What Was Buona Vista Before Buona Vista? | Kampongs, Military Land, Queenstown and the Ridge Before One-North

SINGAPORE / ESTATE HISTORY / BUONA VISTA

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By The Memory desk · Historical reference · Sources checked 7 October 2026

Before Buona Vista meant an MRT interchange, it was a pair of winding roads over the Kent Ridge, a 15-inch coastal gun battery finished in the late 1930s, a Malay kampong with a mosque founded in 1934, British barracks for Gurkha soldiers, and Hakka burial hills to the north. The housing estate that carries the name came late: the Housing and Development Board balloted its first flats, at Holland Close and Holland Avenue, on 10 July 1973.

So Buona Vista history is mostly the history of a road name that spread. The name, Italian for “good view”, belonged first to the roads; it was later borrowed by an estate, a constituency, an MRT station opened in 1988 and the business district around it. This guide follows that sequence, sets out what the records say about each layer, and flags the places where they are thin.

Buona Vista history at a glance

Location	Around the North and South Buona Vista Roads, Holland Close and Holland Avenue, within the Queenstown planning area
Name	Italian for “good view”, taken from the roads over Kent Ridge; who chose it is not documented in the sources we found
Before the estate	Hilly roads, the Buona Vista coastal battery (late 1930s), a Malay kampong with Ahmad Mosque (1934), British military land and Hakka cemeteries
Housing estate	Built by the HDB in the early 1970s as Queenstown’s sixth neighbourhood; first flats balloted 10 July 1973
Known for	“The Gap” on South Buona Vista Road, its interchange station and its position beside the one-north business park
What it is today	A housing estate and transport node served by the East-West Line (1988) and Circle Line (2011)

Why is it called Buona Vista?

Buona Vista means “good view” in Italian, and the name came from the roads, not from any Italian settlement. North Buona Vista Road and South Buona Vista Road wind over the Kent Ridge between Holland Road and Pasir Panjang, and the estate later took its name from them, according to Savage and Yeoh’s study of Singapore street names as cited by Wikipedia. The Pasir Panjang Private Estate Association notes that the forest along the road was once lower and thinner, so drivers could see towards the sea, which then lay much closer to the road than it does today.

We have not found a reliable record of who chose the name or in which year the roads were laid out. That is a common gap in Singapore’s colonial road names, where the label often outlived any note of why it was given. What is clear is the order of things: the roads came first, and every later Buona Vista, from the 1973 housing estate to the 1976 constituency and the 1988 MRT station, borrowed their name.

The 1930s: a coastal gun battery and a kampong mosque

The best-documented early landmark is military. As Britain fortified Singapore in the 1930s, it built the Buona Vista Battery near the junction of Ulu Pandan Road and what was then Reformatory Road, now Clementi Road. Work was expected to finish in 1938, and the battery’s two 15-inch guns on so-called Spanish mountings were operational in 1939, according to the Fort Siloso history site.

They never fired at the invaders. The guns could not traverse far enough north to bear on the Japanese landings of February 1942, and on 11 February the retreating British blew them up with 250 pounds of gelignite each. Japanese engineers later repaired the No. 2 gun, but it never saw action. No visible remains survive; the site at 333 Clementi Road is now a Singapore Armed Forces camp, according to TracesOfWar.

Civilian life on the southern slope is harder to trace in the records. One fixed point is Ahmad Mosque, at the junction of South Buona Vista Road and Lorong Sarhad. It was founded in 1934 as a kampong mosque on land donated by Ahmat Yahya, and has since been rebuilt. A National Archives photograph of a provision shop in South Buona Vista Village, dated July 1986, shows that a village by that name was still standing well into the HDB era. Our history of Pasir Panjang before Pasir Panjang covers the coastal kampongs below the ridge.

1945 to the 1970s: Gurkha barracks, Nepal Park and “the Gap”

After the war the British military presence grew. Between 1945 and 1950 the British built Slim Barracks near Buona Vista Road to house Gurkha soldiers recruited from Nepal, according to the transport historian Eisen Teo. The names on today’s map record that period: Nepal Park honours the Gurkhas, Rochester Park is named after Rochester in Kent, and Portsdown Road after Portsdown Hill in Hampshire. Between 1966 and 1969 a roundabout called Nepal Circus was built at the steep junction where Portsdown Road met North Buona Vista Road; when the road was straightened between 1981 and 1984, the roundabout lost its purpose but was never removed.

South Buona Vista Road, meanwhile, acquired a nickname. From the 1950s to the 1970s its steep curves through the ridge were known as “the Gap”, and they drew illicit night-time drag racers as well as official events. The Singapore Motor Club, which began with mostly British expatriate and military members, held sprints and speed trials there and at other sites such as Bukit Batok, and local drivers later joined and made their names on the same bends. The mural by David Liew at Buona Vista MRT station draws on this period, from the 1930s to the 1970s, including the motor club and the military bases.

To the north, the land between Buona Vista and Holland Road was largely given over to burial. The Hakka Shuang Long Shan cemetery, founded in 1887, covered the hills that the Commonwealth and Buona Vista estates now occupy; its story is told in our history of Holland Village before Holland Village.

