Bras Basah Complex’s Knowledge Book Centre

A mainstay of Bras Basah Complex for the past four decades is closing by mid-July.

Knowledge Book Centre, which has been operating at Bras Basah Complex since it was set up in 1981, is set to close down, hurt by rental expenses and declining business.

It will be moving out after the landlord finds a tenant to take over the 1,200 sq ft space - about the size of a five-room HDB flat - on the third floor.

“It has been a struggle to pay rent. One or two months of struggling to pay rent is okay, but how long can I push through? At my age, I also don’t want to be stressed,” said Mr Mohamed Ismail, 69, who runs the outlet and is a part-owner.

Knowledge Book Centre sells mainly second-hand books and is known for its educational materials from primary to tertiary levels.

The business was started by his uncle, Mr Mohamed Syed, now 85, in 1975 with two partners. The first location was in Bras Basah Road and under a different name.

Mr Ismail worked in his uncle’s business from 1981 to 1984 before he took on a job in Saudi Arabia.

At his uncle’s behest, he returned and started working at Knowledge Book Centre in December 1997. His uncle made him a partner in 2000 after one of the original partners died and the other wanted out.

Mr Syed, who retired in 2010, remains a partner and shows up at the store from time to time.

Although it initially sold new books, Knowledge Book Centre started buying and selling second-hand titles in 2000. Today, Mr Ismail estimates that 80 per cent of his business comes from used books.

In its heyday in the late 1990s, he said the store had 10 employees and was making around $40,000 a month.

These days, monthly sales have dropped to around $15,000 over the past seven to eight months, barely enough to cover the monthly rental of $7,500 after other expenses like utility bills.

The rent was previously $8,500 until the landlord decreased it last year because of the pandemic.

“If people come and business is okay, I won’t close the shop, but no one is coming,” Mr Ismail said, adding that footfall had been particularly low in recent months, although he is unsure of the reason…

The bookstore’s first appearance in the newspapers, on 19 November 1982. Credit: SPH Media Trust.

I visited the bookstore for the last time to record it for posterity.

It was everything I imagined a bookstore I would own - an organised chaos, with books spilling out of shelves and onto the floor.

There were also the dated fonts, metal grilles, worn-out linoleum flooring, fake ceiling boards, and old wall clock one would never find in newer, flashier bookstores.

Some shelf labels were for show only; the books did not match these labels, so I had to look at every shelf if I wanted to unearth a second-hand gem - which I did, several times.

The last day of the bookstore is 15 July.

Curtains on Cathay Cineplex

Paid a visit to Cathay Cineplex, because it is shutting for good tomorrow, 26 June, after 16 years in The Cathay at 2 Handy Road.

Media company mm2 Asia, which acquired Cathay’s cineplexes in Singapore in 2017, said the decision to close Cathay Cineplex was a business one, part of “cost rationalisation for its cinema operations”.

In simple English - the cineplex business in Singapore is bleeding money.

Actually, the cinematic lineage of Cathay Cineplex goes back further, more than eight decades to 1939, when Cathay Cinema opened in the Cathay Building. At the time, Cathay Building was the tallest building not just in Singapore, but all of Southeast Asia; Cathay Cinema was Singapore’s first air-conditioned theatre.

Cathay Building. Credit: Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Cathay Cinema operated from 1939 to 1942, and from 1946 to 2000, the only break happening because of the Japanese Occupation. From 2000 to 2006, Cathay Building and Cathay Cinema were redeveloped into The Cathay and Cathay Cineplex; only the iconic facade of the cinema was conserved.

Cathay Cinema in 1953. Credit: SPH Media Trust.

The name of the building was derived from the name of the cinema or cineplex. The Cathay won’t be the same after Cathay Cineplex is gone.

When I was younger and watched more movies, I frequented the cineplexes in the Orchard area - Lido Cineplex at Shaw House, Cathay Cineleisure Orchard, and Cathay Cineplex at The Cathay. Another landmark from my younger days will cease to be.

The large TV screen near the box office showing the latest trailers.

The box office.

The escalators to the floor above, where the halls were.

The entrance to the halls.

The tenants of The Cathay don’t seem to be doing very well. Expect more black dashes to appear on the tenant list in the months to come.

50 years of Tanglin Shopping Centre

After four attempts, Tanglin Shopping Centre has finally been sold for $868 million to Singapore-based developer Pacific Eagle Real Estate.

