Eighty years ago, on this date of 15 February 1942, the former Ford Factory witnessed the darkest chapter in Singapore’s history, when the British unconditionally surrendered to the Japanese, marking the start of Singapore’s three-and-a-half years under the Japanese Occupation.
Built in 1941, the former Ford Factory was American automobile manufacturing giant Ford Motor Company’s first full assembly car factory in Malaya as well as Southeast Asia. But by the time it was completed, the war had came to Peninsula Malaya. Although Henry Ford (1863-1947), founder of the Ford Motor Company, declined to manufacture engines for Britain at his Michigan plant, he permitted his affiliated Ford factories at Canada, South Africa, India, New Zealand and Malaya to produce military vehicles for British’s war efforts.
The first Ford car, Model N, was imported to Malaya as early as 1909. Keen in the potentially massive market in the British’s colonies, Ford Canada established a subsidiary called Ford Malaya in 1926 to focus on the marketing and sales of automobiles in Southeast Asia, where American and British cars were competing for market shares.
In Singapore, the Ford Malaya office was set up at the Dunlop House at Robinson Road. Over at Tanjong Pagar’s Enggor Street, a garage was converted into a small Ford factory for secondary assembly processes such as fitting of the wheels for Model T, one of the company’s first mass produced cars. The factory stayed for three years before it was moved to a larger warehouse at Prince Edwards Road where it engaged in the assembly of semi-knocked down vehicles. Throughout the 1930s, Ford was one of the dominant car brands in Malaya.
By the late 1930s, even with the possibility of widespread war in Southeast Asia, Ford decided to build a full assembly plant in Singapore to meet the increasing demand. In October 1941, the Art Deco-styled Ford Factory at 8½ milestone of Upper Bukit Timah Road was completed. However, barely two months after the commence of its operations, the factory was taken over by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in December 1941 to assemble fighter planes.
By then, Singapore had already came under days of air raids by the Japanese planes. The bombings lasted two months from the beginning of December 1941 to the end of January 1942, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties. The fighter planes assembled at the Ford Factory did not even have the chance to be used against the Japanese, and were instead hastily moved out of Singapore to prevent them from falling into the enemy’s hands.
The war eventually reached Singapore when the Japanese troops quietly crossed the Johor Strait and landed near Sarimbun beach on 8 February 1942. Intensive battles at several strategic locations followed, but the British was unable to defend Singapore and kept retreating to the city area.
Singapore fell barely a week later. Ford Factory was seized to be used as the Japanese Imperial Army’s temporary headquarters. On the evening of 15 February 1942, the factory’s boardroom became a historic venue in history. It was here where Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival (1887-1966), General Officer Commanding (Malaya), formally surrendered Singapore to the Japanese invaders led by Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita (1885-1946), Commanding General, 25th Army.
Japan’s annexation of Malaya and Singapore, started from 8 December 1941, took less than 100 days. The fall of Singapore, then considered the impregnable British stronghold in Southeast Asia, was largely due to inadequate war preparations, half-hearted support from Britain and defensive vulnerabilities. The commanders’ poor decisions, coupled with the troops’ low morale and insufficient supplies, also played a part.
The speed and manner in which Malaya and Singapore were defeated brought an end to the British’s prestige and reputation in the region.
Shortly after the British’s surrender, Singapore and Malaya were renamed Syonan and Malai. Under the brutal Japanese rule, the people of Malaya and Singapore suffered from constant fear and hunger. Tens of thousands were tortured and killed.
The Ford Factory, during the occupation, was handed over to Japanese automobile manufacturer Nissan for the assembly of military trucks and other vehicles used for Japan’s war efforts in the region.
After the war, the returning British regained control of Ford Factory, returning it to its owner Ford Malaya a year later. Ford Factory resumed automobile production in April 1947, and began exporting its vehicles to the Southeast Asian and South Asian markets.
Ford Factory would operate for 23 more years until 1980, when the company moved out of Singapore. By the time it shut down its assembly lines, it had produced almost 150,000 vehicles in total.
In 1997, the front building of the former factory, where the historic event took place, was returned to the state, whereas the rest of the compound was redeveloped into a private condominium. The building was then restored by the National Archives of Singapore (NAS) in 2005. On 15 February 2006, it was officially gazetted as one of Singapore’s national monuments called former Ford Factory.
On 15 February 2017, a permanent Second World War exhibition was curated and launched by NAS at Former Ford Factory. Initially called Syonan Gallery (Syonan Gallery: War and its Legacies, An Exhibition at Former Ford Factory in full), the exhibition prompted a public outcry over its name which many thought might be misinterpreted as glorifying the Japanese Occupation. After much considerations, the authorities decided to rename it as Surviving the Japanese Occupation: War and its Legacies.
Guillemard Camp was built in 1969 by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), two years after the establishment of National Service (NS). It was therefore one of the oldest SAF camps, excluding those pre-war British barracks which SAF took over in the early seventies.
Guillemard Camp was named after Guillemard Road, which in turn was named after Sir Laurence Nunns Guillemard (1862-1951), the 18th Governor of the Straits Settlements between 1920 and 1927.
Guillemard Camp was home to the 1st Battalion, Singapore Infantry Regiment (1 SIR) for more than three decades from 1969 to 2003. 1 SIR was formed in 1957 as Singapore’s first infantry battalion. With the first batch of 237 enlistees, the unit was established as Singapore was vying for self governance from the British. 1 SIR was initially housed at Ulu Pandan Camp in 1959.
During the merger with Malaysia between 1963 and 1965, 1 SIR was renamed 1st Battalion, Malaysian Infantry Regiment (1 MIR) under the command of the 4th Malaysian Infantry Brigade. It was deployed in the midst of the 1964 racial riots and also during the Konfrontasi Period, where the men were sent to patrol and defend Johor and Sabah from the Indonesian saboteurs.
When Singapore gained independence in 1965, 1 MIR was reverted to 1 SIR, and came under the newly formed SAF in 1967. A year later, it was transformed into SAF’s first full-time NS battalion and shifted from Ulu Pandan Camp to Taman Jurong Camp. In 1969, it moved to the new Guillemard Camp where it stayed for 34 years until its eventual relocation to Mandai Hill Camp in 2003.
Some significant milestones of 1 SIR include its introduction of a new set of Regimental Colours (1982), unveiling of its new Leopard emblem (1986) and participating in the search and rescue effort for the Hotel New World disaster (1986).
The first event for the national servicemen of Guillemard Camp was their participation of the SAF Day parade on 1 July 1969. Along with units from other SAF camps and also the Singapore Police Force, more than 1,200 soldiers and policemen displayed the “fighting fitness” of the armed forces in front of a 7,000-strong crowd at the Jalan Besar Stadium. This was followed by an open house at Guillemard Camp on 2 July 1969.
In the following year, in 1970, Guillemard Camp was chosen as one of the venues for the SAF Day celebrations and parades. The SAF slogan that year was “Forces for Unity”, emphasising how SAF reflected the multi-racial character of Singapore.
Due to its close proximity to the flats and schools, camp tours were often organised at Guillemard Camp in the seventies and eighties for the public to understand more about army life. The nearby residents had also gotten used to the training noises and military trucks coming out from the camp.
