pandang, in present-day Bukit Timah. EARLY HISTORY & MAPPING Plan of Singapore Town by John Turnbull Thomson, 1846. Toa Payoh is labelled ‘District of Toah Pyoh Chui Kow’, and ‘Toah Pyoh Lye’ is to its west. 3 Chinese Cemetery Grave Hill This map of Singapore from 1924 shows inhabited areas, burial grounds and hills in Toa Payoh, including Grave Hill. In the first few decades after Sir Stamford Raffles’ landing in 1819, development was largely John Turnbull Thomson (b. 21 August 1821, concentrated around Singapore city and the Glororum Farm, Northumberland – d. 16 October coastal areas. The interior of the island, of which 1884, Invercargill, New Zealand) Toa Payoh was considered a part, remained mostly forest, swampland and hills until opened The first major road to run through Toa Payoh, up by plantation expansion. neatly bisecting the district in the 19th century, was Thomson Road. Completed by colonial On a 1842 map of Singapore, Toa Payoh is still engineer and surveyor John Turnbull Thomson mainly forest and swamp, with a few scattered in 1853 and named after him, Thomson Road is plots of cleared land (likely plantations) in the today the western boundary of Toa Payoh. In the past, the road was known colloquially by these north and south of the district. The area, spelt names: Toah Pyoh, covers a much greater expanse than present-day Toa Payoh, stretching into what is Chia chui kang (Hokkien: freshwater stream, a now Bishan in the north, Caldecott and Bukit possible reference to the nearby Kallang River) Brown in the west, Potong Pasir and Bidadari in Thanir pilei sadakku (Tamil: water pipe street, a the east and right up to Novena in the south. possible reference to the MacRitchie Reservoir) Ang kio tau (Hokkien: head of the red bridge, a The area to the west, present-day Bukit Timah, reference to the bridge connecting Thomson Road is labelled Toah Pyoh Lye for its proximity to Toa and Kampong Java Road), Payoh, lye being the Hokkien word for ‘come’. Hai nan sua (Hokkien: Hainan Hill, the old Hainanese Another map, from 1846 names the district burial ground at the 5th milestone of Thomson Road) Toah Pyoh Chui Kow, and shows large tracts Mi sua keng (Hokkien: vermicelli buildings) of forest where Toa Payoh Town Park and the Pek san teng (Cantonese: a reference to the Kwong northern part of Balestier now are. Wai Siew Peck San Theng cemetery) 4 As government surveyor and chief engineer Poh (b. 1830 – d. 1879) and Wee Kim Yam for the Straits Settlements between 1841 and (b. 1855 – d. 1914), the eldest son of Teochew 1853, Thomson oversaw the expansion of the plantation owner Wee Ah Hood. Wee Bin (b. road network into Singapore’s interior, greatly 1823 – d. 1868), the trader and owner of a fleet facilitating the opening up of the island’s forested, of steamships, also owned land in the district undeveloped core. and his family’s legacy remains in the form of Growing up in the United Kingdom, Thomson was Boon Teck Road, named after Wee Bin’s son roused by the tales of his schoolmates, the sons Boon Teck. of British planters who owned large estates in Penang. After completing a course in mathematics One European with holdings in Toa Payoh was at Aberdeen University, the 16-year-old Thomson Abraham Logan (b. 1816 – d. 1873), lawyer and headed for Penang to survey the estates of Brown, owner and editor of The Singapore Free Press, Scott & Co. There he learnt Malay and Hindi, while Elizabeth George (b. 1797 – d. 1858), the and at the age of 20 was appointed government Eurasian daughter of William Farquhar, the first surveyor to Singapore. Resident of colonial Singapore, owned more than 180 acres of land in Toa Payoh. During his 12-year career in Singapore, Thomson oversaw the construction of buildings (including Most of the privately held land in Toa Payoh in the tower and spire of St Andrew’s Cathedral, the original Tan Tock Seng Hospital on Pearl’s Hill the 19th century was cultivated for plantations, and Horsburgh Lighthouse), bridges (including primarily gambier and pepper. An 1855 report Kallang Bridge and Kandang Kerbau Bridge) and by the Municipal Committee showed that there roads (including the Jurong, Changi and Bukit were 15 clearings in Toa Payoh at the time, on Timah Roads). which were planted 355,000 gambier trees, 38,800 pepper vines and 2,190 nutmeg trees.