Standing in silence at what perhaps is a less explored end of Balestier Road is a row that was only recently emptied of all life. Life in the row at the Rumah Miskin end of the road, included several reminders of the city we seem to have long forgotten – until only a few weeks ago, or at least when I last drove past it a month or so ago, the row was home to two artisans shops, a timber merchant and the merchant’s material storage yard.
A reflection off a discarded piece of the old world (sitting against the fence of Chop Chuan Seng’s former material yard).
Trades such as these were once a feature of the city’s living streets, but not in the redefined urban landscape we see today. With our streets seemingly intent only with the display of the city’s new found vanity, little place has now been left for the one thriving traditional business of old, leaving many of our streets, even ones along which the structures of old still exist, with little flavour and with hardly any character. The “more of the same” that many of our spaces in Singapore, once each with a charm and character of its own and now with a tendency to be differentiated only by a fanciful name, have become.
Along the five-foot-way of the row now emptied of life.
The noodle manufacturer, Nam Hin, which occupied two shop lots at Nos. 3 and 5.
The now closed gates of the shop the noodle manufacturer once occupied.
The Rattan Furniture maker’s shop.
Along the back lane behind the rattan furniture makers’ shop.
The timber merchant, Chop Chuan Seng, which occupied a four storey art-deco style building.
And the now empty timber merchants’ yard next to it.
A view of the storage shed inside the yard.
Filed under: Balestier Road, Changing Landscapes, Forgotten Buildings, Forgotten Places, Parting Glances, Photography, Photography Series, Reminders of Yesterday, Singapore