Guillemard Camp also made contributions to the community by helping out in gotong royong (communal work) activities. For example, in 1969, its national servicemen, along with several companies of troops from other camps, were activated in the Operation Clean-Up to clear the large amount of debris left behind by floods or choked in the drains.
In the seventies, Guillemard Camp was regularly used for passing-out parades for the Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) and National Cadet Corps (NCC).
One of the most memorable events for the soldiers of Guillemard Camp occurred in 1975, when SAF was leading an operation to control the influx of Vietnamese refugees entering Singapore. Many refugees had to be placed at several temporary locations in Singapore before they were sent to other countries such as the United States and Australia. About 100 orphans were temporarily housed at Guillemard Camp. Before their departures, the officers and men of the camp threw a party filled with sweets and songs for the delighted children.
By the nineties, there were plans to redevelop the site of Guillemard Camp for residential purposes. After 1 SIR moved out in 2003, the camp premises was left vacant for a period of time.
In 2010, it was leased to the Bengali Association of Singapore for their Durga Puja festival event, where former Singapore President S.R. Nathan was invited as the guest-of-honour. As recent as 2020, the camp was converted into a Community Recovery Facility for foreign workers recovering from Covid-19.
Finally, in 2021, an open tender was issued for the demolition of Guillemard Camp. The demolition project is expected to commence by the end of January 2022 and complete by August.
The Dakota Crescent area has seen tremendous changes in recent years. The buildings of two former neighbourhood schools Broadrick Secondary School and Maju Secondary School (built in 1968) were torn down in 2016. Then in 2020, the old Dakota Crescent Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) flats (built in 1958) made way for development of new public housing.
With Guillemard Camp expected to be gone soon, the Old Airport Road Food Centre (built in 1972) will be one of the remaining older buildings in the vicinity.
One of BlackBerry’s iconic series was BlackBerry Bold, first launched in 2008. Designed with a leather back cover, chrome curves and sleek appearance, BlackBerry Bold was the stylish and premium product that everyone, especially the professional workers, desired, even when the Apple iPhones were beginning to take the world by storm.
The BlackBerry phones camewith three distinctive features – BBM, its instant messaging service, a centre trackball for easy device navigation and the small physical qwerty keyboard, an innovative design in an era when most phones were still using 12 basic buttons for keying of numbers and letters.
Technology has since advanced so rapidly that applications and gadgets of the nineties and 2000s seem awfully outdated now. Other than Blackberry Bold, here are 16 more iconic gadgets, software and apps of the nineties and 2000s that we were once familiar with.
The list is not in any order:
1. Motorola Bravo Pager (1986-2012)
There used to be a local humour phrase of “hello, siang kar pager?” (hello, who paged me?). Pagers were first developed in the fifties but only became widely used in the eighties. Its popularity last for almost two decades until the mobile phones took over as the main telecommunication means.
Motorola had been the leader in the development and manufacturing pagers. Its line of pagers included some iconic models, such as the Dimension IV pager in 1977 and Bravo numeric pager in 1986, which became the world’s best selling pager. By the mid-nineties, the new Motorola Tango alphanumeric pager allowed users to receive text messages and emails, and reply with a standard response.
It was a common sight in Singapore in the nineties to see people with pagers clipped by the side of their pants, and they would make return calls at the coin phones when their little black boxes beeped. Creative teenagers soon began to use pagers to relay their messages using numeric codes and shorthand, such as 07734 (an upside down “Hello”), 1-177155-400 (“I miss you”) and 6000-843 (“Good bye”).
As Short Message Service (SMS) in mobile phones became popular, pagers were gradually deemed redundant. Into the 2000s, pagers were still used by doctors, military personnel and those whose jobs required standby or on-call duties. But by April 2012, pagers finally could no longer work as Sunpage, Singapore’s last paging service provider, decided to end the service.
2. CallZone and Zonephone (1991-1998)
The Singapore Telecom conducted a technical trial for its new CallZone service in 1991, using public base stations to connect to second generation cordless phones (CT2), dubbed as the Zonephones. In January 1992, the CallZone service made its debut and more than 2,500 Zonephones were quickly snapped up at $398 each.
The success prompted Singapore Telecom to install and provide a further 300 CallZone areas for its customers, increasing the total number of CallZone areas to 3,000 by the end of 1992. Zonephones, which could only be used for outgoing calls, provided a convenient way for pager users to return calls without having to reach for any public or coin phones.
But soon, the CallZone service ran into issues. The network would jam if there were too many users using their Zonephones at the same area. New cellular phones introduced in the market were also better as they could take both incoming and outgoing calls.
By 1996, the CallZone subscription rate was declining fast and Singapore Telecom began to lose money maintaining the large number of CallZones. The service as well as Zonephones eventually walked into the history in October 1998, barely seven years after their launch.
3. Nokia 8250 (2001-late 2000s)
There were hundreds of Nokia mobile phone models, and many were iconic designs, including the Nokia 8110, commonly known as the banana phone, in the late nineties.
The Nokia 8250 was another iconic one, and was arguably one of the best selling Nokia phone models in Singapore in the early 2000s. A variant of the Nokia 8210 introduced in 1999, the Nokia 8250, nicknamed the butterfly due to the shape of its centre buttons, sported a sleek and light candy bar design, and came with a cool blue backlight, customisable ringtones and screensavers.
Nokia dominated the mobile phone market for more than a decade between the nineties and 2000s. The rise of smartphones knocked out the majority of its shares in the market and its mobile phone business was eventually acquired by Microsoft in 2014.
4. 3½-Inch Floppy Disk (1982-early 2000s)
Universal Serial Bus (USB) was developed in 1996, and the first USB flash drive was invented in 1999. Singapore’s Trek 2000 International was reportedly the first company to commercialise and sell USB flash drives in the market. With relatively larger and faster storage capability, as well as easier to carry around, USB flash drives grew in popularity around the world, marking the eventual death of floppy disks.
By the early 2000s, the 3½-Inch Floppy Disks were limited as emergency boot media and for small data transfers. Many brands of personal computers began to phase out the floppy drives after 2003. But its legacy somehow lives on with the “save” button, resembling the floppy disk, used in Microsoft Office and other software.
5. Zip Disk (1994-early 2000s)
Introduced in 1994, Zip Disk became popular as a portable storage means due to its relatively higher storage capacity compared to the floppy disks. It had 100MB (later versions were 250MB and 750MB) which were useful as data files were getting larger. A Zip Drive, internal or external, connected to the computers was required to read or write the Zip Disks.
Like the floppy disks, Zip Disks fell out of flavour by the early 2000s as CDs (compact discs), USB flash drives and portable hard disk drives (HDD) with higher and faster storage capabilities started to dominate in the market.
6. Modem and Dial-up Connection (1990s-mid-2000s)
Next we move into the internet. Back in the nineties, to access the internet, one required the dial-up connection using a phone line and an analog modem. It would usually take 30 seconds to connect – with that familiar, sometimes irritating, connecting sound – and it would get disconnected whenever a phone call came in or someone needed to use the phone. Its data transfer rate of up to 56 Kbps is unimaginable in today’s context.
