WahLiao

The Memory | What Singapore Was Before It Was This

What was Singapore before it was this? The Memory is WahLiao’s desk for the island’s past: what each district was before the new town arrived, how its malls, streets and markets came to be, and what changed along the way. Choose a place or a retail history below, then follow its sources and related reading.

Singapore’s shopping history in ten turns, and what each left behind

  1. Wet markets and provision shops. Before the supermarket, Singapore shopped at dawn. Fresh food came from the wet market, and everything else came from the provision shop down the road. What’s left: most HDB estates still have a wet market trading at dawn, and the mama shop survives in a few old blocks.
  2. Bazaars and bargaining. Chinatown grew from coolie lodgings and street hawkers into tailors and markets. Change Alley, between Raffles Place and the sea, was where sailors changed money and haggled for souvenirs. What’s left: Chinatown’s streets and its tailors. The old Change Alley is gone.
  3. The department store. John Little and Robinsons taught Singapore to browse. In 1958, Tangs bet on Orchard Road while it was still bungalows and cemeteries. What’s left: Tangs, still on its corner. Robinsons and John Little have both closed.
  4. Orchard Road. The road went from nutmeg plantations to bungalows and cemeteries, and then became the shopping belt once one department store proved the crowds would come. What’s left: the belt itself, and the clue in its name.
  5. The atrium mall. People’s Park Complex, completed in 1973, took Chinatown’s bazaar culture indoors around Singapore’s first shopping atrium. From then on, the shopping centre changed how the city browsed, met and bought. What’s left: People’s Park Complex still trades under its original roof.
  6. Community malls. Malls built for one crowd were adopted by another. Filipino workers made Lucky Plaza theirs on Sundays, the Myanmar community took Peninsula Plaza, and Thai workers and travellers made Golden Mile Complex Little Thailand. What’s left: Lucky Plaza and Peninsula Plaza still serve their communities. Golden Mile’s community dispersed when the building was sold for redevelopment.
  7. The heartland town centre. Toa Payoh set the model, with HDB shops, a market and a town centre within one walk. In 1992, Northpoint in Yishun became the first suburban mall. What’s left: a mall over the MRT station in almost every new town, from Junction 8 to Waterway Point.
  8. Electronics. Specialist shops gave way to Peninsula, then to Sim Lim and Funan, where Singapore learnt to shop for computers. What’s left: Sim Lim Square still trades. Funan was rebuilt as a different kind of mall.
  9. Flea markets and night markets. For decades, Sungei Road Thieves’ Market sold junk, army surplus and second-hand goods. Meanwhile, the pasar malam kept bargain culture moving from car park to car park. What’s left: Sungei Road closed in 2017. The pasar malam still turns up in HDB car parks.
  10. The destination and the screen. Changi turned waiting time at the airport into Jewel, and VivoCity turned the ferry gateway into a waterfront mall. Furniture moved from showrooms to screens with HipVan, Castlery and FortyTwo. What’s left: this is the present, and it is still being written.

Each turn links to the desk’s full history, where the dates and sources sit. The land before the shops has its own series, What Was It Before, which covers 29 towns so far.

Keep exploring WahLiao: Earlier eyewear and product archive · Latest: every WahLiao post.

Find your next history

Choose a district, a shopping street or a brand. Each history explains how the place changed and points you towards the next part of the island’s story. The groups below add published histories to the district, street and mall collections further down this page.

Districts and the western coast (8)
Books, stationery and creative materials (8)
Toys, games and collecting (4)
Clothing, shoes and sport (9)
Jewellery and watches (4)
Groceries, home and personal care (15)
Electronics and appliances (4)
More malls and specialist places (8)

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Start here

What was this place before it was this?

The Before series, district by district. Each one starts at the plantation, the kampong or the swamp and ends at the MRT station.

The district series now extends to Jurong, Clementi, Boon Lay and the western coast. Further districts remain planned; a title becomes a reading link only after publication.

Taking a place story into learning? The eduKateSG local-learning directory offers neighbourhood, student-life and activity reading; its planning-area learning guide provides the wider education route. WahLiao remains the city-guide companion here: return to The Memory for the place story, rather than treating every district history as a tuition recommendation.

How did Singapore learn to shop?

The streets, markets and enclaves

The malls, town by town

Coming soon on this desk

  • Singapore Shopping History: The Complete Timeline (the hub for every mall and street story)
  • What Was Marina Bay Before Marina Bay? · What Was Jurong Before Jurong?
  • Singapore Heritage Trails You Can Walk This Weekend
  • The Lost Malls of Singapore · The Old Cinemas of Singapore and the Malls That Replaced Them
  • What Was Tampines, Bedok, Yishun and Woodlands Before?

The money underneath

Every mall in these stories was a bet on how people would spend. The logic is in How Shopping Works | The Big Picture and in Shopping in Singapore | The Wahliao Way.

How this desk judges

History on this desk is sourced, dated and walked. When a place still exists, we go; when it does not, we say what stands there now. Corrections are made at the point of error with a date. Read how WahLiao judges.

Questions people ask

What was Singapore’s first shopping mall?

It depends on what you count. People’s Park Complex, completed in 1973, was the first built around an atrium. Northpoint, in 1992, was the first suburban mall in a new town.

What was Orchard Road before it was a shopping street?

Nutmeg plantations, then bungalows and cemeteries. The road kept the name the orchards gave it.

What was my neighbourhood before the HDB new town?

The desk’s What Was It Before series has covered 29 towns and districts so far, from Punggol and Sengkang in the north-east to Jurong and Tuas in the west. Each history tells the story of the kampongs, plantations, cemeteries and rivers, town by town.

What happened to Sungei Road Thieves’ Market?

It closed in July 2017, ending one of Singapore’s oldest flea markets.

Where can I still see old Singapore shopping today?

Try a wet market at dawn, People’s Park Complex, Tangs on Orchard Road, Bras Basah Complex for books, and Geylang Serai during Ramadan.

Everything on this desk: The Memory archive. Neighbourhood guides for living there today are on The Address. Punggol’s own town guide lives on eduKatePunggol.

Last updated 28 September 2026.

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