In a Singapore inundated with the clutter that urbanisation brings, open spaces – wild, and green, however transient, are always ones to be celebrated. Open spaces such as this one on which a former cemetery, Bidadari once stood, are fast being lost to the tide of steel, glass and concrete from which they had served as a respite from – sanctuaries where a much needed sense of space otherwise missing in the clutter and crowds, can be found.
The cemetery was one of Singapore’s largest and with burials taking place over six and the half decades from 1907 to 1972, contained as many as 147,000 graves of members across the communities. Converted into a temporary park after the completion of exhumation in 2006, the grounds, even in its days in which the resting places of the departed decorated the landscape, has been a place to find peace in.
With its days now numbered – a recent announcement by the HDB on plans for its redevelopment as a housing estate has the first developments taking place by 2015, there is not much time before the joy it now provides will be lost to the urban world it has for so long resisted.
The plans put forward by the HDB do show some sensitivity to what the place might once have been or represented, with the cemetery and the greenery it provided not completely forgotten.
Besides the preservation of some of the cemetery’s heritage, one promise that the development of the 93 ha. site holds is that of a 10 ha. green space which will incorporate a man-made lake – said to be inspired by the famous lake which belong to the Alkaff Lake Gardens we now only see photographs of.
While that does create a very pleasant environment to live and play in, it will not provide what the space now provides, that escape I find myself seeking more and more of from the overly cluttered and crowded world our many of our urban spaces have become.
Other disappearing or already vanished open and green places:
- Remnants of the former British Naval Base
- Bukit Brown Cemetery
- Spaces off Sembawang Road / Canberra Link
- The corner of Woodlands Avenue 10 and Gambas Avenue
Some newly found, existing or reclaimed spaces:
The Long and Winding Road 
It is very saddening to know that this beautiful place is slated for redevelopment. In my few months of stay here in Singapore, I’ve always been trying to find a park as expansive as this. Hopefully, I can find the chance to come here before I leave.