What Was Alexandra Before Alexandra? | Plantations, Brickworks, Railways and the Military Corridor Before the Modern City

SINGAPORE / ESTATE HISTORY / ALEXANDRA

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By The Memory desk · Historical reference · Sources checked 7 October 2026

Before Alexandra was a road of offices, condominiums and furniture showrooms, it was military land. Barracks for Indian troops stood there by about 1908, the British opened a 356-bed military hospital in 1940, and in February 1942 that hospital was the scene of one of the worst atrocities of the Japanese invasion. After the war the Singapore Improvement Trust built rental flats along Prince Philip Avenue from 1950, and factories and the first Queenstown estates grew up beside the road.

So the Alexandra history that answers this question is mostly a military and public-housing story, and it is better documented from 1908 onwards than before. This guide sets out what the records show, flags the parts of the usual story we could not confirm, including the origin of the name and the brickworks often mentioned in passing, and links to our neighbouring histories rather than repeating them.

Alexandra history at a glance

Location	Alexandra Road, in south-western central Singapore; it formed the eastern edge of the original Queenstown
Name	Not documented in the sources we checked
Before 1940	Indian army barracks from about 1908, military quarters and, by the 1930s, factories
Best-known landmark	Alexandra Hospital, opened in 1940 as the British Military Hospital at 378 Alexandra Road
Public housing	Singapore Improvement Trust flats at Prince Philip Avenue, built 1950 to 1952 and demolished by 1996
What it is today	A mixed corridor of offices, retail, condominiums and new public housing, with Alexandra Hospital due for rebuilding

Why is it called Alexandra?

The honest answer is that the sources we checked do not say. Alexandra Road is often assumed to honour a member of the British royal family, in the way that nearby Queenstown, Commonwealth and Prince Philip Avenue do, but we have not found the record that names the person or gives the year. Until that turns up, any confident statement about the origin is guesswork.

What is clear is that the name was attached to the military by the early twentieth century. The National Heritage Board describes the hospital site as the former Alexandra Indian barracks, established around 1908, and British regiments later lived at what were called Alexandra Quarters. Every later Alexandra, from the hospital to the post office and the housing estate, took its name from the road.

1908 to 1941: Indian barracks, a mutiny and a new military hospital

The barracks put Alexandra into the military history of Singapore early. During the 1915 mutiny by Indian troops, mutineers tried to storm the bungalow of their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel E.V. Martin, in what is now the Alexandra Park area, according to an Expat Living history of the estate. Many of the buildings in that estate date from before the First World War, when the military camp at nearby Gillman was built.

In the late 1930s, as Britain prepared Singapore for war, the army built a large new hospital on the old barracks site. Construction began in 1938 and the British Military Hospital opened in July 1940 with 356 beds; the Royal Army Medical Corps moved in that year. Wikipedia’s account notes that a building on the grounds dating from at least 1910 had housed malaria patients. Before the war the 2nd Battalion of the Loyal Regiment was stationed at Alexandra Quarters and Gillman Barracks.

The road was not only military. The People’s Association’s Queenstown exhibition records that factories were appearing in Alexandra as early as the 1930s. Accounts of the area often add brickworks and plantations to the picture, but we did not find a dated source for those, so we leave them out of the timeline.

What happened at Alexandra Hospital in February 1942?

By mid-February 1942 the Japanese advance had reached the western edge of the city, and the hospital was overcrowded with wounded; Historic UK puts the number of patients at around 900 in a building meant for 356. On 14 February Japanese soldiers entered the hospital. Patients were killed in their beds and on the operating table, and other staff and patients were forced into outbuildings overnight and killed the next day.

The National Heritage Board puts the toll at around 300 patients and medical staff over two days. Other accounts give different figures, and the exact number is unlikely ever to be settled. Singapore surrendered on 15 February, the second day of the killings. A plaque in the hospital grounds now commemorates the victims. For the fighting along the ridge to the south, see our history of Pasir Panjang before Pasir Panjang.

1950 to 1971: Trust flats, a post office and the Hock Lee riot

After the war the British army returned to the hospital, and the land around it began to fill with civilians. Between 1950 and 1952 the Singapore Improvement Trust built more than 70 blocks of rental flats at Prince Philip Avenue, also called Alexandra North Estate: three- and four-storey blocks of one- and two-room units, according to Remember Singapore. The Alexandra Post Office opened among them on 24 August 1957.

