What Was Queenstown Before Queenstown? | Boh Beh Kang, Farms, Cemeteries and the Villages Before Singapore’s First Satellite Town

SINGAPORE / ESTATE HISTORY / QUEENSTOWN

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By The Memory desk · Historical reference · Sources checked 7 October 2026

Before Queenstown, the valley west of Alexandra Road held Boh Beh Kang, a Hokkien and Teochew village of attap huts named after a stream whose source no one could find, along with pig farms, orchards, rubber, burial hills and a British army post called Buller Camp. In July 1952 the Singapore Improvement Trust began building its first estate, and on 27 September 1953 it announced a satellite town for 70,000 people, named Queenstown to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

That makes Queenstown history the story of Singapore’s first satellite town and of the land it replaced. The Trust built the first estates in the 1950s; the Housing and Development Board took over in 1960, completed its own first blocks at Stirling Road in 1961, and cleared Boh Beh Kang for Mei Ling Estate later that decade. This guide follows that sequence, and points to separate pieces on the neighbouring areas and on Queensway Shopping Centre, whose retail story we tell on its own.

Queenstown history at a glance

Location	Western central Singapore; the original town was bounded by Ridout, Tanglin, Alexandra and Holland Roads and the Malayan Railway
Before the town	Boh Beh Kang village, farms, orchards, rubber, burial hills, and the British Buller Camp and Normanton Barracks
Built by	Singapore Improvement Trust from 1952; Housing and Development Board from 1960
Named	1953, after Queen Elizabeth II, to mark her coronation
Known for	Singapore’s first satellite town, Forfar House (1956), the first polyclinic (1963), the first branch library and neighbourhood sports complex (1970)
What it is today	A mature HDB town undergoing redevelopment, with a heritage trail launched in 2015

What was Boh Beh Kang?

Boh Beh Kang is the old name most closely tied to the ground beneath Queenstown. The Hokkien phrase means “river with no tail”, and residents explained it by saying they could never trace where the stream came from, according to the People’s Association’s Queenstown exhibition. Wikipedia’s account places the village in a swampy valley between two hills, one planted with rubber and the other used for burial.

The village was mainly Hokkien and Teochew, and several hundred people lived there in attap-roofed huts. TheSmartLocal puts it at about 300 households, with its own village school, Da Hua School, alongside orchards and rubber smallholdings. Families grew vegetables and fruit and raised pigs. A temple began in 1931 as an altar in one villager’s hut; it was rebuilt after the war and took the name Tiong Ghee Temple in 1966.

Boh Beh Kang was not the only community on this land. Burial grounds covered other hills nearby, including the Hakka Shuang Long Shan cemetery to the west, whose story is in our history of Holland Village before Holland Village. And on the eastern side, the British army held land of its own.

Buller Camp and the 1947 case for a satellite town

Two British military sites became building plots. The Princess Estate went up on the site of Buller Camp, which the National Heritage Board says was cleared in 1953, and the Queen’s Crescent estate on the former Normanton Barracks. This is our reading, but military land offered the Trust large single parcels while the village to the west was still occupied. The barracks along Alexandra Road are covered in our history of Alexandra before Alexandra.

The idea behind the town was older than the buildings. In 1947 a colonial Housing Committee reported on the shortage of decent housing and proposed decentralising the population into planned suburbs, an approach influenced by Britain’s New Town movement. The Singapore Improvement Trust, set up in 1927, had built estates before, most famously at Tiong Bahru in the 1930s, but never a full satellite town.

1952 to 1959: the Singapore Improvement Trust builds Queenstown

Work began in July 1952 on what was first called the Princess Margaret Estate, and the first three-room flats were ready by late 1953. On 27 September 1953 the Trust announced the full plan: 11,000 flats for 70,000 residents at an estimated cost of about $80 million, under the name Queenstown, the National Heritage Board records. The Trust’s estates were Princess Estate, Duchess Estate, Tanglin Halt, Commonwealth, and Queen’s Close with Queen’s Crescent. When Princess Estate was finished in 1956 it held more than 1,000 flats of one to three rooms and 68 terrace houses.

The best-known building of the decade was Forfar House, opened on 24 October 1956. At 14 storeys it was the tallest residential building in Singapore at the time, with 106 flats, four shops and two lifts, and residents called it chap si lau, “fourteen storeys”. It has since been demolished under the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme and replaced by the much taller Forfar Heights. Princess House, the seven-storey red-brick office block on Alexandra Road, opened in 1957 as the Trust’s offices and still stands, conserved in 2007.

Schools came with the flats. Queenstown Secondary Technical School opened in 1956 as Singapore’s first technical school, and its first 92 students sat their GCE examinations in 1959. This is our reading, but it shows what “satellite town” meant in practice: the plan was to give residents the services they would otherwise have travelled into town for, not just a roof.

