Overview

A walk down Joo Chiat Road offers one a glimpse of Singapore in the past, with its old buildings and traditional trades. Named after wealthy landowner Chew Joo Chiat, it has an interesting mix of colonial villas, Malay bungalows and shop houses from the early 20th century. Of interest here and on Koon Seng Road are the Peranakan (Straits Chinese) houses, built in the Singapore Eclectic Style that evolved in the 1920s and 1930s. Painstaking restoration works have preserved the rococo stucco façades, eaves, moldings and elaborate wood carvings that reflect the affluence of Peranakans in the earlier days.