Dove Playground

The oldest brick SIT flats are bound for demolition, hidden in the estate of Dakota Crescent are the Dove theme playground of yesteryear had been around since 1979 it features a concrete Dove with a metal bridge link to a pyramid structure with old school tyre swings suspend under it. In 2016 the estate was up for en bloc redevelopment and the tenant had moved out but words are out that the government will keep the playground, but for the time being their fate are in a limbo, For goodness sake please let the playground had a new lease of lives just conserve it.

Tampines Central Park

Located in the Tampines Central Park are two fruits theme playground and they are the Watermelon and Mangosteen Playground were the brainchild of HDB architect during 1980 and is connected by a footpath to Our Tampines Hub. There are also two other modern has platforms with slide and together with an exercise station and a fenced-off dog runs.

Place of Worship - Buddhist

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum is a Buddhist temple complex built in the heart of Chinatown and built based the architectural style of the Tang Dynasty to house the tooth relic of  Buddha. The basement of temple holds a theatre and vegetarian dining hall which serve complimentary meals funded though donations are accepted.

Chasing the Dragons

One of the early playground design by HDB was the Dragon Playground located at Lorong 6 Toa Payoh two other smaller playground also of Dragon Theme is found one in Braddell and the other at Pipit Road at Macpherson. Then in 1979, a new design featured a larger head tiled with terrazzo and tiles as well as a body with colourfully painted with steel rings can be found in Ang Mo Kio.  

Fu Shan Garden 福山公园

This is a Dinosaur theme park playground and was built in the late 90 and was capture at that time and is situated at Woodland Street 81 public housing estate known as Fu Shan Garden, it is pretty deserted and forgotten, nevertheless, these creatures which roam the earth billion of years ago add a touch of creativity to the estate.

Masjid Khadijah

It begins with a $50,000 donation from Madam Khadijah Binte Mohamed in 1915 and it starts the ball rolling and the mosque was completed in 1920 with the architectural influence with the elements of the Nagore Shrine in Ajmeere in India. In 2003 a new auditorium building was officially declared open by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore had gazetted for conservation. Today the mosque is still at its location at Geylang Road situated between Lorong 31 and Lorong 29.

Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple

Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple (ஶ்ரீ செண்பக விநாயகர் ஆலயம்) is a Hindu temple with Ganesha the presiding deity and can be found along Ceylon Road bound by  East Coast Road and Joo Chiat Area.It had been there for a long long time since early 19th century and had many facvilities within the temple such as classrooms, hall, kitchen, library and a 3 storey extention was added with air conditoned Wedding and Dining Hall was completed and was offically opened by the late then Senior Minister S Rajaratnam on 8th November 1989.

Sion Church

Koon Seng Road is famous for its Peranakan House which also house some old school such as Ghoon Guan School, Presbertian Boys School, Kuo Chuan Girl School its all in the past the present site is coccupy bu Haig Girls' School. One such building reminds me of my first foray into my early education at this particular church along Koon Seng Road now its all gone and the church conducts their services in the former Choon Guan School premises.

Lee Kuan Yew

Born Harry Lee Kuan Yew on the (16th September 1923 - 23rd March 2015) often referred to as LKY who serve as our 1st Prime Minister from 1959 - 1990. He is a Singapore Politician and a lawyer and one of the old guards and founding member of People's Action Party (PAP) and is recognised as the founding father credited for taking Singapore from developed 3rd world to a developed 1st world. Looked at Singapore today it is the vision of one person and his cabinets to gave Singaporean the  Singapore we enjoyed the fruit of their labours which is recognisable throughout the world. Thank you LKY and a Happy Belated Birthday...RIP.  Met the Great Man when he was invited for the Dining In courtesy of the Singapore Police Force (SPF) at Senior Police Officer Mess (SPOM) in November 2012

Maxwell Market

Maxwell Market had a very colourful past as it begins from a burial ground to today's famous for its food even Lonely Planets recommend for tourist who visits Singapore a must to go place for savouring the local food. In its early years, the street hawkers plying around Tanjong Pagar, Kreta Ayer and Telok Ayer prefer to take up to avoid paying rent. Today Maxwell Hawker Centre is famous for many of the local food Chicken Rice, Oyster Cake, Fried fritters and so on. For me, I prefer the China Street Hainanese Curry Rice my favourite and occasionally go for Chicken Rice but opt for the no queue stall. Today we wait for the completion of the MRT Line of the Maxwell Station on the Thomson East Coast Line.

