A brief history of Singapore’s easternmost road

What is the easternmost road on Singapore Island?

Over 200 years of modern Singapore’s history, the answer has changed a number of times, because of waves of land reclamation, and infrastructural development at the eastern end of the island.

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The British founded modern Singapore in 1819. From the 1840s, country roads began to be built from the Town - occupying an area roughly three miles by one mile in the southeastern corner of the island, around the Singapore River - to various corners of the island. One such road snaked from the eastern end of the Town, crossing the Sungei Kallang, across the eastern part of the island, to Sungei Changi at the eastern end, 15 miles away.

As the road passed the Sungei Changi, itself named after the chengal tree, the road was named Changi Road. It was completed sometime between 1843 and 1845, and became Singapore’s easternmost road.

A Chengal tree in Malaysia. “Chengal tree, Peninsula Malaysia, 2005” by Christoph Swoboda is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Below is an 1846 map showing Changi Road ending around the Sungei Changi in the east of the island.

Credit: Urban Redevelopment Authority.

A Changi Bus Company bus on the 13½ Milestone of Changi Road, about a mile from the Sungei Changi, 1953. Credit: F W York Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

With the road came settlers to the area around Sungei Changi, although it is also possible that settlers arrived by sea. By the start of the 20th century, two villages arose along the coast off the 13th and 14th Milestones - Kampong Telok Paku and Kampong Beting Kusah. Telok Paku is Malay for “Bay of Nails”, while Beting Kusah is Malay for “Troubled Shoal” - possibly hinting at the dangerous waters off the coast.

The beach at Telok Paku, 1954. Credit: Donald Moore Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

The beach at Telok Paku, 1955. Credit: Donald Moore Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Below is a 1923 map showing two tracks connecting the kampungs to Changi Road - Telok Paku Road and Beting Kusah Road. A footpath ran north from Telok Paku Road, hugging the coastline, making Telok Paku Road Singapore’s easternmost road.

Credit: The National Archives, United Kingdom.

During the Japanese Occupation, the Japanese forced Allied prisoners-of-war to start work on an airfield in the area, building two landing strips intersecting in a cross. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, they were made to complete the airfield, and it opened as Changi Airfield the following year.

The airfield was laid down over parts of Telok Paku Road and Beting Kusah Road, and the shorter, horizontal landing strip forced the realignment of Beting Kusah Road to the east, closer to the coast. However, it still fell short of Telok Paku Road, which remained Singapore’s easternmost road.

Below is a 1945 map showing Telok Paku Road in blue, and Beting Kusah Road in yellow.

Credit: Survey Department, Singapore.

Telok Paku Road, 1942. Credit: The National Archives, United Kingdom.

Telok Paku Road, 1956. Credit: F W York Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Telok Paku Road finally relinquished its title close to a decade later in 1955, when Nicoll Drive was completed as the new road hugging the Changi coast, running from the mouth of Sungei Changi to Tanah Merah Besar Road.

For years, there had been calls for such a road to serve the bungalows lining the coast. Nicoll Drive was built over parts of Telok Paku Road and Beting Kusah Road, and it was named after Singapore Governor Sir John Nicoll (below). He also gave his name to Nicoll Highway, many miles away in the City.

Credit: Lok Wan Tho Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Below is a 1955 street directory map showing the realigned Telok Paku Road in blue, and Nicoll Drive in green.

The seawall next to Nicoll Drive to the far left, 1956. Credit: Public Works Department Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Nicoll Drive was Singapore’s easternmost road until the late 1970s, when major land reclamation pushed the island’s eastern coast eastward for the construction of Changi Airport. The new coastal road serving the reclaimed land was Changi Coast Road, which officially opened in 1981.

Below is a 1981 street directory map showing the realigned Telok Paku Road in blue, what was left of Nicoll Drive in green, and Changi Coast Road in yellow. The kampungs of Telok Paku and Beting Kusah, and the seaside bungalows along the idyllic beach served by Nicoll Drive, became distant memories.

One drove along Changi Coast Road to get a good glimpse of Changi Airport and its control tower (below, in 1990).

Credit: Singapore Tourist Promotion Board Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

From the 1990s into the 2000s, more reclamation took place in phases to the east of Changi Coast Road, creating a massive, 1,545-hectare block of land called Changi East. By 1995, Changi Coast Road became a misnomer - the coast had retreated far from it.

By 2001, Changi Naval Base was completed at the southeastern corner of the reclaimed land. The road serving it, accessible from Changi Coast Road, was Tanah Merah Coast Road - which then became Singapore’s easternmost road.

Between 2009 and 2017, Aviation Park Road became Singapore’s easternmost road instead, as it was built in the northern part of Changi East to serve Changi Exhibition Centre.

