What Was Tiong Bahru Before Tiong Bahru? | Cemeteries, Kampongs and the Low-Lying Land Before Singapore’s Art Deco Estate

SINGAPORE / ESTATE HISTORY / TIONG BAHRU

Explore this history: The Memory: all Singapore histories · Tiong Bahru Plaza’s mall history · The history of wet markets.

By The Memory desk · Historical reference · Sources checked 7 October 2026

Before Tiong Bahru was an estate of curved Art Deco flats, it was a new Chinese cemetery on low hills beside a swamp, and by the time it was cleared more than 2,000 squatters lived there in huts, some of them on stilts over the wet ground. The name says as much: the Hokkien tiong is tied to graves and death, and the Malay bahru means new. In 1926 the colonial government bought the land for an improvement scheme that the new Singapore Improvement Trust carried out: the hills were cut down to fill the swamp, and the first block of flats was finished in December 1936.

So the Tiong Bahru history behind this question runs from burial ground to building site to one of the best-preserved pre-war public housing estates anywhere. By 1941 the Trust had built 784 flats for more than 6,000 people, a second wave followed after the war, and in 2003 the Urban Redevelopment Authority conserved the pre-war blocks. This guide follows the land through those stages. The market, the cafés and the mall have their own stories, told in our histories of Singapore’s wet markets and Tiong Bahru Plaza.

Tiong Bahru history at a glance

Location	Between Outram Road and Redhill, in the Bukit Merah planning area
Name	Hokkien tiong (graves, death) and Malay bahru (new): “new cemetery”; first recorded as “Tiang Bahru” in 1863
Before the estate	Chinese burial grounds, low hills, a swamp and a squatter settlement of more than 2,000 people
Built by	Singapore Improvement Trust; pre-war blocks 1936 to 1941, post-war blocks dated to 1954
Architect	Credited to the Trust’s Alfred G. Church; BiblioAsia also names Lincoln Page and Robert F. N. Kan
What it is today	A conserved estate of about 2,000 flats; 20 pre-war blocks gazetted for conservation on 1 December 2003

Why is it called Tiong Bahru?

The name is a mix of two languages and means “new cemetery”. The National Heritage Board’s trail booklet glosses the Hokkien tiong as “to die” or “the end”, and BiblioAsia, the National Library’s journal, as “graveyard”; either way it points to burial. The Malay bahru means new. The booklet finds the name in The Straits Times as early as 13 June 1863, spelt “Tiang Bahru”.

It was new by contrast with an older one. The heritage trail describes an old burial ground, Teong Lama, on what is now the Singapore General Hospital site, and a new one, Teong Baru, in use by 1859. BiblioAsia names the public Hokkien cemetery Si Jiao Ting and family burial grounds belonging to the Choa, Wee and Lim clans. Residents also had an everyday Hokkien name for the area, O Chai Hng, which BiblioAsia translates as “tapioca vegetable garden”.

Before 1926: graves, swamp and squatters

The burial grounds were part of a wider landscape of Chinese graves on the edge of the old town. The heritage trail traces the Hokkien Heng San Teng burial ground to 1828 and records that about 500 bodies a year were buried there. Tan Tock Seng, the merchant and hospital founder who died in 1850, may have been reburied near Outram Road by his son Tan Kim Ching, though the booklet is careful to say his original grave is unknown. Our history of Outram before Outram covers the neighbouring ground.

By the early twentieth century the area was, in the heritage trail’s summary, partly swamp and partly disused graveyard, dotted with squatters’ huts. BiblioAsia counts more than 2,000 squatters in 280 huts, some built on stilts over the marsh, and parts of the land lay 1.5 to 2 metres below sea level. A shrine to the Monkey God, Qi Tian Gong, began in 1920 in an attap hut in a taro garden; it moved to its present site on Eng Hoon Street in 1938 and is one of the few institutions that bridges the two eras.

1926 to 1936: the Improvement Trust levels the hills

The decision to build came in 1926. On 1 February the Legislative Council approved a $250,000 five-year loan for buying the land, according to the heritage trail, and the land was acquired in June that year for the improvement scheme. Sources differ on the size and price: the National Heritage Board gives about 70 acres, while BiblioAsia gives around 33 hectares bought for more than $600,000. The Singapore Improvement Trust, formally constituted in 1927, took on the work.

Preparing the ground took most of a decade. The squatters were moved out, graves were exhumed and reburied at Bukit Brown, and the hills were cut down to fill the swamp; about 72 acres were levelled and filled. By 1931 the infrastructure works alone had cost $1.5 million, BiblioAsia reports. Roads were laid out and named, many of them, the trail booklet says, after members of the See family and other prominent Chinese businessmen.

1936 to 1941: Streamline Moderne flats and an air-raid shelter

Construction of the flats began in March 1936, and the first block, Block 55, was ready in December with 28 flats and four shops; 20 of the flats were already let by the end of that month. The National Heritage Board credits the design to the Trust’s architect Alfred G. Church, and BiblioAsia also names Lincoln Page and Robert F. N. Kan. The style is usually called Streamline Moderne, a late form of Art Deco: rounded corners, flat roofs, long horizontal bands, cantilevered sunshades and, in the pre-war blocks, layouts that echoed the shophouse. Window frames were imported from the Crittall company in England.