Telok Ayer Market

Lau Pa Sat or Telok Ayer Market is one of the oldest Victorian structure in South East Asia with its prefabricated cast iron in Asia and the only remaining market serving the residents in the central district in early Singapore. it was built-in 1824 as a fish market along the waterfront and started in 1824 and had it rebuilt in 1838 and finally, relocated and rebuilt at the present location 1894 till present day and currently a food court with stalls selling a variety of local cuisine. Today it serves the office workers and tourist around the Central Business District. Due to the present pandemic, a number of stalls are not in operation hope the situation will be back as per normal.

Cable Radio

Founded in 1949, Rediffusion (丽的呼声) is a London based company made into Singapore as a cable radio company and currently into digital services and touted itself as Singapore's only subscription radio services. During the 60 and 70, it is a common sight in every coffeeshop over the island there are the Golden Channel which broadcasts in Chinese including dialects such as storytellers Lee Dai Sor in Cantonese, Ng Chia Kheng in Teochew, Chong Soon Fatt in Hakka and the famous of all is Ong Toh in Hokkien for its martial art kungfu series. At his heydays, there are around 9600 subscribers and at a cost of   $5.00 per month and slowly the fans based grows around 100,000 the end came when the government stop all dialects speaking program with its Speak Mandarin Campaign it changes hand in 2003 than in 2012 they announced that they will stop broadcasting by end April then former DJ Eva Chang Mei Hsiang bought over the Rediffusion Brand.

South Beach

On 18th February 2000 Beach Road Camp was officially closed for good, it was built in early in 1930 and home to the Singapore Volunteer Corps (SVC) and later doubled as the Singapore Military Forces (SMF). After Singapore gained independence in 1965 (SVC) was the People's Defence Force (PDF) while the infantry regiment which consists of 2 battalions at that time was placed under the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Beach Road Camp being the Headquarters of the PDF which also housed several units of the SAF the SAF Provost Company and the SAF Court Martial Centre was set up in 1967. The site was sold by public tender to a consortium led by local developer City Development for the Beach Road Camp and the NCO Club into today's South Beach Development consist of Hotels, office and retail spaces and residential accommodation. 

Gate Closed

When the clock struck 12 midnight the Hell Gate will be closed for another year so tonight many Chinese communities will bid farewell to all the good brothers and at the same times make the offering for them to return to their underworld. This year Hungry Ghost Festival took a new twist due to the pandemic Covid19 even the Getai Operators and Chinese Opera took to live streaming to their respective audiences and we hope that next year all will be back to normal, let us all chase the various Getai locations as well as the opera shows for the time being Heng Ong Huat Ah.

Maxwell Chambers Suites

Maxwell Chambers Suites was converted from the Old Traffic Police Headquarters from the previous tenant Red Dot Museum from 2005 to 2017 and the building was awash with Red. It was built around 1930 together with the construction of Maxwell Chambers around the same time. At that time the building is the home of the Police "D" Division fo the Straits Settlements Police Force Headquarters and their barracks with the corner served at the Traffic Branch and remain there until 1999 when the Traffic Police moved to Ubi Avenue. For those old enough that is where we took our driving test there commonly seen in the famous Morris Minor cars. Now it is known as Maxwell Chambers Suites.

Maxwell Chambers

A distinguished curved building along Maxwell Road and Wallich Street is known as Maxwell Chambers was built during 1930, for about 60 years it served as the Singapore Custom Headquarters for the processing of custom permits, collection of customs duties, and application for goods to be stored in the bonded warehouse located at Jurong Marine Base and Loyang Offshore Base, together in the same building are the  Maxwell Road Post Office and Film Censor Board.  The building was gazetted for conservation in 2007.

