Friday, November 08, 2013

I have been doing this for the past few years

My fellow nostalgia/heritage bloggers must have welcomed the news that former civil servant, Mr Quek Tiong  Swee, has donated 8,000 old photos of Singapore to the National Heritage Board. Mr Tiong had the foresight to see that, with Singapore’s rapid development, many places would disappear from the face of Singapore, and so he had captured them on film since the 1980s. I am proud to report that I too have been doing this, albeit in a small scale, for the past few years. Ever since I started blogging about the Singapore that I grew up in, I have been consciously taking photos of places that I suspect might undergo drastic changes shortly. This included old buildings and roads. And I have even encouraged readers of my blog to do the same; as I did here.

Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I did not do it in an organized manner. I seldom take the trouble to go to a place just for the purpose of photographing it; unless I planned to blog about it. Usually, I would take pictures of places that I happen to visit or pass by during the course of my work or leisure. Thankfully, my job requires me to travel all over Singapore, and thus I have many opportunities to do this. Another thing is that, I avoided going to the ‘popular’ places like the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station or the Bukit Brown Cemetery because I know that many people will be taking pictures of them and posting to Facebook or Flickr; and so there was no urgency for me to hop onto the bandwagon.

Regrettably, I may not be able to do this with the same amount of frequency soon because the COE of my car is expiring next month. With COE (Certificate of Entitlement) prices at the crazy levels that they are in, I can’t afford to cough out $80+k to renew my COE or replace it with a new one. But, I’ll still try my best.


Anyway, here are a few photos from my own collection of places/buildings that have already disappeared from the ever-changing landscape of Singapore since 2006. Let’s see how many you can score 10/10.











12 comments:

R. Burnett Baker said...

Number one reminds me of the area near Malay village... So much there has been demolished....the place was unrecognizable for me. I wonder how long before the area in and around Joo Chat Hotel will be torn down?

Jon C said...

1. Chun Tin Road
2. Margaret Drive
3. Bishan Park
4. View from a block at Clementi Avenue 1
7. Boon Lay Way
8. Former Keat Hong Camp, home of Army Logistics Base, an Armour unit and I believe a driclad (read in Pioneer)
9. Kallang airport buildings

Anonymous said...

6. Ghim Moh
10. 3rd mile Upper Serangoon

Lam Chun See said...

Jon C. If you mean Boon Lay Ave (near Boon Lay Place), you're right.

Jon C said...

Oh yes I did mean Boon Lay Ave!

Lam Chun See said...

Glad to see that you guys have nearly all of the answers.
No. 1 is the site of the former Beauty World. For the past few years, furious construction has been going on to build the Beauty World MRT Station as part of the Downtown Line.
No.2 is the building at Margaret Drive which I believe was a community centre at one time. It was next to the multi-storey carpark next to NTUC Fairprice and opposite Queenstown Library.
No. 3 is the Kallang River at Bishan Park before they spent millions of dollars to make it crooked and renamed the park Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park. This was taken near Bishan Rd.
No. 4 is the site of the present Casa Clementi viewed from one of the blocks in Clementi Ave 1. Before this, it was called Sussex Estate.
No. 5 is part of the former Police Logistics Department, Automotive Engineering and Management Division, at Bukit Timah Fourth Avenue. Today the buildings have been cleared for the construction of the Sixth Avenue MRT station - also part of the Downtown Line.
No. 6 is the carpark between blocks 12 and 12A in Ghim Moh. The entire area is now blocked off for demolition as part of the SERS programme.
No. 7 is a group of old flats along Boon Lay Ave that have recently been demolished.
No. 8 is the former Keat Hong Camp viewed from Choa Chu Kang Rd. There were many Nissen huts in this camp and I managed to take some photos of these beauties before they were demolished.
No. 9 shows Stadium Link which joins to Nicoll Highway on the right. The buildings behind were part of the Kallang Auto Centre (2nd car dealers) when this photo was taken. I often went there for my walking exercise before fetching my son home from his kayaking training at the nearby Kallang Water Sports Centre.
No. 10 is the former Woodsville Circus at 3rd Milestone, Serangoon Rd (aka Sar Ko Chio in Hokkien). Used to come here for supper when I was living in Lor Chuan in the early 70s.The building on the right is the Jackson Centre. This was before the construction of the underpass and interchange. Heard from friend that these buildings too have all be demolished.

I have blogged about most of these places before but too lazy to add the hyperlinks. If you are interested to read those old posts, pls do a search on the blog.

Lye Khuen Way said...

#6Ghim Moh ! Was counting the floors as I used to stay at Blk 9A at the other Big Car Park. Thanks for the memories. My 9A is now almost flatten . The two big car parks AND the former Malaysian KMT land behind was the reason for the SERS of the 6 blocks of HDB . Not as someone who tried to sell me the idea that it was the poor quality of cement used in their construction. May have been for some flats but definitely not the main reason for these .

Lam Chun See said...

Khuen Way. I was at Ghim Moh just 2 days ago - often used the PO there - and Blk 9 is totally gone alr. Glad a I took many photos of the flats here.

When my kids were young, we often had dinner at this brightly-lid kopitiam. Can you recognize the place?

http://standardonlinefinance.com said...

Attention Please!!!

This is SOF-Standard Online Finance Ltd. A well known and reputable financial lending company giving opportunities to genuine and eligible individuals, companies, corporate organization that is in quest for a loan for personal purpose, business start-ups, business expansion, construction projects, etc. If you are in need of a loan for a legitimate purpose, we urge you all to seize this limited opportunity to join our chains of increasing customers that are giving testimonies of our reliable and efficient lending services. Reach us today via email: standardonlineinvestment@gmail.com for more details and procedures.

Regards,
Mr. Hameed Youssef
Marketing Manager
Standard Online Finance Ltd.

StevenHWicker said...

Very informative and impressive post you have written, this is quite interesting and i have went through it completely, an upgraded information is shared, keep sharing such valuable information. Transfer 8mm to Digital

osman said...

Hello Everybody,
My name is Ahmad Asnul Brunei, I contacted Mr Osman Loan Firm for a business loan amount of $250,000, Then i was told about the step of approving my requested loan amount, after taking the risk again because i was so much desperate of setting up a business to my greatest surprise, the loan amount was credited to my bank account within 24 banking hours without any stress of getting my loan. I was surprise because i was first fall a victim of scam! If you are interested of securing any loan amount & you are located in any country, I'll advise you can contact Mr Osman Loan Firm via email osmanloanserves@gmail.com

LOAN APPLICATION INFORMATION FORM
First name......
Middle name.....
2) Gender:.........
3) Loan Amount Needed:.........
4) Loan Duration:.........
5) Country:.........
6) Home Address:.........
7) Mobile Number:.........
8) Email address..........
9) Monthly Income:.....................
10) Occupation:...........................
11)Which site did you here about us.....................
Thanks and Best Regards.
Whats app) +917290857361
Derek Email osmanloanserves@gmail.com

We offer 100% financing said...


What are your Financial needs? We give out loans from a minimum of $5,000 to a maximum of $500,000,000.00 with a comfortable duration that ranges from 1 to 20 years at a very reduced interest rate of 3%. We are open to having a good business relationship with you. Looking forward to rendering the best of our services to all esteemed clientele globally. Contact us via email: triumphantfinanceltd@gmail.com