Thursday 1 January 2015

Keong Saik Road

Picture taken at the junction of Keong Saik Road and Kreta Ayer Road. The row of shophouses (with the spiral staircases at the back), was built in 1929 -- Hotel 1929 opened there in 2003. The Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple (fore, right) was built in 1925. It has a rich history. The idol of Lord Vinayagar was brought to Singapore by a soldier from India who left the idol behind for the community to build a temple. As the temple was near the General Hospital, its worshippers were mainly hospital and prison staff. (There was a prison at Outram Road -- the first one, for civil offences was built in 1847, with another for criminals added in 1882. The prisons were demolished in 1970 and in their place, a public housing estate called the Outram Park Complex which was also demolished in the early 2000s.) I don't remember the prisons at all... do you? I do remember Outram Park Complex -- there was the famous char kway teow... also one Chinese physician who operated a clinic there. He was rather well known.


2 comments:

  1. Oh! I walked here many times with my camera, there was a restaurant I think the name was Tai Wah next to the millionaire club which some of my relatives like to come to. Vaguely recalled the prison at Outram Park, also the few blocks of rental flats there. The Char Kway Teow was at one of these rental blocks before shifting to Hong Lim Hock Hai building. There was a restaurant called Dragon and Phoenix also at Outram Park that was quite famous for steamboats.

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  2. Hmm, can you wear a red bandana when you next go on your walkabout, plus the camera slung round your neck so that I would know it's you?:) Oh yes, now that you mention the restaurant at Outram Park, I do remember it. My friend's sister's wedding was held there. That was in the 80s.

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