Asia Insurance Building

Once a mighty giant dotting at the waterfront now had been dwarfed by others within the vicinity, Asia Insurance Building was once the tallest building standing at 18 stories which surpassed the Cathay Building after much discussion with the Singapore Municipal Commissioner regarding the height of the said building which they finally agreed and was completed in 1955 at that time Asia Insurance Company one of the first local insurance company and back then I was only 7 years old. Being the tallest building back then when they saw a sharp rise of people leaping to their death which are similar to the Upper Pickering Housing Flats and in 1960 the top balcony was eventually closed to the public to prevent further tragedy. Then in 2016 is was acquired by the Ascott Group and renamed to Ascott Raffles Place and turned it into a service apartment than in 2007 the URA officially gazetted the building for conservation.

Siong Lim Temple

Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery (蓮山雙林寺) is also known as Siong Lim Temple (雙林寺) located in the satellite town of Toa Payoh the construction of the temple only begin in 1902 and completed 5 years later. This Buddhist temple was built by a Hokkien merchant a devout Buddhist, he had a dream about a golden light rising over the sea from the west and decided to build a temple, the original building was constructed by craftsmen from China with materials imported from Fujian. The building had numerous restoration during its rein and had been gazetted as a national monument.   

Mun San Fook Tuck Chee Temple

This temple had a 150 years old history and one of the oldest Cantonese Temple to date. It was founded by the workers of a brick kiln factory in 1862, now it sits on a 30 years land lease from the present government since 2009 with a renewal of yearly licence till end of the lease and hopes that there is a reprived to have it seek conservation status. It is famous for its yearly Firedragon performance from the Sar Kong Lion and Dragon dance troupe with a procession of it through the street around the neighbourhood. For those in the pioneer generation living in then Lorong 17 Geylang know as Yeh Par, is today Sim Drive. 

Marina Bay Sands

Built at a cost of S$8 billion the Marina Bay Sands is an integrated resort sit on a reclaimed piece of land within the Marine Bay Reservoir and owned by Las Vegas Sands, open in 2010 exactly 10 years ago, it is the world most expensive standalone casino property and it was designed by Moshe Safdie Architects. The Sky Park is situated at the 57th Storey together with the Infinity Pool. There is the Arts Science Museum, with the 3 hotel towers towering at 55th storey high with a total of 2,500 rooms and suites and a Casino and shopping malls featuring branded names boutiques and F&B, and Sand Theatre.

Garden by the Bay

Opened in 2012, Garden by the Bay offer visitors and resident alike a horticulture oasis of lush greenery and floral display with an area of 101 hectares in the heart of the city with two conservatories namely the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest and it is the largest glass greenhouse in the world and it transforms our Garden City into a City in a Garden. The Garden is divided into Bay Central Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay South Garden, there are also 18 tree-like structures called the Supertree Grove which comes alive at night with coordinated light and music show called the Garden Rhapsody it also had an elevated walkway for visitors to have a panoramic view. In 2014 a Children Garden was added and also Floral Fantasy was included recently. In 2019 a Supertree Observatory an open-air rooftop deck which offer a 360 degree unblocked view of the Garden and the Marina Bay Area.

Siglap/East Coast Road HDB

These miserable 4 blocks of flats had been there since 1963 just to accommodate the resident in the Siglap Kampong due to a fire during the Chinese Lunar New Year in 1962.  Those flats had a view of the sea but soon they disappeared when reclamation was done. They made up of low rise, belong to owner-occupied and some rental flats, there are also various shop units consisting of assorted trades and now their fate are seal and waiting for demolition to begin

Club Street

In downtown Singapore Central Bussiness District, one such place to go to after a hard days work and for unwinding yourself and had a couple of drinks then the place to go to is Club Street around Ang Siang Hill. one building stood out in this enclave is Emerald Garden Condominium with an oriental chinese facade compare to some high-end condominium around the City Centre. Emerald Garden was built in 1998 with a 999 years lease and consist of 265 units 

Moon Cakes Festival

 

Our present National Library was built from the old site of the Empress Hotel (Huang Huo Jiu Lou) and famous for its mooncakes which the Chinese community all over the world celebrate is to remember Chang Er is the most widely accepted tale regarding the moon and the origin of the Mid Autumn Festival. In ancient times there are ten suns existed and very hard for the peoples with the extreme heat that is where Hou Yi shot down nine of the sun and eventually Chang Er and Hou Yi got married and lived happily after and the rest is history.