1966 to 1973: graves cleared and Queenstown’s sixth neighbourhood built

The modern estate began with an act of land clearance. In 1966 the government acquired the burial ground around the Shuang Long Shan ancestral hall to develop the Commonwealth and Buona Vista estates, the National Heritage Board records, and the remains were exhumed and cremated. The site sat at the western edge of Queenstown, which the Singapore Improvement Trust had begun in the 1950s and the HDB took over in 1960, adding Mei Ling and Buona Vista as new neighbourhoods.

Buona Vista became Queenstown’s sixth neighbourhood. The first flats, at Holland Close and Holland Avenue, were balloted on 10 July 1973 under the Home Ownership for the People Scheme, and The Straits Times reported the next day that the estate would have 6,685 flats and shops. The name followed the people into politics: a Buona Vista constituency was carved out of Ulu Pandan for the 1976 general election and lasted until it was merged into Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency in 1997.

1988 to today: the MRT station and one-north

Buona Vista MRT station opened on 12 March 1988, on the stretch of the East-West Line from Outram Park to Clementi; it had been planned under the name North Buona Vista. The Circle Line platforms followed on 8 October 2011, turning the station into an interchange. An early plan for a light rail line to serve the National University of Singapore and Singapore Polytechnic from the station was dropped as uneconomic.

Much of the land around Portsdown Road and Nepal Circus now belongs to the one-north business park, and the Fusionopolis buildings stand beside the old roundabout. This is our reading rather than a documented planning fact, but large parcels held by the military and the state were the kind of land that could be replanned at district scale, in a way that a patchwork of private kampong lots could not. As of October 2026 the street names Nepal Park, Rochester Park and Portsdown Road are the clearest record of the military years, Nepal Circus survives as a roundabout with almost nothing to go round, and Ahmad Mosque still stands on Lorong Sarhad. For the neighbouring estate to the west, see our history of Clementi before Clementi.

A Buona Vista timeline

• 1887: The Hakka Shuang Long Shan cemetery is founded on Holland Road, north of today’s estate.
• 1934: Ahmad Mosque is founded at South Buona Vista Road and Lorong Sarhad.
• 1938 to 1939: The Buona Vista Battery’s two 15-inch guns are completed and become operational.
• 11 February 1942: The British demolish the battery’s guns.
• 1945 to 1950: Slim Barracks is built for Gurkha troops near Buona Vista Road.
• 1950s to 1970s: South Buona Vista Road is known as “the Gap” and used for motor sport.
• 1966: The government acquires the Shuang Long Shan burial ground for the Commonwealth and Buona Vista estates.
• 1966 to 1969: Nepal Circus roundabout is built.
• 10 July 1973: The first Buona Vista HDB flats are balloted.
• 1976: Buona Vista constituency is created; it is merged into Tanjong Pagar GRC in 1997.
• 1981 to 1984: North Buona Vista Road is straightened.
• 12 March 1988: Buona Vista MRT station opens on the East-West Line.
• 8 October 2011: The Circle Line platforms open.

Questions people ask

What does Buona Vista mean?

“Good view” in Italian. The name belonged first to North and South Buona Vista Roads, which cross the Kent Ridge; the housing estate, constituency and MRT station took it from the roads.

What was Buona Vista before the HDB estate?

Hilly land with British military sites, including a 1930s coastal gun battery and postwar Gurkha barracks, a Malay kampong around Ahmad Mosque, and Hakka burial hills to the north that were cleared from 1966.

When was Buona Vista estate built?

In the early 1970s, as the sixth neighbourhood of Queenstown. The first flats, at Holland Close and Holland Avenue, were balloted on 10 July 1973.

What was “the Gap” on South Buona Vista Road?

The nickname for the road’s steep curves through Kent Ridge from the 1950s to the 1970s, when it was used for illegal drag racing and for sprints and speed trials run by the Singapore Motor Club.

When did Buona Vista MRT station open?

The East-West Line station opened on 12 March 1988, and the Circle Line platforms on 8 October 2011.

Sources and further reading

• Wikipedia: Buona Vista, citing The Straits Times (11 July 1973) and Savage and Yeoh’s Toponymics (2003)
• Fort Siloso: The Buona Vista 15-inch battery
• TracesOfWar: Site of the former Buona Vista Battery
• Eisen Teo, History by Eisen: Nepal Circus, a transport vestige (2021)
• Pasir Panjang Private Estate Association: Buona Vista Gap Hill, an interesting past
• LearnIslam.sg: Ahmad Mosque
• National Archives of Singapore: South Buona Vista Village, provision shop (1986)
• National Heritage Board, Roots: Shuang Long Shan Wu Shu Memorial Hall
• National Heritage Board, Roots: Queenstown, the queen of housing estates
• Wikipedia: Buona Vista MRT station and Buona Vista Single Member Constituency

This is a historical reference to the land and settlement, not a guide to the business park or its tenants. Read next: What Queenstown was before Queenstown · Holland Village’s market, shops and nightlife · Back to The Memory