40 years of Siglap

A 40-year-old mixed-use building in Siglap might be demolished very soon.

Siglap Shopping Centre. Credit: OrangeTee Advisory.

Siglap Shopping Centre will be put up for collective sale by public tender on Tuesday (Oct 27), with the reserve price for the freehold mixed-use site on East Coast Road set at S$120 million, marketing agent OrangeTee Advisory said on Monday.

Completed in around 1980, the three-storey development at 883 to 903A East Coast Road is made up of eight residential units and eight commercial units sitting on about 39,635 sq ft of land.

An adjoining plot (roughly 5,005 sq ft) of state land can be amalgamated with the site, subject to approval from authorities, to form a site with a combined area of about 44,640 sq ft.

Siglap Shopping Centre, not to be confused with the nearby Siglap Centre, is currently occupied by a variety of tenants including eateries and a pre-school.

The tender will close at 3pm on Dec 9.

“With its freehold tenure and location in popular District 15, the site is likely to see good interest from developers,” said Mr Edmund Lee, executive director of OrangeTee Advisory.

“The optimal site area, coupled with a frontage of about 60 metres onto East Coast Road, offer developers the opportunity to build a prominent mixed-use development to cater to the lifestyle demands of buyers.”

Based on the reserve price, the land rate works out to S$1,235 per square foot per plot ratio, after accounting for an additional 7 per cent bonus residential gross floor area for private outdoor spaces.

The figure of S$120 million includes an estimated development charge of S$47.47 million and an estimated alienation cost of S$7.2 million for the plot of state land.

According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s 2019 Master Plan, the site is zoned as residential with commercial on the first storey.

The gross plot ratio is 3.0, and the building height control is four storeys.

The site is close to several schools and malls, as well as Parkway East Hospital, and will be served by the upcoming Siglap MRT station on the Thomson-East Coast Line.

OrangeTee Advisory director Mr Tay Liam Hiap said that new projects in the area have been a popular choice for home buyers.

“New project sales in the East Coast area have been trending well, and attest to the continued appeal of the Siglap/Katong district with its plethora of dining, shopping and recreational amenities,” he said.

“The proximity to beaches, parks and Changi Airport further amplifies the attractiveness and draw of the area to home buyers.”

***

I looked up Siglap Shopping Centre on Google Maps and found something resembling more a row of shophouses than a conventional shopping centre. Going through Google Street View’s history reveals a little slice of the building’s history.

In 2008, its tenants included Pizza Hut, Video Ezy, a United Overseas Bank (UOB) branch, a Thai restaurant named Lemongrass, KFC, and another restaurant, Le Viet. The building also had a smaller cousin to the left, possibly constructed at the same time.

2008. Credit: Google Maps.

By 2012, the building’s smaller cousin had been torn down for a new condominium (what else?), Siglap V. Video Ezy and Le Viet had departed; Video Ezy’s space was taken by Feet Press, a foot reflexology centre.

2012. Credit: Google Maps.

By 2015, UOB had moved out; a Chinese restaurant and a sales gallery had set up shop on either side of the KFC outlet.

2015. Credit: Google Maps.

And by 2019, Pizza Hut had been replaced by two restaurants, UOB’s space had been taken by a preschool, and the two tenants on either side of KFC had been replaced by a bar and a bike distributor.

2019. Credit: Google Maps.

This meant that of all the commercial tenants that were around in 2008, only KFC had stuck around by 2019.

And a search of the newspaper archives reveals that KFC was one of Siglap Shopping Centre’s first tenants when it opened in 1980! Below is a Straits Times advertisement from 12 December 1980, announcing the outlet’s official opening.

The KFC outlet is still open presently:

40 years of fried chicken in Siglap!

Unfortunately, it might have to move out, along with its neighbours, very soon. And the history of this little stretch along Upper East Coast Road will roll on, relentlessly.

Large families, cheating death, appropriating kites

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with my dad for the first in a series of interviews about his life story and experiences. I approached the conversation chronologically, starting with his family background and childhood memories, and tried to let him talk as much as he wanted. In the hour that we chatted, I discovered numerous things about my dad which I never knew, or he had never shared with me before. Some examples:

1. My dad is the youngest of eight children.

He had four brothers and three sisters. His eldest brother was born in 1928, his second brother in 1929, third brother in 1931, fourth brother in 1934, three sisters in 1937, 1942, and 1944, and then him in 1946. My dad rattled off their birth years without a pause. Wow!