Dial-up connection in Singapore was later replaced by the Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) with faster data transmission in the 2000s, before the high speed fibre broadband becomes the main mode for internet access today.
7. mIRC/ICQ/MSN Messenger (mid-1990s-2000s)
Instant messaging platforms were a rage back then, with many users in the nineties and early 2000s spending hours on the computers chatting with one another.
mIRC was an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client developed for Windows in 1995. It became one of the most popular IRC clients with almost 40 million downloads. Users were able to communicate, chat and share files via IRC channels, which enjoyed its golden period from the mid-nineties to the early 2000s. After 2003, IRC, facing competition from other new types of instant messaging, saw steady decline in usage.
ICQ (name derived from “I seek you”) joined the instant messaging domain in 1996, and reached its peak in 2001 with more than 100 million users worldwide. It was one of the most popular instant messengers but its popularity gradually declined after the early 2000s and did not quite recover after that.
Microsoft’s MSN Messenger entered the scene in 1999. It soon attracted a large following in the 2000s with new features such as games, nudging of friends’ chat windows and large customised or animated emoticons. Later known as Windows Live Messenger, it released a final version in 2012 and quietly departed a year later, with the communication function in Windows replaced by Skype.
Other instant messengers included AIM (AOL Instant Messenger – launched in 1997 and ended in 2017), Yahoo! Messenger (1998-2013) and Google Talk (2005-2013).
Both IRC and ICQ continue to function as software program and app for computers and mobile phones today, but their best days were long over as the instant messaging world is currently dominated by Whatsapp, Telegram, WeChat and Facebook Messenger.
8. Netscape (1994-2008)
Netscape was one of the early widely used internet browsers, with the first Netscape Navigator launched in 1994. Netscape Navigator 3 absolutely dominated the market with 90% share in the mid-nineties, before the rise of Windows 95’s Internet Explorer (IE).
The later versions of Netscape were Netscape Communicator, Netscape 6, Netscape 7 and Netscape Browser, but they would lose out in the so-called Browser War (1995-2001), a period when new internet browsers such as Firefox, Opera, Safari as well as IE fought for market shares. Netscape eventually met its death in March 2008.
By 2017, Google Chrome was the dominant internet browser with 60% market share. IE also faded away, and was replaced by Microsoft Edge in 2020.
9. Hotmail (1996-2011)
One of the first webmail services on the internet, Hotmail was created in 1996 and, just a year later, acquired by Microsoft for $400 million. By 1999, it was the world’s largest email service provider with more than 30 million active users. Hotmail was also favoured as the first email account for many users who had just gotten on board the internet.
After 15 years, Hotmail was phased out in 2011, with Microsoft relaunching its email service as Outlook.com.
Classic Windows puzzle games Minesweeper and Solitaire were a good means in providing short entertainment breaks from work. The games were fun and simple, yet not so addictive for users to get hooked for hours. Some claimed the games were created to help Windows users to practise how to perform the click, drag and drop functions with the mouse.
Minesweeper was first released in 1990, and became popular after its bundle installation with Windows 3.1 after 1992. It lasted until the early 2010s and no longer came with the new Microsoft operating systems after Windows 7, although it is still available for download in the Microsoft Store.
Solitaire, on the other hand, was developed in 1988 and first released as part of Windows 3.0 in 1990. Like Minesweeper, Solitaire did not come with Windows 8 and subsequent versions of the Windows operating systems, but remains available at Microsoft Store.
New games such as FreeCell and Pinball were later added, but Minesweeper and Solitaire were the iconic games of the early Windows operating systems.
11. Napster (1999-2001)
Pioneering peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software Napster took the storm when it was launched in 1999, allowing users to share songs typically in MP3 format. MP3 was an audio file format that has a reasonably good file size-to-audio quality ratio. It was, back then, a period when MP3 players started to get popular.
Soon, many other P2P file-sharing software also emerged. The copyright issue for songs became a hot topic as the music industry was greatly impacted. In 2001, Napster was forced to shut down after a series of copyright infringement lawsuits and the founding company got eventually bankrupted a year later.
12. Sony Discman (mid-1990s to early 2000s)
The world’s first commercially available CD player was sold by Sony in 1982. Two years later, the Japanese company also produced the first portable CD player. Vinyl discs and cassettes were still dominant in the music industry in the eighties, but CDs had higher audio quality in digital formats.
The early Sony Discman, Sony D-5 (D-50 in foreign markets) did not have any buffering mechanism, which means songs would skip when there were impacts or vibrations to the player. Hence, CD players were not that popular until the anti-skip technology came out in the nineties.
In 1995, the ESP (electronic skip/shock protection) technology was developed. Able to store up to 10 seconds of music in the memory, it allowed smooth, uninterrupted music playback even when the player was bumped. Sony Discman thus became a hit.
In 1997, Sony rebranded their Discman to CD Walkman. By 1998, Sony had sold more than 50 million Discman globally.
13. Creative Zen Micro (mid-2000s)
If the Walkman (cassette player) and Discman (CD player) were the representative portable music players of the eighties and nineties, then the 2000s belonged to the MP3 players.
Apple’s iPod was iconic but Creative Technology’s Zen series of MP3 players were also popular and familiar gadgets to many Singaporeans. The locally bred company developed its first Zen player in 2004, participating in the so-called “MP3 player war” with Apple, Sony, Rio and others in the mid-2000s.
Zen Micro, arguably the most recognisable model in the Zen series, was introduced in November 2014 with a display screen and touch-sensitive vertical strip for easy navigation of the songs stored in the player.
Subsequent models included Zen Neeon, Zen Nano and Zen X-Fi but by 2007, Apple had moved ahead with the launch of their first generation iPhone. MP3 players’ popularity gradually declined by the late 2000s.
14. Friendster (2003-2015)
Before Facebook, there was Friendster, one of the earliest truly popular social networking websites. It was launched in 2003, and rapidly grew in the number of registered users, who could add friends, share photos and videos as well as make comments or chats. By 2008, Friendster had more than 100 million users.
But the rise of Facebook impacted Friendster and its popularity started to fade away. In 2011, Friendster switched from a social networking site to a gaming site. It lasted for four years after which its site and services were completely shut down in 2015.
15. Pioneer LD Player (1980s-late 1990s)
The Video Home System (VHS) tapes and Video Cassette Recorders (VCR) had been the most commonly used media for home videos since their industrial standardization (for the videotapes) and release (VCRs) in 1976. Then came the Digital Video Disc (DVD), with higher quality video formats, in 1995 that spelt the eventual death of VHS tapes in 2016.
Between the VHS tapes and DVDs, there was one more, almost forgotten, video media called the LaserDisc (LD). It was not fully digital and required the use of analog video signals, but nevertheless produced better video qualities than the videotapes.
First released in 1978, LD players, with Pioneer as the prominent brand, gained popularity in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore in the nineties yet never did capture the US and European markets. The popularity of LD eroded away by the late nineties, replaced by the likes of DVDs and Blu-ray discs (BD).
Home movies and television drama series are now available through digital streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+. Digital streaming services have overtaken the sales of films in DVDs and Blu-rays for the first time since 2017.