By 1941 the estate had 784 flats, 54 tenements and 33 shops, home to more than 6,000 residents. The largest pre-war block, Block 78 on Moh Guan Terrace and Guan Chuan Street, was built with blast-proof air-raid shelters, the first in any public housing estate in Singapore, BiblioAsia notes; they became community centre offices, a library and classrooms in 1960. Early residents nicknamed Blocks 81 and 82 on Tiong Poh Road the “aeroplane flats”, because from a distance they looked like a pair of wings.

The estate also gained a less official nickname. The trail booklet records that wealthy Chinese businessmen used some flats to house their mistresses, so locals called Tiong Bahru mei ren wo, the “den of beauties”, or er nai cun, “mistress village”. During the Japanese Occupation the flat roofs were damaged when residents used them to grow food, and schools in the estate closed until after the war.

1945 to the 1960s: post-war blocks and the Seng Poh Road market

After the war the Trust extended the estate northwards. The heritage trail records 1,258 more flats, in four-storey blocks laid out on a more open plan, which it dates to 1954, and an estimated 17,000 people lived in Tiong Bahru by the late 1950s. The post-war blocks are plainer slabs with spiral staircases, but they kept to four storeys. Together the two phases make up the 2,042 flats that the heritage trail calls one of the best-preserved low-rise Art Deco public housing projects in the world.

The market came with the people. Before the war two shophouses on Tiong Poh Road served as a wet market; after it, traders moved to thatched huts on Seng Poh Road. A purpose-built Seng Poh Road Market opened on 21 January 1951, described at the time as the most up-to-date in Singapore, and its construction erased two small streets, Hood Kee Street and Kim Ching Street. West of the estate, the Bukit Ho Swee fire of 1961 destroyed a neighbouring kampong, and some of its victims were rehoused in the first HDB blocks at Queenstown.

Tiong Bahru today: conservation and a second life

The estate survived the HDB era largely intact. Tiong Bahru MRT station opened on 12 March 1988, when the East-West Line was extended from Outram Park to Clementi. In the early 1980s a coffee-shop owner at the corner of Seng Poh Road and Tiong Bahru Road put up a frame for songbird cages, creating the bird-singing corner that ran until 2003, when the block was converted into a hotel, and was reopened by the hotel in 2008. Tiong Bahru Plaza now stands on the former site of Chuen Min School, founded in 1930.

On 1 December 2003 the Urban Redevelopment Authority gazetted 20 pre-war blocks for conservation. The market closed in 2004 for a complete rebuild and reopened in 2006 as the two-storey Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre, at a cost of $16.8 million. As of October 2026 the flats remain homes, the market remains the estate’s centre, and Qi Tian Gong still stands on Eng Hoon Street. This is our reading rather than a documented finding, but the estate’s later popularity with cafés and bookshops rests on the same features the Trust designed in the 1930s: low blocks, shaded walkways and streets that are easy to walk. For the neighbouring districts, see Redhill before Redhill and Chinatown before Chinatown.

A Tiong Bahru timeline

• 1828: The Hokkien Heng San Teng burial ground is established nearby.
• 1859: The new cemetery, Teong Baru, is in use.
• 13 June 1863: “Tiang Bahru” appears in The Straits Times.
• 1920: Qi Tian Gong begins as a shrine in an attap hut; it moves to Eng Hoon Street in 1938.
• 1926: A $250,000 loan is approved in February and the land is acquired in June.
• 1927: The Singapore Improvement Trust is constituted.
• 1931: Infrastructure works have cost $1.5 million.
• December 1936: The first block, Block 55, is completed.
• 1941: The estate has 784 flats and more than 6,000 residents.
• 21 January 1951: The Seng Poh Road Market opens.
• 1954: Post-war blocks add 1,258 flats, for 2,042 in all.
• Early 1980s: The bird-singing corner is set up at Seng Poh Road.
• 12 March 1988: Tiong Bahru MRT station opens.
• 1 December 2003: Twenty pre-war blocks are gazetted for conservation.
• 2004 to 2006: The market is rebuilt as Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre.

Questions people ask

What does Tiong Bahru mean?

“New cemetery”. Tiong is a Hokkien word linked to graves and death, and bahru is Malay for new; the area was a new burial ground in the nineteenth century.

When was Tiong Bahru estate built?

The Singapore Improvement Trust built the pre-war blocks from 1936 to 1941, starting with Block 55 in December 1936, and added post-war blocks in the early 1950s.

Who designed the Tiong Bahru flats?

The National Heritage Board credits the Trust architect Alfred G. Church; BiblioAsia also names Lincoln Page and Robert F. N. Kan. The style is Streamline Moderne, a late form of Art Deco.

Why was Tiong Bahru called the “den of beauties”?

Because, according to the heritage trail, some wealthy businessmen kept mistresses in the pre-war flats, and locals gave the estate the nicknames mei ren wo and er nai cun.

When was Tiong Bahru conserved?

On 1 December 2003, when the Urban Redevelopment Authority gazetted 20 pre-war Trust blocks for conservation.

Sources and further reading

• National Heritage Board: Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail booklet
• Alvin Chua, BiblioAsia (National Library Board): Tiong Bahru (July 2012)
• National Heritage Board, Roots: The origin and development of Tiong Bahru
• National Heritage Board, Roots: Queenstown, the queen of housing estates
• Wikipedia: Buona Vista MRT station (on the 1988 Outram Park to Clementi opening)

This is a historical reference to the land and the estate; stallholders, cafés and shops change, so check before you visit. Read next: Tiong Bahru Plaza’s mall history · What Redhill was before Redhill · Back to The Memory