On the west side of the road, the Trust began Queenstown in 1952 and in 1957 opened Princess House, its red-brick offices on Alexandra Road, which became the first headquarters of the Housing and Development Board in 1960. The road also carried one of the most violent labour disputes of the 1950s. In 1955 a strike at the Hock Lee bus company turned into a riot at the junction of Alexandra Road and Dawson Road, in which two police officers were among the dead and hundreds of people were injured, according to TheSmartLocal’s Queenstown history.

East of the road lies Bukit Merah; our history of Redhill before Redhill picks up the story there, and Telok Blangah covers the coast at the southern end of the road.

1971 to today: a hospital for one dollar and a road rebuilt

The British withdrawal in 1971 ended the military era. The National Library records that the British Military Hospital was handed to the Singapore government for a one-dollar note; it gives June 1971 for the handover, while other accounts give 11 September. Both agree that it reopened to the public as Alexandra Hospital on 15 September 1971. In April 1975 its surgeons performed the first successful limb reattachment in South-east Asia. The National University Health System took over the hospital in 2018, and it is due to be rebuilt as a health campus of about 1,300 beds, opening in phases from 2028.

The Trust flats went in the 1990s: Blocks 1 to 16 were demolished in 1990 and the last had gone by 1996. The land lay largely empty for about two decades until the condominiums The Crest and Principal Garden were completed in 2017 and 2019, and in 2021 the government announced some 1,500 public flats for the rest of the site. The post office closed on 17 June 2023. As of October 2026 the hospital, Princess House and the street names are the clearest links to the road’s past, while the shops of Queensway Shopping Centre and the IKEA store nearby belong to its retail chapter.

An Alexandra timeline

• About 1908: The Alexandra Indian barracks are established on the future hospital site.
• 1915: Mutinying Indian troops attack their commanding officer’s bungalow.
• 1930s: Factories begin to appear in Alexandra.
• 1938: Construction of the British Military Hospital begins.
• July 1940: The 356-bed hospital opens.
• 14 to 15 February 1942: Japanese troops kill around 300 patients and staff at the hospital.
• 1950 to 1952: The Singapore Improvement Trust builds the Prince Philip Avenue flats.
• 1955: The Hock Lee bus riot breaks out at Alexandra Road and Dawson Road.
• 1957: Princess House opens; Alexandra Post Office opens on 24 August.
• 15 September 1971: The military hospital reopens as Alexandra Hospital after the British withdrawal.
• April 1975: Alexandra Hospital performs South-east Asia’s first successful limb reattachment.
• 1990 to 1996: The Prince Philip Avenue flats are demolished.
• 2018: The National University Health System takes over Alexandra Hospital.
• 2021: About 1,500 public flats are announced for the former Trust estate.
• 17 June 2023: Alexandra Post Office closes.

Questions people ask

Who is Alexandra Road named after?

We could not find a reliable record. It is often assumed to honour a member of the British royal family, but the sources we checked do not name the person or the year.

What was Alexandra Hospital originally?

The British Military Hospital, built from 1938 and opened in July 1940 on the site of earlier Indian army barracks. It became Alexandra Hospital after the British withdrawal in 1971.

What happened at Alexandra Hospital in 1942?

On 14 and 15 February 1942 Japanese troops killed patients and medical staff; the National Heritage Board puts the toll at around 300.

What was Prince Philip Avenue Estate?

A Singapore Improvement Trust rental estate of more than 70 low blocks off Alexandra Road, built from 1950 to 1952 and demolished between 1990 and 1996.

Is Alexandra part of Queenstown?

Alexandra Road formed the eastern boundary of the original Queenstown satellite town, and the Trust’s Princess House stands on it. The land east of the road leads towards Bukit Merah and Redhill.

Sources and further reading

• National Heritage Board, Roots: Alexandra Hospital
• National Library Board, Infopedia: Alexandra Hospital
• Wikipedia: British Military Hospital, Singapore and Alexandra Hospital
• Historic UK: The Alexandra Hospital massacres, 1942
• Expat Living: The history of Alexandra Park
• Remember Singapore: Alexandra Post Office walks into history (2023)
• TheSmartLocal: The history of Queenstown
• My Community: Our stories, do you remember them?

This is a historical reference to the land and its institutions, not a guide to the shops and offices on the road today. Read next: What Queenstown was before Queenstown · What Redhill was before Redhill · Back to The Memory