16. Teletext (1983-2013)
The Teletext was first developed by the British in the seventies. In 1983, the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) launched Teletext, the first such service in Asia, as televisions became a staple home appliance in many households (although one required a Teletext TV set to access Teletext).
Initially called SBCtext with 100 pages each on Channel 5 and Channel 8, it provided news flashes, stock prices, weather forecasts, football matches’ scores, lottery (4D and Toto) results and many other daily and updated text-based information.
However, as internet became popular and widely used by the 2000s, information was easily accessible via the computers and phones. Teletext gradually became underutilised and eventually walked into history on 30 September 2013.
What other old iconic gadgets, software and apps that you have previously used?
Today, Gillman Barracks is largely known as a visual arts hub located at a small quiet area off Alexandra Road. But it used to be a much bigger British military camp in the past.
Completed in the mid-1930s in a former area made up of forest and swamps, Gillman Barracks covered 118 acres (0.48km2) of land between Alexandra Road and Depot Road. Built on the high grounds at the west side of Mount Faber-Telok Blangah ridge, Gillman Barracks were strategically situated at Singapore’s southern part. It first housed the Middlesex Regiment and later the Loyal Regiment; both regiments were Singapore’s first two infantry battalions.
A network of roads were laid to link between various parts of the camp. These roads were Depot Road, Lock Road, Malan Road, Nek Road, Preston Road, Anzac Road, Railway Hill and Friendly Hill. Off limits to public access, the roads were under the charge of the War Department until the sixties.
Nek Road, Anzac Road, Railway Hill and Friendly Hill had since been expunged and no longer exist today.
The new camp was named after General Sir Webb Gillman (1870-1933), the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the East Command between 1931 and 1933. A distinguished artillery officer, Webb Gillman, on behalf of the British Army, visited Singapore for three months in 1927 to assess the colony’s defence requirements.
Gillman Barracks had office buildings, officers’ and sergeants’ messes, married staff quarters, swimming pool, recreation grounds, ordnance depots, warehouses and even service reservoirs. Sports events were regularly held at the camps’ facilities, such as football, rugby, swimming, boxing, hockey and cricket competitions.
In the late 1930s, the British decided to build a military hospital near Gillman Barracks to support the medical needs of the camp and other British military installations in the region. The 356-bedder British Military Hospital (present-day Alexandra Hospital) was completed in 1940.
During the Second World War, the Alexandra Road area came under attack by the Japanese. A fierce battle broke out between the barracks’ infantry regiment and the invaders for three days before the Fall of Singapore. The hospital’s staff and patients, reportedly 200 of them, were brutally massacred on 14 February 1942. The British officially surrendered to the Japanese a day later.
After the war, the British regained control of the barracks and hospital. Certain parts of Gillman Barracks were revamped with the wooden and nissen huts replaced by permanent concrete and brick buildings.
In 1948, Gillman Barracks became home for the British Royal Engineers. It lasted for more than two decades until the British army’s withdrawal from Singapore in the early seventies.
In 1950, a traffic roundabout between Alexandra Road and Ayer Rajah Road was renamed Gillman Circus after the nearby barracks. It was originally called Alexandra Circus but the Municipal Commissioners decided to rename it to ease the confusions of drivers, as there were two more roundabouts along Alexandra Road.
Gillman Barracks received its guest-of-honour when Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip (1921-2021) visited Singapore in 1959. After tours of Tengah Air Base and Blakang Mati Barracks, Prince Philip flew to Gillman Barracks in a helicopter to attend a parade and lunch with the British, Malay and Gurkha officers.
Gillman Barracks, like other British camps in Singapore, was handed over to the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) on 21 August 1971. A handover-takeover ceremony took place between the British Royal Engineers and the SAF Combat Engineers, where a one Singapore dollar symbolic token was used to mark the successful transfer.
On 10 October 1971, the SAF conducted its first parade at Gillman Barracks for the commissioning of 27 engineer officer cadets.
Interestingly, the one Singapore dollar token ceremony was also held when Gillman Barracks was handed over to the SAF Transport 13 years later. The Combat Engineers were relocating to their new camp at Jurong, whereas the transport battalion needed a temporary home. Hence, the transfer ceremony with the token tradition happened on 1 October 1984 upon the insistence by the engineers.
In 1985, the staff of nearby Gloucester Barracks shifted their workplaces to Gillman Barracks after Gloucester Barracks was taken over by the Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) for the development of the Singapore Science Park.
The British Military Hospital was transferred on 11 September 1971 to Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH), also for a symbolic token of one Singapore dollar. It was renamed Alexandra Road General Hospital and was reopened four days later, on 15 September 1971, as a civilian general hospital.
Gillman Barracks’ popular swimming pool and other sports facilities were made available to the public after the government took over them in August 1971.
The camp’s Base Ordnance Depot, along Depot Road, had been supplying the British army for decades. After the transfer of the barracks, the site of the depot was re-designated as a light industrial district.
Some of the storage facilities at the former ordnance depot were temporarily occupied by the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) before JTC moved in to build a series of flatted factories next to the retained former Gillman Barracks buildings and warehouses. Depot Lane Industrial Estate, initially known as Telok Blanglah Industrial Estate, was built by the mid-seventies.
The industrial estate became home to a number of small factories manufacturing the likes of furniture, spice, souvenirs and other products. There was even a mushroom cultivating factory at Depot Lane in the eighties. Hewlett-Packard (HP) also set up a factory at Depot Road in 1975, where it assembled HP-35, the first Singapore-made pocket calculator.
Today, several of the former Gillman Barracks storage facilities along Depot Road still exist and are currently leased out to be used as warehouses, offices and workshops. A couple of them still bear the 1936 inscription on their façades, indicating the year of their construction.
In the late seventies, public housings were developed in the area as HDB flats popped up at Depot Road (built in 1976) and the new Telok Blangah estate (1978). Markets, hawker centres and other public amenities were added.
With the exception of two old blocks (Block 113 and 114), the Depot Road flats, under the en-bloc scheme in the 2000s, were demolished and replaced by newer flats.
In the early eighties, Railway Hill, a former part of Gillman Barracks, made way for the development of Gillman Estate, later known as Gillman Heights. Under the Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) Phase III program, ten blocks with 607 five-room flats were constructed in 1984 and sold to the public.
In 1996, Gillman Heights and Pine Grove became the first HUDC estates to be privatised. Gillman Heights was collectively sold in 2009 for $548 million, and in its place stands The Interlace today.
At the eastern side of Gillman Barracks, some changes were also happening by the late eighties. The Telok Blangah Hill Park had been developed, and at the end of Depot Road was the new $12-million Central Manpower Base (CMPB), which was relocated from Tanglin Barracks in March 1989.
By the early nineties, the SAF decided to leave Gillman Barracks and return the premises to the government as state lands. The area was renamed Gillman Village in 1996 as a new lifestyle enclave filled with restaurants, cafes and pubs with a colonial and rustic setting. However, comparing to another similar concept at Dempsey Road’s Tanglin Barracks (Tanglin Village), Gillman Village did not really take off in popularity.
In 2010, Gillman Village had its name changed back to Gillman Barracks after the government planned to develop the place into a visual arts hub. A $10 million revamp saw Gillman Barracks officially launched in 2012 to become a focal point for showcasing and discussion of international and Southeast Asia arts. Homegrown galleries, cafes and restaurants were set up to attract both local and foreign art lovers and collectors.
