Skywatch Friday - Bugis Junction

As mentioned, Bugis Junction was converted from old shophouses. A glass roof was added to connect the shophouses and the best thing was whenever it rained, shoppers wont get wet walking around the streets. The streets are now tiled beautifully. You wont noticed that it was once a street.

Part of the Intercontinental was converted from shophouses too. The taller building of the hotel was added.

Looking at the sky through the glass roof.

My grandparents used to stay in these old shophouses in another district. They too had similar windows like the above photo of the old shophouses.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch Blog.

My World Tuesday - Old Buildings

Singapore is known as a clean and green city. But we still have certain corners of the streets that looked so dirty.

Some of these shophouses are empty and no they are not abandoned. I guess some new tenants are moving in soon, as I saw some renovation works at the front of the shophouses. Each shophouses are worth more than a million dollars.

Wonder why the landlord did not take good care of their backlane.

When I was young, I used to be fascinated by the spiral staircases.
Just opposite from those dirty shophouses are also some shophouses cum staying quarters. They are much cleaner and well maintained.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

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.

Back Alley 2 - Shophouses

Continued from yesterday's post.

This is the same alley as yesterday. Some of these shophouses are not restored and renovated yet and some are vacant.

The shophouse must be vacant long ago, even the creepers had climbed up to the upper floor.

Now I wondered if this plant has been grown by a bird...lol. The birds must have carry the seeds and drop into the cracks of the wall.


A very old and vacant shophouses waiting to be restored.

The alley is so narrow that I could not capture the three floors of this shophouse in my camera's screen. The highest addition of a small room reminded me of my late maternal grandparent's home. My grandparents used to stay in such a shophouse but bigger and they had an extra room added to their roof. We used to go up the extra room and climb out to the roof. My uncle is braver and he would walked on top of the roof and climb to the neighbour's shophouse to play with his neighbour...lol.

A contractor doing some renovation and restoration works to another shophouse. It looked so dangerous, I think he should wear a safety belt and a helmet. As these shophouses are protected and preserved, even the windows had to be changed to look like the original architectural designs of the old shophouse.

My World Tuesday - Back and Small Alley 1 - Graffiti

This is a back and small alley near Beach Road. Hubby and me decided to venture into this narrow alley to see what lies inside it.

The double yellow lines on both sides indicated no parking on both sides of the alley.

Most of the buildings are very old in here, long before I was born (could be as old as 100 years old). Most of them are vacant and undergoing conservation and redecoration.

It is interesting to see the colourful and creative graffiti works on the side of the buildings.

More artworks on the shophouses that were occupied right inside the alley.

The scaffoldings around are indication of the building that's still doing some redecoration and renovation.

Tomorrow I will show the original and unpainted and undecorated side of the shophouses before conservation. It is very interesting.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Shophouses along Muscat Street

Continued from yesterday's post. After visiting the Sultan Mosque, what about visiting some of the souvenir shops to get some souvenirs.

I like the windows above the shops. These are shophouses. The owner lived upstair the shop.

Shophouses in Orchard Road

You will be surprised that Orchard Road is not all about tall shopping malls. We still do have these pretty shophouses around. Shophouses are used to be the owner stay on the upper floor while the lower floor are used as shops.

But sometimes bigger enterprises like restaurants, jewellery shop, etc occupied the whole shophouses and they used both floors for their business.
All the shophouses in Orchard Road are protected and preserved, they cant be demolished. These shophouses have a long history.

Orchard Road is always filled with shoppers and tourists.

Shophouses in Tanjong Pagar

More photos of shophouses in Tanjong Pagar. Shophouses are usually shops or office on the ground floor and the upper floors are living quarters for the owners.
These shophouses are restored and preserved, they are over 100 years old.
Love the beautiful architectural designs especially the windows.

Whampoa Part 2-HDB Shophouses

Continuing from my post about Whampoa Estate, here are shophouses that been here for a long time, at least more than 20 years.

These shophouses are known as HDB Shophouses located in the heartland of Singapore where majority of Singaporeans lived. Most of the times you can bargain for your products for about 10 to 20% discount unless they are fixed price. Sometimes, you can find things you cannot find in big shopping malls. You have to return to visit my post on the market place in next few posts.

Most of the shopowners lived above their shops and these shophouses are not cheap, some are sold for about a million dollars and the owner would then rent out or use for their own. My sister had one shophouse just like the one on the right. She stay above her shop.

Please return for more interesting post on whampoa estate.

Chinatown Shophouses 6 Final Part

Finally, this would be my last posting on Chinatown Shophouses. Hope you all enjoyed the photos of these shophouses.

This shophouse had very colourful windows.

You can't miss this shophouse with all the yellow flowers on its blue background in the heart of chinatown.

Chinatown Shophouses(5)

More photos of shophouses. Some are used as shops, residential and offices.

The above shophouses are converted to be a boutique hotel. To know more about The Scarlet-A Boutique Hotel, you can view their website.

I love the designs of these shophouses and very fascinated by their windows. I always love taking photos of wndows and doors.

Closer look at the foral designs.

Chinatown Shophouses (4)

I like this beautiful built shophouse. You could see that it was built in 1910. In the olden days, builders would engraved the year the building was built on them. I am glad the owner kept most of the original architectural designs except for a fresh coat of paint.

Another beautiful architecturally built shophouse in the heart of chinatown.

Inside this building are many different shops and offices.