Bukit Timah, a Misnomer?
Bukit Timah literally means ‘tin bearing hill’ in Malay. While Bukit means hill in Malay and refers to the highest point in Singapore, no tin was ever found in the area. Thus some believe that the hill was actually named after the Temak trees found everywhere in the primary forests on the hill. However to the early western surveyors, the world Temak probably sounded like Timah and was subsequently misspelt, which remains to this day.
.Spanning 25km from one end of the island to the other, Bukit Timah Road is the main arterial road that links Kranji to Orchard Road, Newton and Little India. Although the boundaries have been redrawn and new roads added, to many older Singaporeans and Bukit Timah residents, Bukit Timah is not only defined by the road but also by the other areas that surround it.
.With such a wide area to cover, no one trail will ever do justice to the rich natural and historical heritage of Bukit Timah. As such, this trail will just provide highlights of the many interesting stories and places found here.
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We started our trail at the 9th milestone of Bukit Timah near the Memories at Old Ford Factory. Here, we will relive the Battle of Bukit Timah during World War II and continue down the road all the way up till the 4th milestone where we end our trail. The milestones refer to distance markers used in early days as landmarks and reference points for the vicinity.
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^1. Memories at Old Ford Factory (WWII sites) – Originally built by Ford Motor Works in 1941 to replace their old factory at Anson Road, it was the first motor-car assembly plant in Southeast Asia. Completed just four months before 5 February 1942, it became the site for the signing of the unconditional surrender of the British Forces to the Japanese Army in the Ford Board Room.
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Located 13.5 km up Bukit Timah Road, all movements along the long stretch of road could then be easily monitored from the Ford Factory, resulting in the Japanese making the factory their military HQ and a service depot for Japanese military vehicles. It was also a place here Japanese soldiers tortured prisoners of war. After the war, car assembly work resumed until 1980 when it was bought and renamed the Hong Leong Industries Building in 1983.
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In 1997, the back of the factory was demolished to make way for a condominium while the front portion was announced to be gazetted as a national monument. However it was left unattended until 2006 when the factory was restored as the Memories at Old Ford Factory, a WWII Interpretative Centre which showcases the events leading up to the British surrender and life during the Japanese Occupation. Some of the highlights include the board room which replicates the surrender negotiations and the WWII food garden which showcases the food crops grown during the Occupation to alleviate the extreme food shortages. The factory was officially gazetted as a national monument in 2006 and is run by the National Heritage Board.
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^2. Bukit Timah Battle Site (foot of Bukit Timah Hill) - One of the fiercest military encounters during WWII took place here as the Bukit Timah area held strategic and tactical importance to the Japanese and the British.
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The various battalions and brigades stationed here all faced the onslaught of the Japanese at various points along Bukit Timah with fierce hand-to-hand combat and bayonet charges. However many volunteer soldiers on the British side were untrained and poorly equipped and suffered heavy casualties. Japanese tanks appeared for the first time on the island and were used with much brutality at Bukit Timah. It was also here that the Japanese suffered their heaviest casualties. In revenge, they massacred most of the Chinese living in a nearby village.
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Today, 2 plaques in front of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Visitors’ Centre identify the battle site as a marked historic site. Within the Nature Reserve, a series of casemates created by the Japanese to hold their ammunition can also be found.
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^3. Former Bukit Timah Fire Station – The façade of the fire station has not changed much and loos just like it did when the station was built in 1956. This was the 4th fire station built in Singapore, after the Central Fire Station at Hill Street and the ones in Geylang and Alexandra. It can house two Fire Pumpers, 2 Fire Bikes, 2 ambulances and a Light fire Attack Vehicle. The Bukit Timah Fire Station closed in April 2005 and there are currently plans by the URA for the conservation of this site. Meanwhile, its operations have moved to new premises at 80 Bukit Batok Road.
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4. Bukit Timah Hill – Represented as two hills in an 1828 map, Bukit Timah Hill stands at 163.63m and is the highest point in Singapore. It is also the heat of the first Nature Reserve on the island. Formerly a granite quarry in the 19th century and surround by vast stretches of plantation and primary rainforest, it is a place where tigers once roamed freely.
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^4a. Bukit Timah Nature Reserve – As early as 1848, a level of protection was given by the colonial government to the primary forests of Bukit Timah for fear of over-logging and depletion of timber resources. However, it was not until 1883 when the British Colonial Government of the Straits Settlements officially established Bukit Timah Nature Reserve as the first nature reserve in Singapore.