Gillman Barracks encountered some setbacks at the beginning of its new life when several galleries closed down in the mid-2010s. But it managed to hold on and now looks forward to strengthen its visual arts hub status in the next decade, as it approaches its 100 years of existence.
Chronological Events of Gillman Barracks’ site:
1935 – Gillman Barracks was built
1936 – Ordnance depot and warehouses were added along Depot Road
1935-1942 – Gillman Barracks housed the Middlesex Regiment and Loyal Regiment
1940 – British Military Hospital was built to support Gillman Barracks
1942 – Fierce battle near Gillman Barracks between the infantry regiment and Japanese
1945 – The returning British regained control of Gillman Barracks
1948 – British Royal Engineers housed at Gillman Barracks
1959 – Prince Philip visited Gillman Barracks
1971 – Gillman Barracks handed over to the SAF for one Singapore dollar
1975 – Former ordnance depot redeveloped as part of Depot Lane Industrial Estate
1976 – Former part of Gillman Barracks (Depot Road) redeveloped as HDB estate
1982 – Former part of Gillman Barracks (Railway Hill) redeveloped as Gillman Heights
1984 – SAF Combat Engineers handed over Gillman Barracks to SAF Transport
1985 – Gloucester Barracks staff relocated to Gillman Barracks
1993 – SAF departed Gillman Barracks
1996 – Gillman Barracks was renamed Gillman Village as a lifestyle enclave
2010 – Gillman Village was renamed Gillman Barracks
2012 – Gillman Barracks launched as new visual arts hub
2013 – The Interlace condominium completed at former Gillman Heights
It used to be one of the favourite snacks for movie-goers, dating couples at the theme parks and football fans watching an exciting match. Nowadays, there are not many kacang puteh (“white nuts or beans” in Malay; other spelling variations are kacang putih and kachang puteh) vendors left in Singapore.
There is one just outside the Peace Centre though, where the humble mobile stall is manned by a husband-and-wife team since the early 2010s. They offer a wide variety of titbits to choose from – from the usual peanuts – roasted, sugared or salted – to chickpeas (kacang kuda), green peas, cashews, corns, tapioca and even murukku. The customer can choose one type of snack or mix several together. The vendor will then scoop and wrap the titbits with a piece of white paper into a conical shape that makes it easy for the customer to carry and eat. The wrapping medium in the past used to be newspapers or pages torn from old school exercise books, but they are no longer used due to hygiene concerns.
Each cone of kacang puteh is priced between $1 and $1.50, depending on the type of snacks. Back in the sixties and seventies, one could help himself with a kacang puteh treat at anything between 5c and 10c. For example, in 1977, kacang puteh typically cost 10c each. By comparison, a copy of the Sunday Times was 30c and a packet of nasi lemak cost 50c. The price of kacang puteh rose to 30c to 40c by the late eighties.
Kacang puteh vendors of the past mostly came from Tanjore, South India (present-day Thanjavur district). The daily work of a kacang puteh vendor typically started at 5am, when he would use sand to fry the peanuts to bring out the natural flavour of the nuts. This usually took three hours. Firewood used for the cooking would enhance the peanut flavour but the usage of gas became more common by the eighties. When ready, the vendor would make his way to his designated spot outside the cinema to sell his kacang puteh.
Many old kacang puteh vendors dreamt of making enough and returning to their home towns. Some made it, most did not and eventually settled in Singapore. Several, after paying for the rental, accommodation and remittance back home, could barely survive and had to take on second jobs such as the night watchman.
As time changed and the society evolved, kacang puteh vendors also faced different types of challenges. First, the supermarkets all around Singapore offer similar titbits and snacks available in bulks and at lower prices. Also, movie goers’ taste have switched to the likes of popcorns and hotdogs. Moreover, the movie industry entered a slump in the nineties, leading to the closure of many old cinemas.
Food hygiene practices and food safety standards for street hawkers also became more stringent. In 1974, the Ministry of the Environment carried out islandwide checks and inspection, resulting in 180 hawkers, including dozens of kacang puteh sellers, being warned or fined for contaminated food or operating without licenses. A parliamentary session in 1985 debated the public health issue and how the relocation of street hawkers had affected the kacang puteh and rojak sellers.
If you happen to pass by Peace Centre next time, do show your support to this fading trade. You can at the same time relive some of those good old memories with a tasty cone of kacang puteh.
Kay Poh Road is neither a busy road, nor a busybody road. It is a relatively significant minor road currently home to half a dozen condominiums. Located off River Valley Road, it, however, has a history dated back to the early 20th century.
In 1903, the Municipal Commission approved Wee Kay Poh’s request to construct two new roads between Irwell Bank Road and Jervois Road. The new roads would be named Kay Poh Road, after the requester himself, and Seow Kee Road respectively. Seow Kee Road was renamed Shanghai Road in 1915, and both roads live on till this day.
Kay Poh (The Pioneer)
Wee Kay Poh (黄继宝, 1871-undetermined) was a prominent Chinese businessman who graduated at Raffles Institution and served apprenticeship at Messrs. A. L. Johnston & Co. When he was 20 years old, he married Khoo Liang Neoh, daughter of Chinese merchant Khoo Boon Seng, whose influence and network might have helped Wee Kay Poh in starting his own business.
By 1896, the 25-year-old Wee Kay Poh had risen to become the managing partner of trading firm Chop Poh Hin Chan. In the 1900s, he advanced his career further, being appointed as the managing partner of the Singapore Opium and Liquors Farm.
Wee Kay Poh was also into properties and landownership. In 1900, he purchased a 500-acre parcel of land at Bukit Timah Road for $77,000, and acquired another land at Race Course Road for $4,900 three years later. Overall, Wee Kay Poh had owned properties at Tanjong Katong, River Valley Road, Waterloo Street and Change Alley. At 6 Kay Poh Road, he built himself a grand residence which might be where the current condominium The Montana is standing.
Wee Kay Poh’s close relationship with the colonial government also saw him invited to the King’s birthday ball every year as one of the distinguished guests. He had donated generously on several occasions, such as the erection of Queen Victoria’s memorial and the Indian famine relief fund.
Kay Poh (The Road)
At Kay Poh Road, several buildings were built along it by the 1910s; In 1917, a Kay Poh Road’s building and freehold land of about 15,000 square feet (or 1,400 square metres) were sold for $2,300.
In 1952, a mysterious murder case occurred at a house at Kay Poh Road. A 34-year-old newspaper vendor and school teacher Ho Ah Beng was shot three times in his head and stomach. There were more than 30 occupants in the house, but none witnessed the crime and murderer. The case was apparently unsolved.
In 1976, the Internal Security Department (ISD) raided a Kay Poh Road apartment and seized many illegal items such as home-made grenades and denotators, communist pamphlets, checklists and documents as well as photographs of communist terrorists’ training at the Thai-Malaysian border. The apartment had been rented and used by the factions of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) to regroup in Singapore for their new phase of subversion and terrorism.
