Possibly Singapore’s shortest road

This is Jalan Ulu Seletar, possibly Singapore’s shortest road.

The road, off city-bound Sembawang Road, is around 5 metres in length, only slightly longer than an average-sized car. In fact, if not for the road sign proclaiming its existence, I would have mistaken it for a parking lot.

I can’t imagine another road shorter than this. Of course, it wasn’t always this way.

Jalan Ulu Seletar is at least a century old. It appears on a 1923 map as an unnamed track skirting around a hill 105 feet in height; the track is highlighted blue.

Base picture credit: The National Archives (United Kingdom).

The hill was north of Seletar Village, also known as Chan Chu Kang, later renamed Nee Soon Village; it was west of mangrove swamps lining the shores of the Sungei Seletar, the area’s largest river. The track most probably served the rubber plantation in the area, ending in a rubber factory to the north.

The track was named in July 1948, as one of nine roads in the rural districts, three of them in Sembawang.

As reported in The Straits Times: “The three new roads at Sembawang are Jalan Ulu Seletar at the 10½ milestone, Jalan Kuala Sempang (Simpang) at the 12¾ milestone, and Jalan Ulu Sembawang at the 13 milestone.

“One (Rural Board) member remarked: ‘These names in Malay seem quite a mouthful.’

“Another retorted: ‘They are descriptive and I consider them apt titles to the district they serve.’”

Credit: Singapore Press Holdings.

And so the names stuck. I would consider “Jalan Ulu Seletar” to be appropriate for the area, because “Ulu” was a local term for “upriver”, and the road was in the upriver portion of the Sungei Seletar.

Below is a map of the area in 1953. The rubber plantations which Jalan Ulu Seletar served have disappeared, replaced by “unclassified minor cultivation” (M. C.) and cleared land (C. L.).

Base picture credit: Survey Department, Singapore.

Two years later, in 1955, a surau was erected along the road to serve the community. As it was near Nee Soon Village, it was named Surau Nee Soon Jalan Ulu Seletar.

In 1961, the surau was expanded and upgraded to a mosque to cater to the growing number of worshippers. It was also renamed Masjid Ahmad Ibrahim, after the Assemblyman for Sembawang, who had contributed to efforts to upgrade the surau. (This despite the mosque being in the constituency of Nee Soon, not Sembawang.) Ahmad Ibrahim would pass away the following year of an illness, aged just 35.

Ahmad Ibrahim.

Below is a map of the area in 1970. There was a village along much of the length of the road; Masjid Ahmad Ibrahim was most probably the building highlighted red.

Base picture credit: Survey Department, Singapore.

The present address of the mosque is 15 Jalan Ulu Seletar, even though it is at the junction of Sembawang Road and Jalan Ulu Seletar. The reason is because Sembawang Road in the area used to curve around hills. Up to the mid-1970s, the mosque was a short distance from the Sembawang Road junction. However, between 1976 and 1978, the stretch of Sembawang Road in the area was straightened for the sake of motor traffic. Hence, a short length of Jalan Ulu Seletar was cut off by the new, straightened Sembawang Road, and the mosque ended up at the new junction.

Below is a map of the area in 1978. While Jalan Ulu Seletar is in blue, the former curved part of Sembawang Road is in yellow, while the cut-off portion of Jalan Ulu Seletar is in green.

The yellow and green portions remained on maps until 1991, after which I assume they were mostly expunged. A small curve has survived, but is off limits, inside Nee Soon Camp.

Base picture credit: Google Maps.

I found a good photo of Jalan Ulu Seletar which is dated around 1980, but it contains a little mystery.

Credit: Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

This looks like the Sembawang Road junction, but the large body of water in the background looks too close to the junction. Maps tell me the Sungei Seletar and ponds near its shores would have been further away from the junction. And Jalan Ulu Seletar never shared a junction with another major road.

