This particular area at the Orchard vicinity has a strong British and Irish flavour. Tiverton Road was named after a town in Devon county, southern England. Devon, also known as Devonshire, has its name bore in the adjacent Devonshire Road. Exeter Road, on the other hand, was named after a city in Devon.

More than 150 years ago, the area was part of a massive nutmeg plantation owned by Dr Thomas Oxley (1805-1886), the Surgeon of the Straits Settlement. His name gave rise to Oxley Road, while his private residences, the Killiney Bungalow and Grange House, reflected his strong connections to his native Ireland. Today’s Killiney Road, Grange Road and Dublin Road  (Killiney is a Dublin suburb) were named after them. Meanwhile, Lloyd Road, could be named after Henry Lloyd, who managed Thomas Oxley’s estate after the latter’s return to Britain in 1857.

By the late 19th century, double-storey terrace houses and shophouses were built at Tiverton Lane. Some of the terrace houses had their facades built in a zigzag manner, an unique style in the design of early local shophouses. Leong Man Sau, a well-know timber merchant in the early 20th century, had lived at one of these Tiverton Lane’s terrace houses. Also serving as the Justice of Peace and member of the Municipal Council and Chinese Advisory Board, he died of tetanus infection in his home in 1916, at an age of 50.

In the 1920s, a terrace house at Tiverton Lane would cost around $9,000. It rose to $24,000 in the fifties. By the early seventies, when the Tiverton Lane residents were ordered to evict their homes to make way for the construction of a new Communication Centre (Comcentre), a Tiverton Lane terrace house would cost $150,000 in market values.

In the 1950s, Tiverton Lane was also home to the Singapore Cantonese Women’s Mutual Help Society, Singapore’s only amahs‘ association that was set up to provide help and care for amahs. Amahs were helpers, typically Chinese Cantonese women, employed by rich families in the past to clean the house, look after children and perform domestic tasks.

In 1971, to cope with the demands of the rapidly growing number of telephone users, the government decided to build a new $58-million Communication Centre (Comcentre) at Tiverton Lane, functioning as the headquarters of the Singapore Telephone Board (STB) after its merger with the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore (TAS).

Hence, the residents of Tiverton Lane were told to look for other alternatives while they would be compensated for their properties. By the mid-seventies, the residents had moved and their houses demolished, paving way for the piling works to commence. The Exeter Road Market and Zion Church, situated between Exeter Road and Tiverton Lane, were also affected. The market, established since 1953, was torn down in 1977 and its hawkers were resettled at a new market at Ghim Moh.

The 32-storey Comcentre, after its completion in 1980, became the new landmark in the vicinity. Further land bounded by Tiverton Lane, Devonshire Road and Killiney Road were acquired in 1982 for the construction of an extension for Comcentre.

The remaining shophouses at Tiverton Lane, made up of furniture stores, tailor shops and popular beef rendang and seafood eateries, were subsequently demolished. By the late eighties, the one-way Tiverton Lane was expunged and officially walked into history.

Today, all that was left of Tiverton Lane is an old street signage pinned at the back entrance of Comcentre.

Published: 20 April 2020