One landmark at Kay Poh Road is the Kay Poh Road Baptist Church. The Cantonese-speaking church was established at Sophia Road in 1949, before moving to Tras Street two years later. As its members grew, the church decided to purchase a site at Kay Poh Road in 1961 where it stays till today.
Kay Poh (The Busybody)
A misnomer of Kay Poh Road is its inaccurate association with kaypoh (“busybody” in Hokkien), a word popular in Singapore and Malaysia in describing those who are nosy, like to gossip about others, or spread malicious rumours, behind one’s back.
But even kaypoh has a wrong origination. It is unknown when the mistake first occurred, but its inaccurate Chinese translation of 鸡婆 (literally “chicken woman”) has since been widely and commonly used. The pronunciation of chicken in Singapore Hokkien is kuay instead of kay. Hence, the actual correct translation of kaypoh should be 牙婆 (literally “tooth woman”).
Kaypoh, in ancient China, was one of the 三姑六婆, which means, in Chinese, nine types of women who were involved in disreputable or immoral professions, or dodgy trades (two types refer to nuns and priestesses who did not really belong to the dishonourable types but were under social discrimination then).
The kaypoh‘s job was to help wealthy men or powerful officials get their concubines, mistresses or courtesans, either through coaxes, threats or by force. This was a role widely despised by the society, and while it was eventually phased out, the word kaypoh managed to live on, with its meaning evolved from a female human trafficker to a busybody or gossipmonger.
A handsome 35m-tall tree called Purple Millettia stands along the popular Swan Lake at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. A member of the Legume family (Fabaceae), its scientific name is Callerya atropurpurea and is commonly found in Peninsular Malaysia. Its origin in Singapore, though, was once disputed.
Singapore-based English botanist and the Botanic Gardens’ first Director Henry Nicholas Ridley (1855-1956) suggested, in his 1900 Singapore’s flora, that the tree was not native. But the Singapore Herbarium stated that a specimen was collected by James Samuel Goodenough along Sungei Jurong in 1893, where the swampy area was once surrounded by primary forest. So it was unlikely anyone would have planted the tree there in the first place. James Goodenough had worked for the Botanic Gardens, collecting some 800 plant specimens in Singapore in the 1890s.
In 1889, at the west side of Swan Lake, a small plot named Lawn F was designated to plant a taxonomic group called the legumes, which included trees, shrubs and climbers of the leguminous species. This species, nevertheless, are also found at many other parts of the Gardens.
The Purple Millettia at Swan Lake is more than a century old. It was observed recently that this tree has pneumatophore roots – roots that are specialised for breathing in swampy areas. Lawn F was supposedly a swamp before its development after 1866; hence whether this Purple Millettia was originally a native wild specimen or was planted here becomes a mystery.
Evergreen throughout the entire year, the Purple Millettia trees have dome-like crowns with glossy dark green leaves and reddish purple flowers. Their brown pods are hard and thick, each containing one to two seeds.
The Purple Millettia of Swan Lake has been dedicated to the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) in 2014. The Heritage Tree Dedication Award recognises organisations and individuals who contributes to the greening of Singapore or donates at least $500,000 to the Garden City Fund.
At about 312m long, Block 34 of Whampoa West is one of the longest HDB flats in Singapore, stretching from one end along Serangoon Road to the other end near Bendemeer Road. The 12-storey block, consists of about 500 units, was completed in the early seventies and had its 99-year lease starting on 1 January 1972.
Its location was formerly home to one of the most famous mansions in Singapore in the 19th and early 20th century. Known as Whampoa House, it was a spectacular private residence built in 1840 by Hoo Ah Kay (1816-1880), a prominent and respected Chinese businessman, Legislative Council member and Consul in Singapore for China, Russia and Japan.
Hoo Ah Kay later became well-known as Whampoa, the name of his birthplace in China, and the present-day Whampoa Road, Sungei Whampoa and housing estate are named after him and his famous grand house.
Known for his generosity, Hoo Ah Kay regularly invited guests with warm hospitality to his Whampoa House for gatherings, parties and dinners. The beautiful Whampoa Gardens, fondly known as nam san fa un (南生花园 in Cantonese, named after Hoo Ah Kay’s shop), and mini zoo were also opened to the public during the Lunar New Year.
After Hoo Ah Kay’s death, Whampoa House was sold to another wealthy Chinese merchant Seah Liang Seah (1850-1925), who renamed it Bendemeer House. Bendemeer Road was named after the house, in honour of Seah Liang Seah’s contributions to the community. In the early 20th century, Chinese revolutionist Dr Sun Yat-Sen had lived in the house for a period of time during his exile from China.
After the Second World War, Bendemeer House was used to temporarily accommodate military personnel. It fell into disrepair by the sixties.
In the sixties, Singapore’s State and City Planning Office was studying several concepts to cope with an expected four million population by the turn of the century. The Ring Plan, circling the Central Catchment Area, was eventually crafted, with a series of suitable sites, including Whampoa, selected for public housing projects.
In 1964, the dilapidated house and its 30-acre site were acquired by the Singapore government for $3.8 million. After more than 120 years in existence, Bendemeer House was torn down to make way for the new housing and industrial projects, as part of the greater Kallang Basin’s development.
With the clearance of the site completed, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) proceeded to build a total of 13 flats – numbered 22 to 34. Public amenities such as a hawker centre, market, community centre and children’s playground were also added within the new housing estate.
Interestingly, Block 34 is the only one that carries the address of Whampoa West, whereas the rest of the blocks have Boon Keng Road (for Block 22) and Bendemeer Road (Block 23-33) as their addresses.
Besides Whampoa West, there are also Whampoa East, Whampoa North (expunged in 2010s) and Whampoa South. The four single-way roads were constructed in the late sixties and early seventies to link between the parallel Serangoon Road and Bendemeer Road. Whampoa East and Whampoa West are located on each side of Sungei Whampoa, whereas Whampoa North and Whampoa South run along Sungei Kallang further down the Serangoon and Bendemeer roads.
Due to its massive size and length, Block 34’s first level is a bustling place, made up of dozens of shops, from hairdressing salons, mini marts and hardware shops to popular chicken rice and Teochew cuisine restaurants. In recent years, the block is injected with new vitality as pubs and cafes moved in to form an interesting mix of old traditional businesses and new shops.
Six lift lobbies, labelled A to F, serve the block. The corridors are unblocked at the lift lobbies which means that one can walk the entire 300m stretch from one end to the other. The residents living at the highest levels can enjoy panoramic views of the Serangoon-Boon Keng area and Sungei Whampoa.
The current blue appearance of the block was painted in the early 2010s. Prior to that, it was entirely white in colour.
There are numerous curved HDB blocks in Singapore, such as Block 158/159 Hougang Street 11, Block 22 Sin Ming Road, Block 310 Jurong East Street 32, Block 157 Toa Payoh Lorong 1, Block 209 Jurong East Street 21 and Block 92 Zion Road (demolished in 2014), but none matches the length of Whampoa West’s Block 34.
The former Block 79 of Toa Payoh Central, torn down in the early 2000s, came close with a length of almost 300m.
