PDF《TIONG BAHRU HERITAGE TRAIL》

1907 and 1936, other shophouses were added to the area, particularly around Sit Wah Road and Eng Hoon Street, which were once connected to each other as they reached the Outram Road junction. This link was severed when St Matthew'

s Church was built in 2006. The last of the old buildings from this early period along Eng Hoon Street was torn down in

2008 and replaced by a modern block housing a branch of Hotel 81. Did You Know? Ong Sam Leong made a fortune supplying labourers to the phosphate mines of Christmas Island (in the Indian Ocean off Java) and from timber concessions in Pahang. His sons Ong Boon Tat and Ong Peng Hock opened the New World Amusement Park at Jalan Besar. THE SINGAPORE GENERAL HOSPITAL MOVES IN What drove Tiong Bahru'

s transformation from burial ground to residential estate? The catalyst, in this case, was the relocation of the Singapore General Hospital to its present location by Outram Road in 1882. The General Hospital had moved several times before settling at Kandang Kerbau in Bukit Timah Road in 1860. But in 1873, a deadly cholera outbreak forced the hospital to move to temporary premises at Sepoy Lines by Outram Road (Sepoy Lines was where Sepoys, Indian soldiersemployedbytheBritish,wereformerly housed and stationed). This location, with its Courtesy of URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

06 07 high elevation, was considered superior to KandangKerbau'

sswampysurrounds.Arguing for the General Hospital'

s relocation, Principal Civil Medical Officer Dr H.L. Randall stated his opinion that the Sepoy Lines offered the only suitable site convenient to the town where the Hospital and Asylum could be placed, and is a most desirable one;

there is plenty of space, the ground is high and dry, admitting of easy drainage, and the situation is open to all the prevailing breezes, and the water supply is plentiful. The Legislative Council (which advised the British Governor on local laws and policies) clearly agreed with this idea, as it decided to permanently relocate the General Hospital to Sepoy Lines following another cholera outbreak in July 1878. For a time, the hospital was known as the Sepoy Lines Hospital, and even today, many Singaporeans refer to the Singapore General Hospital as Si pai poh (Hokkien for '

Sepoy Plains'

). The new hospital grounds were ready by 1882, when the sixth incarnation of the Singapore General Hospital opened at Sepoy Lines. The hospital has remained at this location since. The hospital soon expanded and added a medical college in the vicinity in 1905. Its pres- ence encouraged greater settlement in the area and over the next

40 years, a settlement of mainly wooden and attap huts grew into a village called Kampong Tiong Bahru. By the 1920s, the growing population of Kam- pong Tiong Bahru, which was on low-lying land just north of the hospital, was becoming a major cause of concern for the municipal health authorities, who felt that the area around the hospital had become too insani- tary. In 1925, Municipal Health Officer Dr P.S. Hunter, who had been requested by the Colo- nial Secretary to propose an improvement scheme for the area in early 1924, asked the Municipal Commission to take appropriate action. The Municipal Commission, which was responsible for the smooth running of the town area or municipality, then approved an improvement scheme for the area. On

30 October 1925, the Municipal Commis- sioners were informed that the improvement schemewouldentaildrainingthearea,andthat the Government would advance the money for this project at 2% interest. The Legislative Council then approved on