Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Bukit Timah Fourth Avenue

The answer to my earlier quiz is: Bukit Timah Fourth Avenue. It is located just a few hundred metres from where I live but once you get into this road, it feels as if you are into a different country because it is so quiet and peaceful here. But it will not be so for long as the government has recently announced plans to build an MRT station here as part of the Downtown Line.

Fearing that this place will be transformed beyond recognition soon, I decided to take some photos recently. I share some of them with you here.

1) This is photo is taken from the direction of the main road. Do you see a fence building complex on the right? Do you know what building complex this is? Hint. I used to see traffic police cars and motor-bikes here quite often. Now it is vacant.


2) Here are a few more photos of this place.


3) This photo is taken in the direction of Bt Timah Road (opposite to picture 1). Notice the huge empty fenced compound on the right side of the road? Do you know what it was used for?

4) Here is the answer; It’s the Police Logistics Department (Automotive Engineering and Management Division) Hope you can make out the words from this dismantled sign board.


5) This is a shot of the location where the Sixth Avenue MRT Station will be built. Below that is a sketch of the planned station which Peter emailed to me.

6) I noticed a couple of other interesting old buildings here. But I don’t know what they are. I think Peter should be able to throw some light.

13 comments:

Victor said...

Can consider converting your car to off-peak car when the MRT is up.

Lam Chun See said...

I must apologize for the failed Recent Comments feature of this blog. I cannot get it going yet. For those who are interested in the Old Cars, an anonymous reader has recently added impressive details of the 'old beauties' I have have been featuring. Pls click on the Old Beauties label on the side bar to read his comments.

Talking about old beauties, I saw a couple in Kuching where I was holidaying last week. Look out for the next Old Beauties Quiz.

Anonymous said...

What buildings u refer Chun See?

Who lives or lived in the last photo?

Before it became a police transport base, it was called the 41 Base Workshop, a military workshop run by the British Army's RAOC unit.

Lam Chun See said...

Peter. I mean the buildings in the last 2 photos. And also the empty land on right side of Photo no. 4. I think that is where they kept the accident vehicles.

Anonymous said...

I believe the empty land was also a part of the 41 Base Workshop.

Opposite this place, just before the exit road into Bukit Timah Road of the old Singapore Turf Club, is there still a 4 storey building? I think the glass pane was olive green in colour. It was used as a staff quarters by some government department in the 1960s.

Tom said...

Tom said...
Chun See , Good morming Yesterday Blogger is going all haywire, is there some thing wrong?

Lam Chun See said...

About the problems with my Recent Comments, this is what I discovered.

I went to the Blogger Help Group site here and found that many other bloggers are facing this problem and Blogger is still working on the problem.

Victor said...

Chun See, well done on the self-help. Way to go!

Trials & Tribulations said...

Hi Chun See
Seeing your photos of 4th Avenue brings much me delight! I used to live along Farrer Road and have moved just down the road to Commonwealth, and in the past few years while finding new routes to jog, have found the neighbourhood around packed with old houses and a lot of S'pore history.
At the top of 4th or 5th Avenue is a patch of grass, and following that brings one through a short-cut back down to Coronation Road West, while the water pipe leads all the way to Cornwall Gardens (there's a small path alongside, though broken up by Coronation Road itself). This area is full of such routes that were so fun to discover.
Your blog is absolutely BRILLIANT, one of the best I've read on the Net. Love the old photos and admire the dedication and passion you put it into! :)

Lam Chun See said...

Thank you 'Trials' for your kind compliments about my blog. Much credit goes to my readers and guest bloggers.

I must admit I am not very familiar with the 4th, 3rd ave area. I do most of my walking exercise in the other side of 6th Ave; namely Garlick, Maple, Old Holland Road side, sometimes Swiss Club area.

I might have an old photo of 5th ave from Peter. Maybe will blog about that one of these days.

LingtheMerciless said...

Hello Mr Lam,

It's so interesting to read your blog. I've lived many years in one of the avenues and I used to take this route to school from the bus stop along Dunearn Road...and vice versa (extra training climbing up the hill).

And that patch of land on the left when you go uphill was an accident vehicle tow storage area. My dogs used to run out of the house and hide under the damaged cars, and returned home all covered in oil!

I remember seeing police cars with L plate licences moving frequently along this road.

There is a green patch that connects to Sixth Avenue from 4th Avenue, and from the top of 3rd Avenue, there is a grass patch which connects to the Namly area and beyond....linking all the way to Coronation Rd etc.

Thanks for the memories!

Lam Chun See said...

Hi Ling. I have been living in this area for more than 20 years. Although I often go walking around the neighbourhood, I seldom explore this side of Sixth Ave. Probably becos of the traffic. But recently I have explored those area you mentioned.

In the past I often see traffic cops on their motorbikes returning to 4th Ave from Eng Neo. I often wondered if they would break the traffic rules and go straight up at the traffic light junction instead of going 1 big round to Dunearn and then make a u-turn. Well I can say our traffic cops are quite law-abidding. If were them .....

LingtheMerciless said...

Haha..I plead guilty to returning to 4th Ave from Eng Neo countless of times! :P

Never witnessed any cops doing the same though....

Well, I hope there were no cops around when I was making that turn!