From ‘Losing our food heritage in the name of development’, 31 March 2014, St Forum
(Edwin Lim): I READ with disappointment the article “Clock is ticking for Lavender’s ‘food heaven’” (last Friday). This marks the demise of yet another popular food haunt.
A few weeks ago, Singapore’s largest McDonald’s outlet, at King Albert Park – a place that many Singaporeans remember fondly as one where they “mugged” for exams and had their first date – also made headline news when it closed down to make way for redevelopment.
In place of these local favourites will rise yet more mixed-purpose developments of retail outlets, offices and residences.
Singapore is fast losing a generation of hawkers and efforts are being made to train a new generation of hawkers. Yet at the same time, we seem to be speeding up their disappearance by making their future uncertain. Will the future Singapore landscape be filled with just HDB blocks, condominiums and mixed-purpose developments? Of course, there is a need to build more homes for a growing population. But many residential units are also being bought for rental income.
How many patches of forest and popular haunts are making way for buildings that are aimed solely at property investors?
The essential guide to Singapore’s lost (and never found) hawker centres can be found at the Remember Singapore Blog, a must-read for all hawker nerds and gluttons alike. Other than HDB blocks, condos and malls, another major culprit of hawker extermination is our MRT system, with food centres at Farrer Park and Labrador making away for construction. It’s also interesting how people remember certain McDonalds outlets (King Albert, East Coast) fondly but not other ‘lost’ fast food joints like BK or KFC. It’s sad to see anything make way for development really, whether it’s an open field or a cemetery, but if we can’t save Buona Vista swimming pool from decimation, even with celebrity Pam Oei fronting a petition for it, what more a hawker centre?
Here are 10 facts inspired from the Remember Singapore piece that you never knew about Singapore’s hawker history.
1. Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre, a merger of a market and 2 food centres, included the very FIRST hawker centre in Singapore: Yung Sheng Food Centre. Prepare your mecca now.
2. Telok Ayer Market was the first ever market in Singapore. It survived a demolition in 1879, was torn down due to MRT construction in 1984, and was refurbished in 1991 as ‘Lau Pa Sat’, which translates to ‘old market’. It wouldn’t exist without the work of Municipal engineer James Macritchie. So he didn’t just build a reservoir here.
3. The sprawl of watering holes that is Boat Quay used to be Boat Quay Hawker Centre.
4. What used to be Simon Road Market is now string of plush condos, including one named Kovan residences.
5. Seletar Hills Market and Food Centre Centre is now a shopping mall that no one has ever heard of: Greenwich V.
6. The former Neo Tiew Market and Food Centre is now a training site for NSmen and a place to shoot a zombie apocalypse movie
7. Tekka Market was for a while known as Zhujiao Market, or literally ‘bamboo feet’.
8. The Gateway at Beach Road was once the Clyde Terrace Market.
9. The Golden Bridge at Shenton Way used to be an overhead bridge CUM HAWKER CENTRE.
10. Taman Serasi Food Centre, near the Botanical Gardens, used to be famous for roti john.
So yeah, everytime you destroy a hawker centre, you take a piece of Singapore with you.