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^4b. Hindhede Nature Park – Composed mainly of granite, Bukit Timah Hill was once an active quarrying site in the mid-1900s. The three main quarries at Bukit Timah include Hindhede, Singapore and Dairy Farm Quarries. Hindhede Quarry is named after Hindhede Quarry is named after Hindhede and Company Ltd, established in 1922 by a Danish civil engineer, Jens Hindhede. In granite quarrying, dynamite charges were embedded into the granite hill to blast it into granit chips for use in the construction industry. At noon each day, a loud boom from the granite quarry would signal lunch time. The company operated the granite quarry until it ceased operations around the 1980s. A kampong stood at the foot of Bukit Timah Hill at Hindhede Drive up till the 1990s when it finally give way to luxurious bungalows. The abandoned quarry was later developed into Hindhede Nature Park by NPB and is now a popular spot with visitors who came to enjoy the quarry’s scenic beauty.
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^5. Beauty World is a stone’s throw from the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve at the 7th milestone. Although now pale in comparison to its bustling and colourful past, many old timers in the community still remember this entertainment and shopping venue that served the residents in the vicinity.
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Beauty World Centre was named as a reminder of its previous existence as an amusement park. It was called “World” to follow in the trend of naming amusement parks in Singapore as “Happy World”, “New World” and “Great World”.
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After the war, amusement business declined and it was converted into a marketplace called Beauty World Market. The market expanded with the building of Beauty World Town in 1962. Sadly, in late 70s, the market was destroyed by a fire and closed down in 1980s. Today, it is an open field and car park across the road from the present Beauty World Centre.
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After the fire of Beauty World Market, a $45 million mall along Upper Bukit Timah replaced the old open-air market in 1983. With some 200 shops, this 4-storey mall now stands across the road from the original market. In 1988, 194 individual shop owners formed the Beauty World Association and bought the entire building for close to $80 million.
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^6. Bukit Timah Plaza was opened in 1978. Built at a cost of $70 million, the 7-storey complex consisting of 4 floors of shopping sandwiched between 3 floors of parking. It was then touted as “Singapore finest ‘one-stop’ shopping centre".
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^7. Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre. In order to increase the level of hygiene as well as traffic and noise control, the government started to build hawker centres to house existing street hawkers. As such, the 140 hawkers at the Beauty World market and Bukit Timah Village market were subsequently moved to the Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre.
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^8. King Albert Park is situated at the corner of Clementi and Bukit Timah Road. Here you can find the McDoonald’s Place, the HQ of the international fast food chain. It is a popular haunt for students in the vicinity and one of the first few fast food outlets with drive-through in Singapore. This very site at 6½ miles Bukit Timah Road used to be the terminal and service depot for the Green Bus Company. Buses were first introduced in Singapore around 1930 as a replacement to trolleybus. The main operator was the colonial establishment known as Singapore Traction Company. However, the reign of the Chinese bus companies came to an end in the 1970s when the government created the Singapore Bus Service (SBS) to centralise the public transport system in Singapore.
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^9. Bukit Timah Railway Station was opened in 1915 as part of the Singapore-Kranji Railway, also known as the Singapore Government Railway. Constructed between 1900 and 1902, the line ran from the terminal at Tank Road towards Woodlands via Cuppage Road, Newton Circus, Cluny Road (where Adam Flyover is today) and finally to Bukit Timah, before proceeding to Kranji and Woodlands where it continued to Malaysia via the former Federated Malay States Railway. Before the causeway was opened in 1923, passengers had to take a ferry across the Straits of Johor to continue their train ride. In 1918, the government of the Federated Malay States purchased all the properties and lands of Singapore Railway for $4,136.000 and was renamed as the Federated Malay States Railway. Today the Malayan Railway is known as Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad, a Malaysian corporation wholly-owned by the Malaysia Government.
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In 1923, the new Tanjong Pagar terminal station was completed and the original line from Tank Road to Bukit Timah was dismantled around 7 years later due to dwindling passenger flow. Due to changes in immigration policies in 1993 when the immigration checkpoint at Tanjong Pagar was moved to Woodlands, the Bukit Timah station is now only used for crossings and there are no longer boarding of passengers or collection of cargo at this station. However, there is an interesting daily routine here where the exchanges of key tokens take place. The exchange of tokens serves as proof of authority for the train to proceed further from Bukit Timah. A worker on the train would throw the key packed in a bag to another worker in the train. These tokens would later be sent to the relevant authorities for immigration purposed. The presence of the station today is often indicated by the classic cast iron bridge spanning above Bukit Timan Road and Dunearn Road.
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The European Connection. Since the 1800s, Bukit Timah and its surrounding areas have been regarded as the perfect sanctuary and getaway for the European expatriates in Singapore. Today Bukit Timah continues to serve a strong expatriate community due to its proximity to the city, availability of private housing and the variety of international schools in the area. At the same time, the area has always been a colourful mix of European and local communities that is distinctive of Singapore’s multicultural society.
