Katong - Shophouses

Over here in Katong, there are many beautiful shophouses. They have very unique and beautiful designs on them. These shophouses are very old and some dated as far back as in 1920s.

This Red Building is very popular. It used to be a famous bakery shop.

The Red House Bakery is a wakaf property, put in trust to the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore by Sherrifa Zain Alsharoff Mohamed Alsogoff, the great granddaughter of Hajjah Fatimah who built the famous Hajjah Fatimah Mosque at Beach Road. A Jewish man named Jim Baker started the bakery shop. In 1931, a Hainanese seaman, Tan Siang Fuan paid S$600 as "coffee money" to take over the bakery shop from Jim Baker.In 1957, the shophouse where the Red House Bakery was occupying was declared a wakaf asset together with five other adjacent shophouses along East Coast Road. It was specified that the rental income from the shophouses were to be used to fund Sherrifa Zain's grandchildren's education until 21 years after her death. Beyond that, the earnings were to be used to establish and maintain a free clinic, to be named the Al-Taha Dispensary.

You can read more about its history from Infopedia .

Love these shophouses with their beautiful windows. I noted the above photo that one of the shop changed its windows. I do hope the rest will keep the original designs of the windows.

Most shophouses in Katong are used as restaurants or food outlets. Katong is famous for its food.