Anyway, below is a map of the area in 1991. By now, Jalan Ulu Seletar was hemmed in by Yishun Avenue 1 to the north and Lentor Avenue to the east, while the Sungei Seletar had been dammed into a reservoir known as Lower Seletar Reservoir today.

The last of Jalan Ulu Seletar’s villagers vacated their homes by 1993. Thereafter, most of the road was expunged for private developments served by new roads such as Springside Road, Springside View, and Springside Avenue. Only a short segment of around 50 metres from the Sembawang Road junction survived to serve Masjid Ahmad Ibrahim.

Masjid Ahmad Ibrahim today.

Up to 2019, the road seemed accessible to motor vehicles, at least on Google Street View. One of the two lanes was used for parking. However, after 2020, the road looked closed to motor traffic.

My guess is that the need for COVID-19 safety check-ins for mosque goers necessitated the closure of the road, allowing people to queue outside the entrance.

On the left is Springside Park; on the right is Jalan Ulu Seletar, now closed to motor traffic, next to the entrance of Masjid Ahmad Ibrahim.

The closed road is now used for mosque goers to queue up outside the mosque.

As a result, the only stretch of road still accessible to motor vehicles is a roughly 5-metre segment next to the original road - and that is the present Jalan Ulu Seletar.

And thus concludes the story of how possibly Singapore’s shortest road came to be.

The future of Mount Pleasant

The inevitable has happened - soon, much of the historic Old Police Academy in the Mount Pleasant area will be demolished for an HDB estate.

The Old Police Academy opened in 1929 as the Police Depot, then was renamed the Police Training School (below) in 1945, and the Police Academy in 1969. It was the primary training facility for the Police until the Home Team Academy opened in 2006 at Old Choa Chu Kang Road.

Credit: Remember Singapore.

When plans for Mount Pleasant MRT Station were announced with the rest of the Thomson-East Coast Line in 2012, I already knew the physical heritage of the Mount Pleasant area was on borrowed time.

The arrival of an MRT station to an undeveloped area always means future intensive development - that is the only way the construction of billion-dollar infrastructure can be justified. It is only a matter of time before the development takes place. In the case of the Mount Pleasant area, it will take up to 15 years - the first flats go on sale in five years.

When plans for the 33-hectare HDB estate were released, I hurriedly studied maps showing the layout of development.

Credit: The Straits Times.

Fortunately, it seems effort has been put into ensuring the estate avoids much of the natural heritage of the area. The forest surrounding the colonial bungalows and the Heritage Road known as Mount Pleasant Road will be untouched.

More importantly, the Hokkien cemetery known as Kopi Sua (below) lying to the west of the estate will also be untouched - for now. In fact, the original plan had called for the road network of the estate to cut through the cemetery, but was later revised to allow access via Onraet Road instead, avoiding the cemetery.

I have a keen interest in the fate of Kopi Sua, because my paternal grandfather rests there. For the time being, he - and I - can rest easy.

Looking ahead, there is still the unresolved issue of the Circle Line’s Bukit Brown MRT Station to the north of the Mount Pleasant area.

Presently, Bukit Brown MRT Station remains a “shell”, to be activated and open in the future when the area is more intensively developed. This involves the fate of much of Bukit Brown Cemetery, which to me has far, far greater heritage value than the Old Police Academy.

Connaught Drive

A stretch of prime road in Singapore will be fully pedestrianised as the Government looks to make the civic district more people-friendly.

Connaught Drive and Anderson Bridge will be closed to motorists, allowing pedestrians to walk more easily between the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, the National Gallery Singapore and The Arts House.

Connaught Drive, formerly known as New Esplanade Road, is a good candidate for pedestrianisation. Vehicular traffic is not heavy, and it’s lined by tall, beautiful trees - it would make for a scenic walkway.

A hundred years ago, Connaught Drive was already bordered by old, tall angsana trees. In the evenings, rich Europeans took first their horse carriages, and then as the Motor Age came, their motor cars, through Connaught Drive.

Bottom picture credit: Google Maps.

It’s fitting that by the end of December, the road will be returned to pedestrians.