Below is a 2009 street directory map showing Changi Coast Road in yellow, Tanah Merah Coast Road in blue, and Aviation Park Road in green.

By 2017, Tanah Merah Coast Road was extended from south to north to meet Aviation Park Road, covering the eastern coast of Changi East, consequently becoming Singapore’s easternmost road again.

With the completion of the extension of Tanah Merah Coast Road, most of Changi Coast Road - save for a short stretch between Nicoll Drive and Aviation Park Road - was closed and expunged for the building of Changi Airport Terminal 5 (below).

Credit: Land Transport Authority.

Today, Tanah Merah Coast Road remains Singapore’s easternmost road. It is also the only public road in Singapore with a dedicated on-road bicycle lane (below).

Credit: Google Maps.

The current coastline at Changi East is miles away from the original coastline of the 19th century. And, it is set to move further east in coming years, away from Tanah Merah Coast Road.

It has been announced that reclamation of around 900 hectares of land will start by the end of this year, to the east of Changi East (below). The project will take at least 10 years to complete.

Credit: SPH Media Trust.

It remains to be seen what the land will be used for. Likewise, it remains to be seen whether Tanah Merah Coast Road will be realigned to hug the new coastline, or a new coastal road will take its place as Singapore’s easternmost road.

Telok Paku Road today, at the junction of Changi Village Road (formerly part of Changi Road). Credit: Google Maps.

Katong News Agency

Last month, I said goodbye to a bookshop in Bras Basah Complex, which was closing down after 41 years.

Now, another shop in Katong is set to cease operations after almost seven decades: Katong News Agency at 350 Tanjong Katong Road.

Katong News Agency, which opened in 1955, is shutting down after 67 years in business.

The 1,386 sq ft, two-storey shophouse was sold for $4.2 million, or at $3,029 per sq ft, in December.

The last day of business will be Aug 31, said owner Mr Abdul Samad, 66.

People familiar with Tanjong Katong will remember how the shop on 350 Tanjong Katong Road was once popular with parents and students for its extensive range of school textbooks, assessment books, novels, magazines and stationery.

During the December school holidays, Katong News Agency would be bustling with parents snapping up textbooks and stationery for their children for the new school term.

Often, the shop stayed open till late into the night, sometimes closing at midnight, recalled Mr Samad.

His father, Mr Abdul Salam, came from India and started Katong News Agency.

In the beginning, it was a general provision shop selling groceries, cosmetics and books.

In the 1960s, when Tanjong Katong Girls’ School, which is located directly opposite the shop, started holding classes in the evenings, Mr Salam saw the opportunity to sell textbooks to those attending the night classes, said Mr Samad.

Gradually, Mr Salam switched to selling books to cater to students in nearby schools.

Mr Samad said his father was paying rent of $100 a month until 1972, when he bought over the freehold unit for under $300,000.

The iconic shop had catered to generations of students from nearby schools, including Tanjong Katong Girls’ School, Tanjong Katong Technical School, Dunman High School and Chung Cheng High School (Main), in the 1960s to 1990s.

Business plunged when three of the schools moved out of Tanjong Katong Road in the late 1990s.

In 2001, Katong News Agency stopped selling textbooks and was converted into a minimart selling household items, snacks, stationery and toys. By then, Mr Salam had already left the business in the care of his three children.

“During the good times, parents who lived in other parts of Singapore would also travel here to get the assessment books for their children,” recalled Mr Samad, who started running the store in 2006.

“I am very sad to retire. I have been running the store seven days a week since I took over the business. My customers are all very nice. Some of them who had moved out of the area would still return to visit the shop,” he added.

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Pastries and snacks on sale outside Katong News Agency.

Entering Katong News Agency.

I took a closer look at the old floor tiles.

The adorable handmade signs with a dozen fonts!

The front counter.

For printing services, the shop had an old photocopying machine, with an ancient laptop on it.

The interior of the shop. Some shelves were already empty, as the shop begins to wind down.

The stationery shelf brought me back to childhood visits to bookshops.

Old-school wooden rulers - they made for painful palm slaps.

As expected, there were random items in random corners.

The little touches made all the difference - such as the handwritten price labels.

More memories of my childhood - the cheap tabletop games such as Ludo and checkers.

The last day of Katong News Agency is 31 August.

Entering Verdun House

In April, a mixed-use building in the Jalan Besar area was sold en bloc.

Verdun House, a four-storey development made up of four shops and food and beverage outlets on the ground floor, and 12 apartments in the upper floors, was sold to Fragrance Group for $55.1 million.

This was the building’s third attempt at a collective sale since 2018.