2. My dad’s father - my paternal grandfather - had a second wife, who bore my dad’s father two sons and a daughter.

My dad said: “She only came to our family when my father passed away (in 1959). Otherwise, she dared not come to see my mother.”

But his mother had known about her all along.

“My mother complained to (her uncle. He) said, ‘I got four wives, you know. So long he takes care of the family, gives you money and everything, leave it lah!’”

I asked: “She didn’t think of leaving him?”

My dad: “Hah? No.”

He continued: “After my father passed away, one of his legal officers brought her to see my mother, to visit and pay her respects. So you know all those relatives... (they told my mother) ‘Aiyah, let it be lah, forgive her lah…’ So ok, my mother accepted. (The second wife) had to serve my mother tea, (for her to accept her) as a sister.”

My dad’s family subsequently lost contact with the second wife’s family.

“After that... of course they wanted a share of my father’s estate. So my brother paid her off. After that, no more. She went her way, we went our way.”

My dad saw the second wife’s obituary in the newspapers in 2009. She died 21 years after my dad’s mother.

3. My dad might never have been born.

At the beginning of the Japanese Occupation in February 1942, during the murderous islandwide purge known as Sook Ching, all the adult men in Kim Chuan Village (east of Upper Paya Lebar Road) were rounded up by the Japanese. My dad’s father was one of them. Their fate: To be trucked away and executed.

Kim Chuan Village in the 1975 street directory.

For some reason, the lorries that were supposed to take the men to their certain deaths never arrived. They waited until midnight, and then the Japanese inexplicably released them. My dad related: “My mother asked my father, how come you all can come home? (My father said) ‘Oh... someone knew how to speak Japanese, (and the Japanese said) “these people are very good people”, so they let us go’.”

My dad suspected it was actually his father who had persuaded the Japanese to release everyone. He suspected his father could speak Japanese, even though his father never revealed it, because at the time, “those who spoke Japanese were (considered) traitors”.

That was how my dad’s father survived Sook Ching. Four years later, in 1946, my dad was born. And that, in turn, allowed me to be born.

4. My dad’s description of his parents.

I asked: “How would you describe your father?”

My dad: “He’s quite strict with his sons... I once saw my father whack (my fourth brother) one day... no joke. I saw him beating him up.”

“But why did he beat him up?”

He laughed. “Don’t know... If I was naughty, he would ask me to kneel before him. That’s my punishment.”

“Kneel only?”

“Yeah.”

“Would he hit you?”

“Nah.”

“That seems quite mild.”

“And my servant, he (would) bring (my father) a cup of coffee and then take me away.”

“That’s his way of saving you!”

My dad laughed.

I continued: “And how would you describe your mom?”

A pause. Then: “My mom was very good. She’s a good mother. She took care of the family.”

5. Some of my dad’s earliest memories as a kid.

My dad said: “I liked to go to the drain and catch fish.”

“Which drain?”

“Outside (the family) house. When it flooded, I went and caught fish.”

“What kind of fishes?”

“All the drain fish. Guppies, those sort of things. When it flooded, you could catch a lot. Sometimes, red swordtail, black swordtail, because all those were from people’s aquariums. When it flooded, all the fish swam out.”

My dad also shared that there was an open field near his family home in the Tanjong Katong area, which many used to fly kites, and for kite-fighting.

“When the string burst, the kite would fly (to our house) and get stuck on the roof. When (the kite-owners) wanted to come in (and retrieve the kite), we closed the gate.”

“And you took the kites for yourself.”

“Yeah. No need to buy kites, you know? Always free one. All come down, wah, shiok.” And he laughed at that memory.

28 years apart

A Reddit user, Daveliot, posted this 1981 photo of the junction of Smith Street and Trengganu Street, in Chinatown:

Credit: Daveliot.

So many things going on here - the busy roadside market and food stalls that have completely closed off the road; the trishaw rider waiting for a fare on his vehicle; the shophouses still occupied by residents; the old street name plates with four-digit postal codes; the bicycle with a licence plate (back when the vehicles had to be registered with the Registry of Vehicles); the absence of lane markings on the roads.

The same location in 2009, 28 years later:

Credit: Google Maps.

One word: Gentrification.

(The block of high-rise flats in the distance is part of Hong Lim Complex.)