New developments have been going on around the area in recent years. The modern Whampoa Park Connector is running along Sungei Whampoa. The old flats at the adjacent Boon Keng Road have been bulldozed and replaced by new 40-storey HDB’s Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) flats. At the opposite Towner Road and St. George’s Road, new HDB flats are also popping up. But Block 34 Whampoa West remains the iconic landmark of the vicinity.
For the first half of the 19th century, much of Singapore was covered in darkness at night. Although there were candles, oil and kerosene lamps, they were unable to illuminate large areas and were mostly confined to localised spaces such as houses and offices.
Oil Lamps
The first street lamps were apparently set up in 1824, five years after the establishment of Singapore as a trading post. Coconut oil was used for the lamps, which were lit at bridges, several major streets and important buildings. However, they were of little effect due to poor illuminance. Not only they were incapable of providing sufficient light cover at night, their dim lights instead showed the way to godowns and warehouses, where the goods were stolen by thieves under the cover of darkness.
Oil lamps gave rise to the role of lamp attendants, or lamplighters as they were fondly called. The team of lamplighters would go to every oil lamps to lit them before the night fell, and extinguish the flames during the mornings.
Gas Lamps
The industrial development rapidly changed the cities especially in the Western world. By the late 19th century, Paris streets had almost 20,000 gas lamps installed. The city’s urban planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann – his slogan was “light before all else” – helped Paris in becoming one of the world’s earliest City of Light. Meanwhile, in 1886, Härnösand of Sweden became the first European city to replace all its gas lamps with electric street lighting.
In Singapore, it was only after the establishment of the Kallang Gasworks in 1862 that piped gas could be used to supply to the gas lamps installed at the major bridges and main streets at the downtown and city areas, replacing the not-so-effective oil lamps. It was, however, a costly investment to build and maintain the underground network of gas-suppling pipes.
On 24 May 1864, during the grand celebration for Queen Victoria’s 45th Birthday, Singapore’s first gas lamps were operationalised, marking a significant milestone in the local history of street lighting. By the late 19th century, Singapore had almost 930 gas lamps of 15 candle power each, lighting up some 40 miles (64km) of streets. As for the oil lamps, not all were phased out; many still continued to be used at the less important areas where the gas supply network could not reach. Gas lamps in Singapore would last almost a century until the 1950s.
Coal were burnt in the gasworks and the gas, when combined with oxygen, produced light, heat and carbon dioxide. Although gas lamps were much brighter and reliable than the oil lamps, they were not necessarily of lower maintenance. The lamps still had to be lit every night and extinguished every morning.
So each night, the team of lamplighters, equipped with ladders, would go to the gas lamps to lit them up, one by one. A lamplighter would have to climb up the ladder, and, with one leg curled round the lamp pole, attempt to lit the lamp. They would return the next morning to extinguish the gas lamp, which was easier as they could, without using the ladder, extend a long rod with a hook to put out the light. Other than lighting up and putting out the gas lamps, the lamplighters were also required to clean the glass globes and replace the gas mantles at each lamp periodically.
The burning of coal produced massive amount of carbon monoxide and other byproducts which led to serious pollution. Hence, by the 1870s, there were debates of the advantages of the new electric street lighting compared to the traditional gas lamps.
In the 1890s, the Municipal Commission debated again whether to introduce electric street lighting into Singapore. James MacRitchie, the Municipal Engineer of Singapore from 1883 to 1895, was tasked to do a feasibility study of electrical street lighting in the colony.
The cost was a major concern, as one electric lamp cost almost three to five times more than a gas lamp. But at the same time, it was bright enough to replace three gas lamps. Electric lamps, at 100 yards (about 91m) apart, were sufficient to lit up a particular stretch of road at night. By comparison, for the same stretch of road, one gas lamp had to be installed every 30 yards, or about 27m, in order to have the same illuminance effect.
Mercury Vapour Lamps
By the late 19th century, some private companies in Singapore had already started installing their own electric lights powered by small generators. In 1905, Singapore’s electric tram system started operating; its electricity was supplied by the new power plant at MacKenzie Road, which presented a good opportunity to upgrade the street lighting. Like the gas lamps and its gasworks and piping network, the electric lamps needed to be supported by a power station and network of cables.
Hence, a large $1.5 million budget was approved by the colonial government for the new street lighting project. High pressure mercury vapour lamps – a type of gas-discharge lamp that used an electric arc through vaporized mercury to produce light – were used. In 1906, Singapore had its first electric street lighting installed at Raffles Place and Esplanade.
The early electric lamps, however, were unstable, often breaking down due to issues in the electrical supply and cables. In 1907, a shophouse at Kling Street was burnt down caused by the possible fusing of electric light wires. Blackouts were frequent.
Elsewhere in the world, Rangoon had its electrical street lighting installed in 1908. British cities, however, were still using gas lamps well into the 1920s, as their municipal governments had invested heavily in gas lighting and were reluctant to change to the newer and more efficient electric street lighting.
By the 1920s, Singapore’s increased demand in electricity meant that another power plant was needed. The St James Power Station was therefore built in 1927. In 1939, after a successful trial at East Coast Road, Clemenceau Avenue, the section between Cavanagh Road and Newton Circus, became the first road in Singapore to be installed with a set of modern electric street lighting. Costing a total of $13,000, the new mercury vapour lamps, conforming fully to the standards, replaced the road’s old gas lamps.
The rise of automobile in Singapore indirectly led to more electric street lamps installed. Gas lamps were dim, and at some roads, their poor illuminance posed a safety hazard for drivers especially at night. The plans to install electric lamps at more areas in Singapore, however, were derailed by the impending war.
The bombings and air raids during the Second World War severely damaged parts of Singapore’s electric network, throwing many areas of the island into darkness. After Japan occupied Singapore, they carried out several reconstruction programs including the installation of modern street lighting. In 1942, some 43 busy street junctions in the city had their lighting restored.
The Japanese Occupation ended in 1945, The returning British had huge tasks on their hands to rebuild the island and battle the increasing crime rate. In 1947, based on the request of the Police Commissioner to install better lighting at strategic locations, the Singapore Municipality worked out a $170,000 lighting program to replace the street lights at major roads such as Jalan Besar, Serangoon Road, Havelock Road, Victoria Street, Outram Road, New Bridge Road, Bras Basah Road and Beach Road.
By then, there were several gas lamps left in Singapore. The lamp-lighting had become a sunset industry. In 1948, a team of 25 lamplighters remained hired by the Gas Department of the Singapore Municipality. The Electricity Department, on the other hand, had five technician and a foreman to go around switching on and off the electrical lamps. No ladders or climbing were required as the switches were generally situated at the bases of the lamps. It was obvious that gas lamps would be phased out eventually.
The Singapore Municipality purchased hundreds of Class A and B high pressure mercury vapour lamps from England for installation at several main streets. The decline in the crime rate at these streets proved that the brightening of streets at night played an important part in crime fighting. A further $620,000 fund was then approved by the Municipal Commissioners for more high pressure mercury vapour lamps at Singapore’s main streets for the following four years.
At least two types of street lamps were used, made of either galvanised steel or concrete frames. Both the main frames stood vertically from the ground, whereas their lamps were overhung either perpendicularly to the frames, or had curved brackets that resembled a goose neck.
