Traditional Singapore Street Names

Ramseth · Aug 6, 2011

It's been a long time since I've started a thread. From the other thread http://sammyboy.com/showthread.php?...nish-mahjong-session-b4-taking-statement..LOL I've got a side topic idea, let's recall some traditional Singapore street names, beginning with our downtown of course. Our downtown was divided into big town 大坡 and small town 小坡。That was because the town and street names were given by the British in an era when few Chinese were English educated. So they improvised and developed their own naming system.

Big Town Main Street 大坡大马路
Big Town 2nd Street 大坡二马路

Small Town Main Street 小坡大马路
Small Toiwn 2nd Street 小坡二马路
Small Town 3rd Street 小坡三马路
Small Town 4th Street 小坡四马路
Small Town 5th Street 小坡五马路
Small Town 6th Street 小坡六马路
Small Town 7th Street 小坡七马路

Anyone know where's the demarcation between Big Town and Small Town and the official English street names?

po2wq · Aug 6, 2011

watz their real names? ... :confused:

wikiphile · Aug 6, 2011

here's one Sam Leong Road

http://maps.google.com.sg/maps?hl=e...code_result&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCoQ8gEwAw

tucked between Deskar and Petain Road, most apt

Unrepented · Aug 6, 2011

What's the history of this road? Why named it sam leong?

wikiphile said:
here's one Sam Leong Road

http://maps.google.com.sg/maps?hl=e...code_result&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCoQ8gEwAw

tucked between Deskar and Petain Road, most apt

wikiphile · Aug 6, 2011

Unrepented said:
What's the history of this road? Why named it sam leong?

I have no idea, it is tucked beside the two Mustafa shopping centres in the middle of Little India, a chinese street name in the middle of an Indian enclave seems to suggest how much the Yindians like Sam Leong

Ramseth · Aug 6, 2011

po2wq said:
watz their real names? ...

You can go Wiki but will be in vain. Either you know or don't know.

wikiphile said:
here's one Sam Leong Road

http://maps.google.com.sg/maps?hl=e...code_result&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCoQ8gEwAw

tucked between Deskar and Petain Road, most apt

Desker, Sam Leong and Petain are already out of town in the traditional naming system. Have you heard of Hougang 1st Milestone, 2nd Milestone, 3rd milestone etc.? Give you a tip, Hougang 1st Milestone marked the end of downtown at Tekka. Hougang used to be synonymous with Serangoon.

Unrepented · Aug 6, 2011

Now I remember seeing that road sign long time ago when I lunched at the corner chinese coffeeshop near Mustafa.

wikiphile said:
I have no idea, it is tucked beside the two Mustafa shopping centres in the middle of Little India, a chinese street name in the middle of an Indian enclave seems to suggest how much the Yindians like Sam Leong

halsey02 · Aug 6, 2011

wikiphile said:
I have no idea, it is tucked beside the two Mustafa shopping centres in the middle of Little India, a chinese street name in the middle of an Indian enclave seems to suggest how much the Yindians like Sam Leong

Taken from wikipedia :>In 1923, the New World Amusement Park located off Jalan Besar was opened by the enterprising sons of Ong Sam Leong (after whom nearby Sam Leong Road is named), Peng Hock and Boon Tat.>

wikiphile · Aug 6, 2011

halsey02 said:
Taken from wikipedia :>In 1923, the New World Amusement Park located off Jalan Besar was opened by the enterprising sons of Ong Sam Leong (after whom nearby Sam Leong Road is named), Peng Hock and Boon Tat.>

ah even i didn't scour wikipedia for that, the origins of the name nor how it came to be there does not really interest me that much, it is the swipe i was going for :biggrin:

Narong Wongwan · Aug 6, 2011

Ramseth said:
You can go Wiki but will be in vain. Either you know or don't know.

Desker, Sam Leong and Petain are already out of town in the traditional naming system. Have you heard of Hougang 1st Milestone, 2nd Milestone, 3rd milestone etc.? Give you a tip, Hougang 1st Milestone marked the end of downtown at Tekka. Hougang used to be synonymous with Serangoon.

I only know the teochew call hougang is five miles....

zeebjii · Aug 6, 2011

Ramseth said:
It's been a long time since I've started a thread. From the other thread http://sammyboy.com/showthread.php?...nish-mahjong-session-b4-taking-statement..LOL I've got a side topic idea, let's recall some traditional Singapore street names, beginning with our downtown of course. Our downtown was divided into big town 大坡 and small town 小坡。That was because the town and street names were given by the British in an era when few Chinese were English educated. So they improvised and developed their own naming system.

Big Town Main Street 大坡大马路
Big Town 2nd Street 大坡二马路

Small Town Main Street 小坡大马路
Small Toiwn 2nd Street 小坡二马路
Small Town 3rd Street 小坡三马路
Small Town 4th Street 小坡四马路
Small Town 5th Street 小坡五马路
Small Town 6th Street 小坡六马路
Small Town 7th Street 小坡七马路

Anyone know where's the demarcation between Big Town and Small Town and the official English street names?

North and South Bridge Roads?

