Cakap HERITAGE: Colonial Days Of

Orchard Road1940s

Presenters: Alex Tan & Karen Hoisington

Orchard RoadVariant Names

Chinese names:Hokkien: Tang Leng Pa Sat Koi = "Tanglin Market Street”Cantonese: Tang-leng.

Tamil names: At the town limit location: Vaira Kimadam = "Fakir's Place".

From Koek's Market to Upper Tanglin: Mattu Than = "It is High Ground".

Orchard Road, the world-famous road and surely the most famous road in Singapore. About 1.5 miles this 5 lane one-way road is lined with hotels, restaurants and luxury shopping malls. Allegedly, this Champs-Élysees of Singapore has the highest concentration of shopping malls worldwide.

wHAT?

BEGINNINGS

Orchard Road, a street that is located in the Central Region. It runs 2.5 km from Tanglin Road/Orange Grove Road to Dhoby Ghaut. Orchard Road supposedly got its name from the orchards and plantations that existed in the area until the turn of the 20th century. Mr. Orchard, a keen gardener who owned plantations which stood at the corner of what is now Scotts Road and Orchard Road.

1900

The Chinese burial ground where Mandarin Hotel and Cineleisure stands today. The Malay burial ground would be where Hotel Grand Central is at Kramat Road. So the next time you are catching a midnight show at Cineleisure... just remember you are sitting (some six storeys high) on what was someone else's grave!

1900

1940s

1940s

WAR YEARS

Low ENDMANDARIN

HOTEL

AIR INDIAORCHARDTOWERS

1950-1960

LIDO

TROPICANA HOTEL INTERCON

HILTON

1950-1960THAI

EMBASSYORCHARDTOWERS TODAY

1950sTANGS

LIDO

TROPICANA

POLICE STATION

1950-1960

LIDO

1950–1960

Colour TV arrived in Singapore just in time for the World Cup Finals in 1974

1960s

In 1958, Tang a 1,351-sqm piece of land at a cost of S$10,000. Although the site faced the Tai San Ting Cemetery, he felt that it had commercial value as many British housewives in the Tanglin area could stop by on their way to the city. Years later, the land was designated as a prime shopping and tourist district, the price of land soared from S$3 per m² to S$6,000 per m². C.K. Tang Department Store (now rebranded as Tangs) cost S$50,000. The building's green-tiled roof and facade was modelled after the Imperial Palace of the Forbidden City in Beijing.

1960s

Beyond the Wisma was Ngee Ann Building. It was where the once well-known Mont d’Or Cake Shop was located. The site of Ngee Ann Building (and the then empty land beyond it) is where Ngee Ann City (1993) stands today. The canal one had to cross both to Ngee Ann Building and the Wisma, was covered up in 1974 and its is on top of this that the wide pedestrian walkway running down that side of Orchard Road, now runs

1960s Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, and was very recognisable for its Minangkabau styled roof. In its places stands Wisma Atria (1986).

1960s

1960s

The Tivoli Coffee House, was apparently also inspired by the Tivoli Gardens and was located at the left hand corner of The Orchard, and had a sidewalk cafe atmosphere as well as a beautifully and elaborately decorated interior.

1960s 1905The first consignment of frozen meats, fresh butter and milk arrived on the S.S.Guthrie.

1960s KOEK LANE

There was a character who dressed as a cowboy who wandered around there

every night.

1960s

1960s

The shop house lined stretch of Orchard Road is seen between Specialist Centre at the top of the picture and United Motor Works (building seen with

the AC Spark Plug Advertisement – with words “Hot Tip”).

1960s

Jewish Cemetery

1960s

Two bombs went off in Orchard Road, the first on 10 March 1965 at MacDonald House during the Indonesian Confrontation period on 10 March 1965, killing three and wounding 33.

Bomb!

1960sORCHARD

CIRCUS

1960s

This is the only stretch of Orchard Road that remains unchanged from the 1960s. The red-bricked building on the left is MacDonald House, built in the 1930s.

Cathay

Memorable landmarks around Orchard Road

Hotel Singapura's 24 hour Coffee house, the first of it's kind at that time.

The Orchard Circus, a traffic island roundabout, which fronted the Government House where Clemenceau Avenue cuts through Orchard Road.

The Government House is now the Istana Negara.

Amber Mansions was demolished in 1984.

The Prince's Hotel Garni where the Crown Prince Hotel stands today.

In the 1970s through the 1980s, commercial and hotel development intensified resulting in the Mandarin Hotel (1973) with the "Top of the M" revolving restaurant that gives rare views of the road from the 39th Floor and the pagoda-styled Marriott Hotel (formerly the Dynasty Hotel 1982) with links to C K Tang.

RECAP

Cakap HERITAGE: The Disco Era1970s-1980s

Presenters: Alex Tan & Karen Hoisington