For decades, the Spooner Road flats had been a small, quiet and sleepy housing estate. Largely forgotten and neglected, it seemed to be living in a world of its own.

It was only in recent years that the flats, before its demolition in early 2026, became a popular paranormal topic, where numerous content creators and urban explorers put up social media videos talking about supernatural sightings and the spookiness of the place.

The history of the place went back to the 1930s. This strip of lands, part of the railway line that ran from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands, was under the ownership of the Federated Malay States Railways (FMSR). When Tanjong Pagar Railway Station was completed in 1932, railway yards and staff quarters were built at this area to support the new railway station.

To make way for the railway’s facilities, a section of Kampong Bahru Road in the vicinity was realigned, resulting in the creation of two short roads – Spooner Road and Kampong Lama Road.

Spooner Road was named after Charles Edwin Spooner (1853-1909), the State Engineer of the Public Works Department (PWD) and the General Manager of FMSR in 1901. Spooner Road (expunged) at Kuala Lumpur and Jalan Spooner at Ipoh were also named after him.

Kampong Lama Road was expunged in the mid-eighties to make way for the development of the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE), where the old Ayer Rajah Road was upgraded to become a part of the new expressway.

Six accommodation blocks, two- and three-storey tall, were built in the 1930s at Spooner Road for the FMSR staff and their families. Named after the Malayan states, they were called Perak Flats, Johore Flats, Selangor Flats, Kedah Flats, Kelantan Flats and Pahang Flats. A Running Bungalow was also built as a rest stop, or “running house” for the train drivers and railway workers.

In the first few years after their completion, there were several unfortunate news reports of young children badly injured after accidentally falling off the upper floors of the flats. Over the years, there were also tragedies of Malayan railway workers hit by the trains and died at the tracks near Spooner Road.

In 1937, in honour of the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, a concert by Railway Youngsters was organised at Spooner Road. Railway Youngsters was an amateur sports team formed by the members of the railway staff and their families. Before and after the Second World War, they had actively participated in local football and cricket competitions.

It was reported in a 1952 news that new Malayan Railways’ flats were built at Spooner Road.

By the early seventies, the flats at Spooner Road had become largely dilapidated and dirty due to poor upkeeping. They were torn down by 1979 (no longer indicated in the 1979 map). Two new eight-storey blocks were built and completed at Spooner Road in 1983.

The two flats, in slab block design with exposed red-brick façades and aluminum window louvers along the common corridors, were like the typical Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats built in the eighties. But it was not clear whether they were built by the HDB on Malaysian lands.

Largely made up of one-, two- and three-room units, the two blocks were numbered 1 and 2. They were also called the Melati and Kemuning flats, named after flowers (melati means jasmine in Malay, and kemuning is orange jasmine).

In 2011, Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and the long railway lands between Tanjong Pajar and Woodlands were returned by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) to the Singapore government. The railway tracks and godowns were subsequently demolished, but the two flats were retained. They were then offered for rental to the lower-income households and other needy families.

The two flats were given new coats of paint in the late 2010s, turning from the classic red-brick façades to a cooler green and yellow shades.

In 2023, the 170 households at Spooner Road flats were notified of relocation. Most of the residents vacated their homes a year later. By early 2026, the flats were torn down; the history, memories and paranormal tales of this place eventually came to an end.

Published: 1 August 2026