PDF《TIONG BAHRU HERITAGE TRAIL》

03

02 T iong Bahru Road today stretches for more than three kilometres from Redhill MRT at its western end to Outram Road on its eastern end.

For most Singaporeans, Tiong Bahru is a small, charming and chic housing estate awash with good eateries and eclectic little shops. But there is much more to Tiong Bahru than meets the eye, as this heritage trail and its marked sites show. The familiar Art Deco buildings we see today were built in the 1930s, when Tiong Bahru estate was developed as one of the first public housing programmes of the Singapore Improvement Trust (the colonial predecessor to the HDB). These

50 or so blocks of low-rise apartments and shophouses were originally meant to house residents from overcrowded parts in Chinatown. Take a stroll through Tiong Bahru today and spend some time to admire its unique architec- ture, pleasing layout and experience the charm of its human scale. Tiong Bahru has become one of Singapore'

s most sought-after residen- tial addresses but it also has a very interesting past. In fact, much of the area around Tiong Bahru was once dotted by graves. Did You Know? Tiong Bahru estate, as well as the grounds of the Singapore General Hospital and a great deal of the land along Tiong Bahru Road all the way to Leng Kee Road, was once part of a sprawling Chinese cemetery. WHAT'

S IN A NAME? It is not clear when the name '

Tiong Bahru'

first came into use. The name first appeared in a newspaper report from

13 June

1863 in The Straits Times, which mentioned Tiong Bahru in connection with an assault on one Tan Kung, a grass cutter who lived there. The report, which spelt the place as '

Tiang Bahru'

, did not clarify whether Tan Kung lived in a village or settle- ment called Tiong Bahru or in a house along Tiong Bahru Road. Tiong Bahru Road was first mentioned in The StraitsTimeson12February1870,inareporton anumberoflocalroadsthatwere'

allbutimpass- able'

. The report stated: The Tiong Bahru road has ceased to be a thoroughfare, and is a hope- lessquagmire,overwhichitisuselesstoattempt topasswithavehicleofanydescription. Thefirst appearance of Tiong Bahru Road on a map was in 1913. Before that, the road had been named Burial Ground Road as it led from Outram Road into an area surrounded by numerous Chinese burialgrounds. FROM TEONG LAMA TO TIONG BAHRU People were probably using the name '

Tiong Bahru'

long before it appeared in published sources, going by the etymological roots of the term. '

Tiong Bahru'

combines two words: '

Tiong'

(终), meaning '

to die'

(verb) or '

in the end'

(adverb) in the Hokkien dialect, and the Malay word '

bahru'

(also spelt '

baru'

), which means '

new'

. Tiong Bahru would hence be used by locals to refer to a '

new'

cemetery as opposed to an old cemetery. Where was this old cemetery? Teong Lama, literally '

Old Cemetery'

, was located at what is now the site of the Singapore General Hospital, in the section bordered by College Road, Hospital Drive and Kampong Bahru Drive,whichincludesthepresentAccidentand Emergency facilities. In 1875, Municipal Engi- neer WT Carrington, reporting on The Present Burial Grounds Within Three Miles Radius of the Cathedral of Singapore, noted that the Old Chinese Burial Ground, known as '

Teong Lama'

, was located alongside the road to New Harbour (Keppel Harbour). He reported: Tang Beng Swee and others are the Trustees. This extensive ground of