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^10. Swiss Club @36 Swiss Club Road was established as the Swiss Rifle Shooting Club of Singapore in 1871 at a valley near Balestier Road. However, after 30 years there, it was discovered that the land was actually part of famous Chinese businessman, Whampoa’s Bendemeer Estate when bullets ripped some orchids in Whampoa’s garden!
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Thus, in 1901, a new clun property was bough on Bukit Tinggi, sharing the hill with some French Missionaries. However in 1909, the clubhouse and shooting range burnt down and in 1926, a new clubhouse was built which remains to date. Swiss Club Road was built through the surrounding tapioca and coffee estate owned by Leopold Chasseriau, a French-Mauritian sugar and tapioca plantation owner well-known for employing workers of multiple nationalities. Later part of the Chasseriau Estate was bought by the Municipality for the construction of MacRitchie Reservoir.
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During the Battle of Bukit Timah, the Japanese Army occupied Bukit Tinggi and used it as their headquarters to direct the last phase of the Battle of Singapore. While many Swiss fled to Java, Australia and India during the war, a number stayed behind and continue going to the Club for its swimming pool. During the Japanese Occupation, the Swiss Club was taken over by the Japanese Army and those who remained learned to mix with the Asian population who extended their friendship freely.
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^(right) The German European School
^(centre) The Hollandse School
^(left) Canadian International School
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^11. Former Singapore Turf Club. The first race club in Singapore was founded in 1842. It was at Farrer Park where the old Race Course was renamed the Singapore Turf Club in 1824. In 1933, it moved to its new premises at the Bukit Timah Race Course. In 1999, the Turf club moved to Kranji while the Bukit Timah site was then converted into Turf City, a complex of retail, automobile market, restaurants, furniture mall and sports complex. During the Japanese Occupation, the Turf Club was converted into hospitals and military car parks. The Bukit Timah race Course also witnessed the presence of illustrious visitors like Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Princess Anne in their first visit to Singapore in 1972.
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^12. Bukit Timah Saddle Club. A remnant of the glory days of horse racing at Bukit Timah, the Bukit Timah Saddle Club continues to be located near the former Signapore Turf Club (current Turf City) off Eng Now Avenue. Established with the support of the Singapore Turf Club in 1951, Bukit Timah Saddle Club offers friendly and easy access to horse riding for all so as to ensure horse riding is affordable and accessible to Singaporeans and expatriates alike. In the 1970s, the founder of Equestrian Federation of Singapore, Captain Tabbits, established a riding section with aims to make riding available to those without horses of their own.
^13. Massjid Al-Huda. This mosque was first built in 1925 to serve the residents living in the Malay kampong near 6th Avenue off Bukit Timah Road. The wooden structure was built with donations from the residents while the land on which the mosque stands was gifted to the trustees of the mosque in 1905 by an Indian Hindu land owner, Navena Choona Narainan Chitty. The mosque was later rebuilt in 1966 and stills stands today. This old style village masjid, or mosque in Malay is one of the last remaining physical reminders of the Malay kampongs in Bukit Timah. In fact, the road on which the mosque stands was named afer a prominent and respected resident of the kampong, Pak Haji Alias. With the village resettlement, the mosque now serves workers in the Bukit Timah area and some residents nearby.
.^14. Hoon San Temple. Built in 1903, this temple located off 6th Avenue has intricate, interlocking wooden beams typical of Hokkien architecture. The temple is also admired for its complete set of 24 traditional Chinese filial piety stories depicted on wall murals. On the door of the temple is a large mural of the 8 immortals which tells the story of 8 Chinese deities. Well-known and frequently visited by the residents in the area, the temple is dedicated to a Hokkien deity, Lim Tai see, after whom the road is also named. Residents recall Chinese operas being performed on festival days at the temple. Today, the temple stands amongst an enclave of luxurious bungalow homes as the village that the temple used to serve has since been resettled. It is also a strong reminder of the presence of Hokkien community in the area.
.^15. Church of St Ignatius. Jesuit-led Catholic Church founded in 1961, the Church of St Ignatius is named after Saint Ignatius Loyola, the Spanish cleric founder of the Jesuits who died in 1556. The Jesuits are a religious order of priests, also known as the Society of Jesus. The church is dedicated to serving the Bukit Timah residents with designated Ministers and Pastoral Care representatives for different streets and estates within the area.
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^16. International Bpatist Church. In 1965, a group of American Southern Baptist missionaries living in the Holland Village area started to meet in a missionary residence at Jalan Pelangi. This church was initially known as the “Holland Road Baptist Church”. It soon grew among the international community living in the district and in 1968, it was renamed the International Baptist Church. In 1969, ithe church finished the construction of its building at King’s Road where they have been since. Today, this multinational congregation consist of over 35 different nationalists as well as local Singaporeans.