1960 to 1970: the HDB takes over and Boh Beh Kang disappears

The Housing and Development Board replaced the Trust in 1960 and made Princess House its first headquarters. The Commonwealth Avenue Wet Market, designed by the Trust, opened on 23 October 1960 and was conserved in 2013. The Board’s own first flats, Blocks 45, 48 and 49 at Stirling Road, were completed in 1961 and housed victims of the Bukit Ho Swee fire; they still stand. Between 1952 and 1968, 19,372 homes were built in Queenstown in all.

The Board extended the town with new neighbourhoods, among them Mei Ling and, in the early 1970s, Buona Vista. Mei Ling Estate was built on Boh Beh Kang itself, and TheSmartLocal dates the village’s demolition to 1968; the People’s Association says only that village life there ended in the 1960s. The first point blocks went up on Mei Ling Street in April 1970.

Work arrived alongside housing. In 1964 a light industrialisation programme began at Tanglin Halt, and factories such as Van Houten’s chocolate plant and the Unitex garment factory operated in the district until they moved to larger industrial estates in the late 1980s. A string of national firsts followed: Singapore’s first polyclinic on Margaret Drive in 1963, the first full-time branch library on 30 April 1970, and the first neighbourhood sports complex, opened by Lim Kim San on 15 August 1970. The town centre, planned in 1962, was complete by 1969, and Queensway Shopping Centre opened in 1974.

Queenstown today: renewal and a heritage trail

Singapore’s first satellite town is now one of its oldest, and much of it is being rebuilt. In June 2014 the HDB announced selective en bloc redevelopment for 31 blocks at Tanglin Halt and Commonwealth Drive, and other early blocks have already given way to taller ones. The town became a template for the HDB new towns that followed, among them Toa Payoh.

As of October 2026 the best way to see the layers is the My Queenstown Heritage Trail, launched in 2015. Princess House, the Stirling Road blocks, the Commonwealth Avenue market and the Queenstown library all survive, and the small Shuang Long Shan cemetery remains at Commonwealth Avenue. We could not confirm any physical trace of Boh Beh Kang itself; its memory survives mainly in residents’ accounts collected for exhibitions and the heritage trail.

A Queenstown timeline

• 1927: The Singapore Improvement Trust is set up.
• 1931: An altar in a Boh Beh Kang hut begins what becomes Tiong Ghee Temple.
• 1947: The Housing Committee recommends moving people from the city centre into planned suburbs.
• July 1952: Construction begins on the first estate, later known as Princess Estate.
• 27 September 1953: The Trust announces the satellite town and its name, Queenstown.
• 1956: Princess Estate is completed; Forfar House opens on 24 October; Queenstown Secondary Technical School opens.
• 1957: Princess House opens as the Trust’s offices.
• 1960: The HDB replaces the Trust; Commonwealth Avenue Wet Market opens on 23 October.
• 1961: The HDB’s first blocks, at Stirling Road, are completed.
• 1963: Singapore’s first polyclinic opens on Margaret Drive.
• 1964: Light industry begins at Tanglin Halt.
• 1968: Boh Beh Kang is cleared for Mei Ling Estate (TheSmartLocal’s date).
• 1970: Point blocks rise on Mei Ling Street; the branch library opens on 30 April and the sports complex on 15 August.
• 1974: Queensway Shopping Centre opens.
• June 2014: Redevelopment is announced for 31 blocks at Tanglin Halt and Commonwealth Drive.
• 2015: The My Queenstown Heritage Trail is launched.

Questions people ask

Why is it called Queenstown?

It was named in 1953 in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, to mark her coronation. Before that the land was known locally by older names such as Boh Beh Kang.

What does Boh Beh Kang mean?

It is Hokkien for “river with no tail”. Villagers said they could not trace where the stream that ran through the valley began.

Was Queenstown Singapore’s first satellite town?

Yes. The Singapore Improvement Trust began it in 1952 and announced it in 1953 as a satellite town for 70,000 people; the HDB completed it after 1960.

What was Forfar House?

A 14-storey block of 106 flats, opened in 1956 as Singapore’s tallest residential building. It was later demolished and replaced by Forfar Heights.

What was on the land before Queenstown?

The Boh Beh Kang village with its farms and orchards, burial hills, rubber smallholdings, and two British military sites, Buller Camp and Normanton Barracks.

Sources and further reading

• National Heritage Board, Roots: Queenstown, the queen of housing estates
• National Heritage Board, Roots: The queen of estates through her residents’ stories
• National Heritage Board, Roots: Queenstown historic site
• National Heritage Board, My Queenstown Heritage Trail: Queenstown Sports Complex
• My Community: Our stories, do you remember them?
• Wikipedia: Queenstown, Singapore, citing Savage and Yeoh’s Singapore Street Names (2013)
• TheSmartLocal: The history of Queenstown
• Lion Heartlanders: A heritage trail of Queenstown

This is a historical reference to the land and its housing estates; for the shops and malls of the area, see our retail histories. Read next: What Alexandra was before Alexandra · Queensway Shopping Centre’s sports shops · Back to The Memory