Verdun House was completed in 1982, making it 40 years old this year - but it will not last much longer.

The building, at the corner of Verdun Road and Sam Leong Road, was named after the former.

Verdun Road itself was named in the late 1920s, as part of a municipal naming exercise to commemorate World War I, which had ended just a decade before. This is shared in my book, Jalan Singapura.

At the time, Singapore was a British possession, so it was par for the course for the authorities to name new roads after all things British.

Hence, after a cluster of new roads were laid down in the Jalan Besar area, from Lavender Street in the north to Syed Alwi Road in the south, they were named after prominent World War I battle sites in which British and French forces fought, or British and French generals and admirals who had served.

Generals and admirals included Allenby, Beatty, Foch, Fisher, French, Hamilton, Horne, Jellicoe, Kitchener, Maude, Petain, Plumer, Sturdee, and Townshend.

Horatio Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916), British Army.

Henri Philippe Pétain (1856-1951), French Army.

Battle sites included Flanders, Marne, Mons, Somme, and of course Verdun. Falkland and Jutland were naval battle sites.

French troops fighting at the Battle of Verdun, 1916.

The HMS Queen Mary blowing up during the Battle of Jutland, 1916.

After almost a hundred years, these roads have held up pretty well in the face of continuous urban renewal and redevelopment.

This is a map of the Jalan Besar area in 1932; the World War I commemorative roads are highlighted blue.

Base picture credit: Survey Department, Singapore.

This is the same area in 2022. The roads which have remained the same are highlighted blue; the roads which have changed in terms of name or alignment are highlighted red.

Base picture credit: Streetdirectory.com.

Here is a list of the roads and how they have changed since the 1920s:

• Allenby Road - remained the same.
  

• Beatty Road - lengthened to Race Course Road; parallel channels were merged into one; part of Jutland Road was renamed Beatty Road; the easternmost part of Beatty Road was renamed Beatty Lane.
  

• Foch Road - same.
  

• Fisher Road - renamed Tyrwhitt Road (after another Royal Navy admiral) in 1932; remained the same.
  

• French Road - partially realigned to accommodate flats.
  

• Hamilton Road - same.
  

• Horne Road - same.
  

• Jellicoe Road - realigned to accommodate developments such as flats, V Hotel Lavender, and Jalan Besar Community Club.
  

• Kitchener Road - the stretch southeast of King George’s Road was expunged for flats.
  

• Maude Road - the stretch southeast of King George’s Road was expunged for flats.
  

• Petain Road - same.
  

• Plumer Road - same.
  

• Sturdee Road - sliced in two and partially expunged to accommodate condominiums; the western part was renamed Sturdee Road North; part of the eastern half was realigned; part of Jutland Road was renamed Sturdee Road.
  

• Townshend Road - lengthened to Kelantan Lane.
  

• Flanders Square - there were two Flanders Squares; both were partially expunged for City Square Mall and City Square Residences; the eastern one was renamed Kitchener Link.
  

• Marne Road - most of it was expunged for City Square Mall.
  

• Mons Road - expunged. The place name has disappeared.
  

• Somme Road - much of it was expunged for City Square Residences.
  

• Verdun Road - the stretch north of Kitchener Road was renamed Kitchener Link.
  

• Falkland Road - expunged for Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre. The place name has disappeared.
  

• Jutland Road - renamed Beatty and Sturdee roads. The place name has disappeared.

This stretch of Sturdee Road and Beatty Road was once Jutland Road. Credit: Google Maps.

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Back to Verdun House.

I paid a visit to the building to take in the architecture of the 1980s.

There were several restaurants and a 24-hour minimart on the ground floor.

How did one access the upper-floor apartments? By going behind the building. There were driveways off Verdun Road and Sam Leong Road which allowed vehicles to drive in and out.

There were lots for apartment owners and tenants to park their vehicles.

The building was organised in an interesting fashion: There were two separate staircases leading up to the fourth floor. For the first staircase, there were two units on each floor; the first floor had Units 6 and 8, the second floor had 6A and 8A; the third floor had 6B and 8B; the top floor had 6C and 8C. For the second staircase, the first floor had Units 10 and 12; the second floor had 10A and 12A; the third floor had 10B and 12B; the top floor had 10C and 12C.

In all, Verdun House had four addresses: 6, 8, 10, and 12 Verdun Road.

Every lift landing and staircase had old-school wall and floor tiles.

Old-school lift buttons...

... and old-school lifts.

Units 6C and 8C at the top floor. The lift landings were small and claustrophobic.

Verdun Road - almost a hundred years old and named in honour of a bloody battlefield half a world away - will live on, but its flagship landmark will be replaced soon.