Before Redhill became an MRT and public-housing district, the wider Bukit Merah landscape held kampongs, farms, hills, cemeteries and industrial land. Its famous name also carries one of Singapore’s oldest legends: the boy who saved the coast from swordfish.

Before Alexandra became a hospital, housing, retail and business corridor, the wider landscape was shaped by plantations, brickworks, railway infrastructure, villages and British military installations. A deep history of the road before the modern city.

Before Queenstown became Singapore’s pioneering satellite town, the area was known through Boh Beh Kang, farms, villages, cemeteries and low-lying rural land. A deep history of how the old landscape became a model for modern public housing.

Before Buona Vista became an MRT interchange and gateway to one-north, the wider district was a landscape of ridges, kampongs, farms, military land and Queenstown-era public housing. A deep history of the western corridor before the research city.

Before Holland Village became a dining, nightlife and lifestyle enclave, the area grew from plantation and rural road country into a market and service centre for military families, local residents and the Chip Bee Gardens estate.

Before Tanglin became Singapore’s diplomatic, hotel and residential district, it was plantation and estate country shaped by crops, country houses, military barracks and large institutional compounds.

Before Orchard Road became Singapore’s shopping belt, it was plantation and suburban country: nutmeg estates, cemeteries, bungalows, early rail and roads. A deep history of the land system that made the retail corridor possible.

Before Newton became an MRT interchange and famous hawker destination, the area was nutmeg plantation country, Syed Ali Road and a station on Singapore’s first northbound railway. A deep history of how orchards, rail, eight converging roads and street hawkers created the modern district.

Before Novena became an MRT, medical and commercial district, the land was known through Thomson Road, Moulmein, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, a Jewish cemetery and Kampong Chia Heng. The modern name came later—from the Catholic novena devotion that made one church famous.

Before Balestier became a food, lighting and shophouse district, it was Joseph Balestier’s sugar plantation—a landscape of canals, labourers, temples, tigers and farms that later became one of Singapore’s earliest suburban corridors. A deep history of the road before the modern precinct.

Before Toa Payoh became Singapore’s pioneering model HDB town, it was the ‘big swamp’—then plantation country, kampongs, farms, informal housing, community markets, temples and the notorious ‘Chicago of Singapore’. A deep history of the landscape and people before the new town.

Before Bishan became a central HDB town and MRT interchange, the land was Peck San Theng—Singapore’s vast Chinese cemetery—and Kampong San Teng, a living village built around the dead. A deep history of the cemetery, community, exhumations and new town that followed.

Before Ang Mo Kio became a model HDB heartland, the landscape was known through villages such as Kow Tiow Kio, Cheng San and Jio Sua—a world of streams, bridges, rubber estates, farms, orchards and temples. A deep history of the land before the new town.

Before Serangoon Central, the MRT and Serangoon Gardens as we know them, Serangoon was an old cross-island road through plantation country, kampongs, rubber estates and suburban experiments. A deep history of the corridor before the new town.

Before Hougang’s HDB town, Aukang was already a busy Upper Serangoon world of Teochew villages, markets, wells, farms, churches, temples, mosques, hawkers and roadside commerce. A deep history of the suburb before the new town.

Before Sengkang MRT, the LRT loops and the new town, Kangkar was a working river settlement with fishing boats, dawn fish auctions, plantations and farms. A deep history of how old Sengkang became the modern estate.

Before the waterway, HDB estates and the LRT, Punggol was a much larger world of fishing settlements, farms, country houses, zoos, wartime memory, seafood restaurants and coastal recreation. A deep history of the landscapes that came before Singapore’s modern waterfront town.