Chinatown's Shophouses
Chinatown Stories | Updated as of June 2019 Chinatown’s Shophouses As architectural icons reflecting Singapore’s multi-cultural influences, Chinatown’s shophouses exude timeless appeal. Chinatown’s shophouses are among its top architectural gems. The earliest shophouses in Singapore were built in the 1840s along South Bridge Road and New Bridge Road. In the century to come, these iconic buildings sprang up on almost every street of Chinatown, including Keong Saik Road, Kreta Ayer Road, Mosque Street, Pagoda Street, Smith Street, Sago Street, Temple Street, Trengganu Street, Upper Chin Chew Street, Upper Hokkien Street, Upper Nankin Street and Upper Cross Street. An important part of Singapore’s colonial heritage, they served the commercial and residential needs of the waves of Chinese immigrants who made Singapore their home. A typical shophouse is a two- or three-storey terraced unit with a commercial shop on the ground floor, and living quarters on the second and third floors. Besides residential and commercial use, they have, at various times, also functioned as government administrative offices, public clinics, schools, hotels, places of worship, cinemas and theatres. Singapore’s oldest girls’ school, St Margaret’s, first operated from a shophouse in North Bridge Road in 1842. The first Anglo-Chinese School also conducted its first class in a shophouse at 70 Amoy Street in 1886 for 13 children of Chinese merchants. Archetypical design Most shophouses feature pitched roofs, internal air wells to allow light and air into dark and narrow interiors, rear courts and open stairwells. They are joined via common party walls and five-foot-ways (sheltered walkways).
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