Baimi · Aug 6, 2011

Let's see if i am correct

Big Town Main Street 大坡大马路~South Bridge Road
Big Town 2nd Street 大坡二马路~New Bridge Road

Small Town Main Street 小坡大马路~North Bridge Road
Small Toiwn 2nd Street 小坡二马路~Victoria Street
Small Town 3rd Street 小坡三马路~Queen Street
Small Town 4th Street 小坡四马路~Waterloo Street
Small Town 5th Street 小坡五马路~Bencoolen Street
Small Town 6th Street 小坡六马路~Princep Street
Small Town 7th Street 小坡七马路~Rochor Road

johnny333 · Aug 6, 2011

I heard that the names of many of the streets in Sennet estate was named after the family members of the developer of Sennet estate: Siang Kuan, Wan Tho, etc

lianbeng · Aug 6, 2011

lianbeng prefers to use such traditional road names as they really mean lots to me since childhood days - nostalgic.:(
told 1 young man taxi driver go "chup si lao" (十四楼 14 storey) he stared blank at me. sigh~:(

zikoman · Aug 6, 2011

Ramseth said:
It's been a long time since I've started a thread. From the other thread http://sammyboy.com/showthread.php?...nish-mahjong-session-b4-taking-statement..LOL I've got a side topic idea, let's recall some traditional Singapore street names, beginning with our downtown of course. Our downtown was divided into big town 大坡 and small town 小坡。That was because the town and street names were given by the British in an era when few Chinese were English educated. So they improvised and developed their own naming system.

Anyone know where's the demarcation between Big Town and Small Town and the official English street names?

one fine day, Sir Stamford Raffles was standing on a bridge linking a long stretch of road starting from Crawford area to Chinatown. Damn! such a long road must break them up..... Standing on Elgin Bridge & facing the sea, he said; so to my left shall be North Bridge Road & the other side South Bridge Road.

And the chinese coolie didn't wanna lose out to the ang moh... they had a discussion and came up with 大坡 & 小坡...
大坡 - chinatown area cos there were more houses in that area as compared to the area which is Bugis today... hence, 大坡 is Chinatown area (South Bridge Road) while 小坡 is Bugis area (North Bridge Road).... :biggrin:

zikoman · Aug 6, 2011

Baimi said:
Let's see if i am correct

Big Town Main Street 大坡大马路~South Bridge Road
Big Town 2nd Street 大坡二马路~New Bridge Road

Small Town Main Street 小坡大马路~North Bridge Road
Small Toiwn 2nd Street 小坡二马路~Victoria Street
Small Town 3rd Street 小坡三马路~Queen Street
Small Town 4th Street 小坡四马路~Waterloo Street
Small Town 5th Street 小坡五马路~Bencoolen Street
Small Town 6th Street 小坡六马路~Princep Street
Small Town 7th Street 小坡七马路~Rochor Road

almost right..... Small Town 7th Street 小坡七马路 should be Selegie Road......

as for 大坡大马路, i think its Kreta Ayer.... not too sure abt 大坡二马路 though.... :p

zikoman · Aug 6, 2011

halsey02 said:
Taken from wikipedia :>In 1923, the New World Amusement Park located off Jalan Besar was opened by the enterprising sons of Ong Sam Leong (after whom nearby Sam Leong Road is named), Peng Hock and Boon Tat.>

read it all here - http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1461_2009-02-19.html

Interestingly, this sam leong's tombstone is the biggest in sgp http://oceanskies79places.blogspot.com/2011/06/bukit-brown-place-with-rich-heritage.html

:eek:

Ramseth · Aug 6, 2011

Baimi said:
Let's see if i am correct

Big Town Main Street 大坡大马路~South Bridge Road
Big Town 2nd Street 大坡二马路~New Bridge Road

Small Town Main Street 小坡大马路~North Bridge Road
Small Toiwn 2nd Street 小坡二马路~Victoria Street
Small Town 3rd Street 小坡三马路~Queen Street
Small Town 4th Street 小坡四马路~Waterloo Street
Small Town 5th Street 小坡五马路~Bencoolen Street
Small Town 6th Street 小坡六马路~Princep Street
Small Town 7th Street 小坡七马路~Rochor Road

zikoman said:
almost right..... Small Town 7th Street 小坡七马路 should be Selegie Road......

as for 大坡大马路, i think its Kreta Ayer.... not too sure abt 大坡二马路 though.... :p

Yes Baimi was almost right, the 7th Street should be Selegie. Big Town 2nd Street is Eu Tong Seng - Hill and Small Town 2nd Street is Hill - Victoria ending at Kallang - Crawford. And Zikoman is right about the demarcation of the Elgin Bridge as the demarcation between "big town" and "small town" or South Bridge and North Bridge. Both combined as downtown main, it begins after Outram and ends at Crawford.

Narong Wongwan · Aug 6, 2011

lianbeng said:
lianbeng prefers to use such traditional road names as they really mean lots to me since childhood days - nostalgic.:(
told 1 young man taxi driver go "chup si lao" (十四楼 14 storey) he stared blank at me. sigh~:(

There were so many similar places like tanglin halt 十楼，十二楼，十六楼 etc.
There are also other places like 四脚亭，火城，白沙浮，四排坡，白桥，黑桥头。

HedgeTrader · Aug 6, 2011

Narong Wongwan said:
There were so many similar places like tanglin halt ，十六楼 etc.
There are also other places like 四脚亭，，四排坡，白桥，黑桥头。

I don't know everything just try some.

十楼 = Circuit Road (this one I very sure since I lived there before)
火城 = Lavender
白沙浮 = Bugis

The rest I don't know.

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