These goose-necked street lamps were a common sight in many parts of Singapore throughout the sixties and seventies. The sturdy frame design was almost maintenance free, and they can still be found at the Seletar and Dempsey areas today, although most of their lights are no longer functioning.
Sodium Vapour Lamps
In the late sixties, the Singapore government introduced the low pressure sodium vapour lamps installed at the junctions, curved roads and accident-prone locations. By the seventies, high pressure sodium vapour lamps were used for street lighting despite their higher costs.
Emitting twice as much light as the mercury vapour lamps, the sodium vapour lamps could replace the mercury vapour ones at a ratio of 2:3 in order to have the same lighting effect. This means the electricity consumption by the lamps could be reduced by a third. Hence, the Public Utility Board (PUB), in 1974, carried out the installation of high pressure sodium vapour lamps at several major roads such as Nicoll Highway, Maxwell Road, Orchard Boulevard Road, Stamford Road and Connaught Drive.
While the mercury vapour lamps gave off a bluish glow, the sodium vapour ones were more of an orangey light.
In 1974, another $48,000-worth of high pressure sodium vapour lamps were used to brighten up Changi, from Tanah Merah Road to Upper Changi Road. The accident-prone Punggol Road was installed with the same type of street lighting in 1983.
There were also variations in the design of street lamp posts; the double arm street lights were typically installed at the centre dividers of major roads to provide illuminance for opposite carriageways.
Singapore’s street lamps today are largely standardised as the octagon (cross section) type, made of the weather and corrosion resistant galvanised steel. Their heights vary between 6m and 14m, depending on factors such as the allowable height limit in the area, nearby structures and the types of trees beside the lamp posts. For example, the street lights at Tanah Merah Coast Road are of a shorter height due to planes taking off and landing at the nearby Changi Airport.
LED Lamps
After decades of usage, the high pressure sodium vapour lamps would eventually become an outdated technology. The familiar orange glow – some found it romantic, creepy for others – would be gone soon. Studies show that in general, people perceive orange-lit streets as darker – and more dangerous – than white-lit streets, but on the other hand, the orange light is more gentle to the eyes of drivers.
After the millennium, the light emitting diodes (LED) became popular. It was not a new product, being invented back in 1927. But it would only be in the 2000s when white LEDs became commercially available for residential use. And as the prices grew more competitive, it soon made its way into schools, offices and hospitals, replacing the halogen and fluorescent bulbs. Comparing to other lights, LEDs fare better in energy saving and are more lasting with less maintenance requirements – they need to be replaced only once a decade whereas sodium vapour lamps have to be changed every three years.
Most of the non-street lamps in Singapore are managed by Singapore Land Authority (SLA), Housing and Development (HDB) and National Parks Board (NParks). The street lamps at public roads, totalled 95,000, came under the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
In the early 2010s, LTA conducted a trial of 17 LED street lights at Little India’s Northumberland Road and Tekka Lane. In 2014, some 4,000 street lamps at lower-traffic 500 roads were converted to LEDs. It is expected that Singapore can save $10 million annually after all of its street lamps are retrofitted with LEDs by 2022.
In 2017, the concept of “smart” lamp posts was introduced under the Smart Nation Sensor Platform (SNSP) initiative. These street lights are fitted with sensors to detect, collect and transmit various data such as vehicular traffic, temperature and humidity.
From the oil lamps to gas lamps, and from the gas lamps to electric lights, different generations of street lighting often overlapped each other and coexisted during transition periods that could last for decades. Here is a summarised timeline of Singapore’s street lighting:
Types of Street Lighting in Singapore
Period
Oil Lamps
1824 to early 20th century
Gas Lamps
1864 to 1955
Electric Lamps (Mercury Vapour)
1906 to late 1970s
Electric Lamps (Sodium Vapour)
1969 to Present (expected to phase out by 2022)
Electric Lamps (LED)
2014 to Present
Street Lamp Trivia
Trivia 1 – Street lamps of different designs can be found at various residential estates and historic districts, such as Chinatown, to reflect their unique identities. Below are some of the different street lighting designs:
Trivia 2 – A street lamp at Tuas South Boulevard has risen to much popularity in recent years among local cycling groups. Known as Tuas Lamp Post 1, it marks the end of the long road and represents a checkpoint or milestone for many cyclists, who will paste stickers on the lamp pole to signify their achievements.
Trivia 3 – Many old lamp posts of Seletar Camp are refurbished and converted into street signage posts, reflecting the history and heritage behind this former British air base.
The kampong house that used to stand at the junction of Old Choa Chu Kang Road and Jalan Lekar was the former Lam Soon Community Centre. It has just been demolished to make way for a new Animal Quarantine Centre.
Lam Soon Community Centre was opened in the mid-sixties, shortly after Singapore’s independence, to serve the residents living in the rural vicinity. Its location was commonly known as the 13¼ milestone of Choa Chu Kang Road in the past.
The community centre’s building was constructed using the funds donated by members of the Choa Chu Kang Citizens Consultative Committee. But soon after its completion, the community centre was vandalised by a group of anti-national people who splashed red and white paints onto the walls and pavements. Offensive slogans were also drawn on the building. The deliberate act angered the committee and villagers, prompting the police to step in to investigate.
In 1971, Lam Soon Community Centre was one of the venues visited by former President Benjamin Sheares (1907-1981) as part of his islandwide tour of the People’s Association and community centres.
Like many other old community centres in Singapore, Lam Soon Community Centre was multi-functional. It conducted many courses, exhibitions, road shows and ceremonies, and even organised outings and tours to places such as Pulau Tekong, Desaru and Kukup. In the early seventies, it also held National Service (NS) send-off parties for newly enlisted recruits and their families and loved ones. During the general elections, the community centre also functioned as a polling station.
After almost three decades, the old Lam Soon Community Centre was closed in the early nineties, and the building was left abandoned and occasionally used as a storage place.
In 1994, a new Lam Soon Community Centre was set up at Block 421 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4, becoming one of the few void deck community centres in Singapore. It would continue for another 24 years before it officially walked into history in 2018, after which its role in serving the residents was replaced by the new Keat Hong Community Club.
Other than the former community centre and new animal quarantine centre, Jalan Lekar is also home to The Animal Lodge, ACRES (Animal Concerns Research and Education Society) Wildlife Rescue Centre and Qian Hu, one of Singapore’s well-known fish farms. The road currently still bears the old black font-white background street signage.
Animal quarantine centres in Singapore include the Sembawang Animal Quarantine Centre (SAQS) and Changi Animal & Plant Quarantine Station (CAPQ), which are used for inspection and quarantine of imported pets, mammals and birds. Both are managed under National Parks Board’s (NParks) Animal & Veterinary Service (AVS).
Classic Windows puzzle games Minesweeper and Solitaire were a good means in providing short entertainment breaks from work. The games were fun and simple, yet not so addictive for users to get hooked for hours. Some claimed the games were created to help Windows users to practise how to perform the click, drag and drop functions with the mouse.
A misnomer of Kay Poh Road is its inaccurate association with kaypoh (“busybody” in Hokkien), a word popular in Singapore and Malaysia in describing those who are nosy, like to gossip about others, or spread malicious rumours, behind one’s back.
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