TIONG BAHRU HERITAGE TRAIL Courtesy of Mandy Lee
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02 03 » our heritage TIONG BAHRU HERITAGE TRAIL COURTESY OF MANDY LEE iong Bahru Road today stretches for Bahru was once dotted by graves. less quagmire, over which it is useless to attempt Emergency facilities. In 1875, Municipal Engi- more than three kilometres from to pass with a vehicle of any description.” The first neer WT Carrington, reporting on The Present Redhill MRT at its western end to appearance of Tiong Bahru Road on a map was Burial Grounds Within Three Miles Radius of T Outram Road on its eastern end. For Did You Know? in 1913. Before that, the road had been named the Cathedral of Singapore, noted that the most Singaporeans, Tiong Bahru is a small, Tiong Bahru estate, as well as the grounds of Burial Ground Road as it led from Outram Road Old Chinese Burial Ground, known as ‘Teong charming and chic housing estate awash with the Singapore General Hospital and a great deal into an area surrounded by numerous Chinese Lama’, was located alongside the road to New good eateries and eclectic little shops. But of the land along Tiong Bahru Road all the way burial grounds. Harbour (Keppel Harbour). He reported: there is much more to Tiong Bahru than meets to Leng Kee Road, was once part of a sprawling the eye, as this heritage trail and its marked Chinese cemetery. Tang Beng Swee and others are the Trustees. sites show. FROM TEONG LAMA TO This extensive ground of 29 acres has been TIONG BAHRU closed about 16 years. It is well taken care of. The familiar Art Deco buildings we see today WHAT’S IN A NAME? People were probably using the name ‘Tiong It has its joss houses and priests. The ground were built in the 1930s, when Tiong Bahru It is not clear when the name ‘Tiong Bahru’ first Bahru’ long before it appeared in published is in good order and is on undulating clay and estate was developed as one of the first came into use. The name first appeared in a sources, going by the etymological roots of laterite hills. public housing programmes of the Singapore newspaper report from 13 June 1863 in The the term. ‘Tiong Bahru’ combines two words: Improvement Trust (the colonial predecessor Straits Times, which mentioned Tiong Bahru in ‘Tiong’ (终), meaning ‘to die’ (verb) or ‘in the Carrington went on to add that the new to the HDB). These 50 or so blocks of low-rise connection with an assault on one Tan Kung, a end’ (adverb) in the Hokkien dialect, and the Chinese Burial Ground or ‘Teong Baru’ had apartments and shophouses were originally grass cutter who lived there. The report, which Malay word ‘bahru’ (also spelt ‘baru’), which been in use for 16 years (since 1859) and meant to house residents from overcrowded spelt the place as ‘Tiang Bahru’, did not clarify means ‘new’. Tiong Bahru would hence be parts in Chinatown. whether Tan Kung lived in a village or settle- used by locals to refer to a ‘new’ cemetery as … was evidently made as an extension of the ment called Tiong Bahru or in a house along opposed to an old cemetery. ‘Teong Lama’, and like that, it is on undu- Take a stroll through Tiong Bahru today and Tiong Bahru Road. lating hills of clay and laterite. There is plenty spend some time to admire its unique architec- Where was this old cemetery? Teong Lama, of ground to spare for burials for the next ten ture, pleasing layout and experience the charm Tiong Bahru Road was first mentioned in The literally ‘Old Cemetery’, was located at what years. The graves are made five to six feet deep. of its human scale. Tiong Bahru has become Straits Times on 12 February 1870, in a report on is now the site of the Singapore General About 500 bodies per year are buried here. one of Singapore’s most sought-after residen- a number of local roads that were ‘all but impass- Hospital, in the section bordered by College tial addresses but it also has a very interesting able’. The report stated: “The Tiong Bahru road Road, Hospital Drive and Kampong Bahru past. In fact, much of the area around Tiong has ceased to be a thoroughfare, and is a hope- Drive, which includes the present Accident and 04 05 TY I OR H AUT MENT P ELO V REDE AN B UR COURTESY OF The cemeteries and its temple (the ‘joss house’ tion of the Seng Poh Road Market. Heng San At the Henderson Road junction, there was 2008 and replaced by a modern block housing referred to by the British) were known to the Teng was unfortunately destroyed by a fire in also a rubber plantation and rubber processing a branch of Hotel 81. Chinese as the Heng San Teng Burial Ground May 1992, along with all its temple records. factory called the Sungei Batu Rubber Factory, and