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On opposite sides of the canal near the 4th milestone point, 2 areas remain popular sites for nature lovers and nature appreciation over the years. These are the Bukit Brown Cemetery and the Singapore Botanic gardens. Bukit Brown is own of the oldest Chinese cemeteries left in Singapore.
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^17. Singapore Botanic Gardens. Sir Stamford Raffles set up the first Botanical Garden at Fort Canning in 1822.The Gardens at their presence site was founded in 1859 by an Agri-Horticultural Society, and later maintained by the government as an ornamental garden. These 32 hectares were originally the property of Chinese merchant Whampoa and was obtained by the government in exchange for land at Boat Quay where Whampoa built his Ice House.
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In 1874 when the Society was in debt, the government took over the Botanic Gardens and opened it to the public. Today the 148-year old equatorial botanical garden of 52 hectares is a star visitor attraction for tourists and locals alike.
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^18. Bukit Brown Cemetery was named after its owner, George Henry Brown, a ship-owner who arrive in Singapore in the 1840s. The area was later bought over by Ong Kew Ho, Ong Ewe Hai and Ong Chong Chew, and turned into a cemetery around the 1870s for Chinese of the Ong clan surname. In 1918-1919, a large portion of burial ground was purchased by compulsory acquisition by the Municipality for the purpose of establishing a municipal cemetery for the Chinese community as a result of active lobbying by Municipal Commissioner, Tan Kheam Hock (1862-1922). As such, when the Bukit Brown Municipal Cemetery opened in 1922, the new road leading to the cemetery was named in honour of him. The cemetery closed in1973 but has so far avoided redevelopment. It is also a popular site for nature lovers who enjoy wildlife.
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^The Chinese believe that these statues will watch over the graves of their beloved ones.
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^19. Adam Food Centre. If you are hungry in this area, head down to Adam Food Centre situated at the junction of Adam Road and Dunearn Road. It was officially opened by Mr E W Barker on 28 September 1974. The food centre has been closed for upgrading due to frequent flood at Bukit Timah Canal. The entire food centre was raised higher an lit with solar energy powered lights. You can find local favourites stalls like Teck Kee Hot and Cold dessert and Nasi Singapura which have been there since the food centre was built.
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^20. Coronation Plaza. Built in late 1970s, Coronation Plaza is a mixed development building well-known for having a petrol station on the ground floor integrated with the commercial and residential building. The building was named after Coronation Road adjacent to the building. Coronation Road, along with Empress and King’s Roads in 1905 were originally three private roads in a prominent Hokkien Chinese merchant, Choa Lam Tiong’s estate off Bukit Timah. The roads in this area were later renamed with royalty-related names in 1912 to commemorate King George V’s coronation.
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^21. Just across the road from Coronation Plaza, Serene Centre is today a family oriented shopping centre frequented by students in the area. However, during the Vietnam War (1959-1975), the building was known as Serene House and used for servicing US Army soldiers on rest leave in Singapore until 1968. Many residents of the area recall prostitutes being specially recruited and freely entering and leaving the building>There were also other such facilities off Bukit Timah Road for US Army soldier at Shelford Road, across the road from Coronation Plaza, and Newton Road during that period.
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22. Local School Clusters
One of the most distinctive qualities about Bukit Timah is the presence of an entire cluster of historically distinguished schools with long and illustrious histories.
1. Hwa Chong Institution (Bukit Timah Road)
2. Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School (Pei Hwa Avenue)
3. Methodists Girls’ School (Blackmore Drive)
4. St Margaret’s Secondary School (Farrer Road)
5. Nanyang Primary School (King’s Road)
6. Nanyang Girls’ High School (Linden Drive)
7. Raffles Girls’ Primary School (Hillcrest Road)
8. National Junior College (Hillcrest Road)
9. Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)
10. Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (Dunearn Road)
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23. Thematic Road Names in Bukit Timah:
Named after various trees or plants like Redwood Avenue and Cypress Avenue;
Named after various local fruits in Malay like Jalan Jambu, Jalan Jambu Batu and Jalan Jambu Ayer;
Named after flowers like Lotus Avenue and Lily Avenue.
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24. Malay Road Names:
Jalan Binka and Jalan Keria are named after popular malay kueh and others named after plants such as Jalan Siantan, jalan Gaharu and Jalan Pandan.
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25. Roads associated with names that are dedicated to prominent figures:
Tan Kim Cheng Road, Adam Road, Denham Close, Garlick Avenue, Shelford Road, Vanda Road.
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