The clock is ticking on the 50-year-old commercial complex along Tanglin Road.

Tanglin Shopping Centre comprises a six-storey podium block, a 12-storey tower block rising six storeys above the podium block, and a car park occupying an eight-storey annex.

Basement 2 to the sixth storey are occupied by retail and office units, while the top six floors of the tower block are entirely office units.

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The concept of the multi-storey, air-conditioned shopping complex as a one-stop shopping destination came about in Singapore a couple of years after its independence from Malaysia in 1965.

At the time, Singapore was still trying to find its feet as an independent city-state; it was industrialising and modernising, and trying to shed the old for the new. Singaporeans were still used to shopping at shophouses and markets.

As urban renewal started to sweep through the old City, developers started pouring millions into building shopping complexes.

Newspaper advertisements for Tanglin Shopping Centre started appearing in 1969, and the podium block was completed by developer S. K. Chee by January 1972, at a cost of $7.5 million. It was the first of its kind along the Tanglin Road-Orchard Road shopping belt.

A 1969 Straits Times ad for a position in Tanglin Shopping Centre. Credit: SPH Media Trust.

A 1970 Straits Times ad, with the shopping complex’s original logo. Credit: SPH Media Trust.

Nearing completion in October 1971. Credit: SPH Media Trust.

Other shopping complexes completed around the same time included Peninsula Shopping Centre at Coleman Street, and Specialist Centre at Orchard Road (demolished in 2008).

Shortly before its opening, in September 1971, the New Nation discussed the new phenomenon of the shopping complex:

Credit: SPH Media Trust.

There is uncertainty over whether Singapore will soon have too many shopping arcades and complexes.

Developers generally say there is need for more shopping complexes but they seem unsure how long this need will last.

There are six shopping complexes in full operation, four more being readied for customers, three others being planned, and more are on the drawing board…

Developers I spoke to have the same straight-faced confidence they had when the complex concept first took root in 1967. Singapore, they say, seems to be overbuilding everything, but not shopping complexes and arcades…

“Shopping complexes will change the shopping habits of Singaporeans,” said Mr. T. M. Goh, whose Golden Mile Shopping Centre will open early next year. “Instead of browsing from rows and rows of shops and hopping across the roads to get what you want, you can get everything under one roof in a complex.

“Complexes are the thing of the future. Shop rows will have to go. The new concept in shopping is more convenient and comfortable, with easy parking and modern facilities. Customers don’t mind paying a little more for all this.”

Tanglin Shopping Centre got off to a roaring start, with 150 shops and kiosks occupying almost all available commercial space. German airline Lufthansa paid a cool $1.2 million for 5,000 square feet of office space on the ground and second floors (below). Occupancy rates remained near 100 per cent in the first few years.

Credit: SPH Media Trust.

This initial success prompted S. K. Chee to commence Phase II of construction - the tower block was completed around 1980. A circular concourse was added in the basement for exhibitions and campaigns, to be surrounded by antique shops. One of the antique shops was Antiques of the Orient, founded by Michael J. Sweet and Julie Yeo. It later moved to a larger space on the second floor.

Mr Sweet with antique paintings in Antiques of the Orient, in 1981. Credit: SPH Media Trust.

And Tanglin Shopping Centre stood for another four decades.

***

I visited Tanglin Shopping Centre to see how it was faring.

The facade facing east.

The same view 51 years ago, in 1971, as the complex was nearing completion. This was before the tower block came up.

Credit: SPH Media Trust.

The architecture of the building exposed Basement Level 1 to the outside, which was a nice touch.

The foyer, where taxis and private-hire vehicles dropped off and picked up fares.

The main entrance at the podium block, which was rather small.

Level 1, raised about half a storey above ground level. There were several carpet shops here.

The interior looked dated and tired, and many shops were shuttered or empty. The mall had clearly seen better days.

The second floor.

I had the whole place to myself, and this was a Sunday afternoon.

I searched for Antiques of the Orient, and the floor directory listed it as occupying Units 39 and 40, but they were empty. The shop, like so many others, had left the mall.

The upper floors of the podium block.

The ground-floor lift lobby of the tower block. The tower block was equally quiet, and I took the lift to every floor to look around. No one stopped me.

The 10th floor.

The circular concourse at Basement Level 1 of the tower block.

The same location in 1981. Tzen Gallery has survived to the present...

... but again, most of the surrounding tenants have moved out.

A final look at Tanglin Shopping Centre before I left.