was established in 1828 by See Hood Kee which was managed by a man named Poey (also spelt ‘See Hoot Kee’, ‘Si Hoo Keh’, ‘Sit Hoot Keng Seng, who had a house near the factory. Did You Know? Kee’ or ‘Si Hood Kee’), a Malacca-born Peranakan Did You Know? There were also palatial bungalows commis- Ong Sam Leong made a fortune supplying businessman and community leader. See (1793– Tan Kim Seng, the father of Tan Beng Swee, sioned by well-known businessman Ong Sam labourers to the phosphate mines of Christmas 1847) was, at the time, the wealthiest Hokkien was a generous and charitable man. In 1857, Leong (1857–1918), who built an enormous Island (in the Indian Ocean off Java) and from leader in Singapore. He helped to found the he contributed $13,000 toward the building house in Tiong Bahru in 1905. His son-in-law timber concessions in Pahang. His sons Ong Thian Hock Keng Temple in Amoy Street in of Singapore’s first municipal reservoir and Puey Yean Chuan did likewise. Boon Tat and Ong Peng Hock opened the New 1839 and also served as President of the Cheng waterworks. For this act, he was honoured by a World Amusement Park at Jalan Besar. Hoon Teng Temple in Malacca. Tan Beng Swee fountain placed at Fullerton Square in 1882. The The other cluster of buildings, situated at the (1828–1884), who was listed as one of the trus- Tan Kim Seng Fountain was moved to Esplanade junction of Outram Road, was first developed tees of the cemetery and temple in 1875, was Park in 1925. around 1905 when Wee Kay Siang (1858– THE SINGAPORE GENERAL HOSPITAL the famous son of Tan Kim Seng (1805–1864), 1925), a prominent businessman after whom MOVES IN a Malacca-born Peranakan merchant. Kay Siang Road off Tanglin Road was named, What drove Tiong Bahru’s transformation EARLY SETTLEMENT IN built three shophouses along Sit Wah Road. In from burial ground to residential estate? The The temple, known as Heng San Teng, was TIONG BAHRU 1907, See Ewe Boon, a banker who died in 1909, catalyst, in this case, was the relocation of dedicated to Tua Pek Kong (literally ‘Grand Old Before the early 20th century, the area around also built shophouses along Sit Wah Road, but the Singapore General Hospital to its present Man’), a deity widely worshipped in Southeast the present Tiong Bahru was largely unde- nearer to the Outram Road junction. Between location by Outram Road in 1882. The General Asia for protection against storms and other veloped. Most of the land along the length 1907 and 1936, other shophouses were added Hospital had moved several times before disasters. It was originally built to serve the of Tiong Bahru Road was used as farmland to the area, particularly around Sit Wah settling at Kandang Kerbau in Bukit Timah old cemetery (Teong Lama) and was the main or cemeteries. After the turn of the century, Road and Eng Hoon Street, which were once Road in 1860. But in 1873, a deadly cholera gathering place for the Hokkien community some enterprising businessmen began to build connected to each other as they reached the outbreak forced the hospital to move to until the establishment of the Thian Hock Keng houses and shophouses along the road, with Outram Road junction. This link was severed temporary premises at Sepoy Lines by Outram Temple. Hood Kee Street, which ran parallel to one cluster at the junction of Tiong Bahru and when St Matthew’s Church was built in 2006. Road (Sepoy Lines was where Sepoys, Indian Kim Ching Street, was named after See. Both Henderson Roads, and a second cluster at what The last of the old buildings from this early soldiers employed by the British, were formerly these streets were obliterated by the construc- is now Tiong Bahru estate. period along Eng Hoon Street was torn down in housed and stationed). This location, with its 06 07 high elevation, was considered superior to hospital has remained at this location since. scheme would entail draining the area, and that point in the area. Mount Farquhar and Mount Kandang Kerbau’s swampy surrounds. Arguing The hospital soon expanded and added a the Government would advance the money D’Anguilla – which peaked at 32.7 metres and for the General Hospital’s relocation, Principal medical college in the vicinity in 1905. Its pres- for this project at 2% interest. The Legislative 24.6 metres respectively – became the site Civil Medical Officer Dr H.L. Randall stated his ence encouraged greater settlement in the Council then approved on 1 February 1926 a for the Singapore General Hospital but their opinion that the Sepoy Lines offered “the only area and over the next 40 years, a settlement five-year loan of $250,000 at 2% interest to names have been lost to history.