Its Time to say Goodbye

Dakota Crescent is one of the oldest public housing built under the Singapore Improvement Trust which is government-run Housing and Development Authority before the present the Housing and Development Board. These are low rise bricked flats and was built by the Colonial Government in 1958 it was named after an American Douglas DC3 which the British referred to as Dakota which was commonly spotted landing and taking off at the nearby  Kallang Airport, the christening of the estate's named Kallang Airport Estate also supposedly to commemorate the aviation disaster of an RAF Dakota aircraft which crashed while taking off during a thunderstorm which killed the entire flight crews and 20 RAF personnel. This year we are going to witness another disaster of the demolition of the said flats which had been selective En-bloc redevelopment scheme so before we say goodbye and had a last look at it. 

Bethesda (Katong) Church

 

It is a stone throw away from the place I am living now, it been there for around 80 years and located at the corner of Carpmael and Pennefather Road. The latter was named after the former Commissioner of Police Pennefather J.P. Evans. Recently they have added a new building next door and it is a walking distance and very near to the Peranakan Houses in Koon Seng Road. In the early 60s, you could just walk out after the services and had your meal right at their doorsteps with street hawker stalls along the roadside of Dunman Road minus the present-day Shell Petrol Kiosk.

Holy Family Church

When one mentioned Katong is mean foods and foods but to me growing up in these areas during the 50s and 60s where the Babas and Nyonya are known as Peranakan living amidst those pre-war houses with the beautiful facade, up till today they still draw a lot of admirers to those building among them are mostly photographers and tourist. Along East Coast Road is a church known as the Katong Catholic Church or Holy Family Church. It has its beginning in early 1900, started as a small chapel which was eventually demolished in 1931 while waiting for the new church masses was conducted in the nearby Roxy Theatre finally the church was completed 1932 due to the increase of catholic living in this area the church went through many renovations, in the end, the church had to be demolished again to make way for the new four-storey building with many amenities which finally completed in 1997.

Fook Tet Soo Temple

Fook Tet Soo temple is a Khek temple located around the former Palmer Road bus terminal and was built in the late 1800s when the Hakkas community who arrived erected a shrine to the deity Tua Pek Gong and it is considered the oldest temple in Singapore since the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. As it is facing the sea at that time it was also known as Wang Hai Tua Pek Gong Miao, the said temple characteristic closely resemble Teochew architectural from South China, Today the temple still attract devotees especially the birthday of the deities  Tua Pek Gong and Tai Shang Lao Chun their birthday which falls on the 16th day of the second month and the 1st day of the seven months although the entrance is been barricade to facilitate the construction of the  MRT station and with the completion of the new bus interchange.

Singapore Harbour Board

In a couple years time in the future, the scene will not be the same anymore, the Singapore Habour Board now known as Port of Singapore Authority will cease to exist in this location in its place will be the Southern Waterfront as a vision by the Singapore Government. I started my working life as a tally clerk with a local freight forwarding company and it lasts me 33 years from the start until  I was retrenched in 2003, it been sad for me because after my retrenchment my mum left us which dealt me a double blow for me. After work I would help out at my mother hawker stall during the night along Dunman Road and then in 1972 moved into Dunman Hawker Centre. For the Port, it will be moving to a Mega Port in Tuas. Along Keppel Road opposite the Tanjong Pagar Gate, 1 is the Custom Operation Command, in 2019 it was relocated to the western part of Singapore then the Keppel MRT station will emerge from the Old Railway Station in 2025.

Old Serangoon Road Fire Station

The Serangoon Fire station was built in 1952, it was situated at Serangoon Road near to the Kallang River and was awarded the best fire station in 1996. When it ceased operation in 2001, the responsibilities were transferred to the Bishan Fire Station now you can just admire the building as you drove by along the vicinity.