My new old street directories

Ever since I started Good Morning Yesterday, I and my guest bloggers have blogged frequently about old places of Singapore that no longer exist. Often we found it difficult to describe the locations of these places because we did not have an old street directory to refer to; and sometimes our memories play tricks on us. The oldest street directory I had was a 1998/99 copy which wasn’t very helpful because by 1998, many of the present expressways have been completed, replacing many old roads. Also many of the roundabouts and kampongs that we blogged about had been cleared.

But recently I was able to acquire two street directories from the last century. One was a 1993 copy given to me by my elderly neighbour. Another was purchased from a second-hand bookshop at Bras Basah Centre. This was a huge shop on the 3rd level. After a long search, I managed to find 2 copies. One was a Chinese edition dated 1985. Another was an English edition dated 1981. I bought the second at a hefty price of $16 (the original price was only $6). I think the shop owner sensed my excitement in finding this directory and jacked up the price to $18 initially. Anyway, as far as I am concerned, it was $16 well spent. Now I can check up all those places that I have been blogging about from memory.

Unfortunately, I am now faced with a dilemma. Should I go back and update those old posts? I think I shan’t because that would be too much work. Might as well spend the time writing new stories. Where the opportunity arises, I will simply refer back to the earlier posts. For example, in one of my stories about the stretch of Bukit Timah Road from Sixth Avenue to Beauty World, I mentioned that there were several factories and commercial buildings here. I was wondering what was this building called the Tricity House. Now I know. It’s the old name for the Tan Cheong Motors complex. You can now refer to the following map from my new 1981 street directory. Unfortunately, it does not show the Rothmans cigarette factory that I described or the Tien Wah Press printing company.

And I still can’t figure out what was the William Jacks???