Singapore in the 1960s – three blasts from the past

Footage found online that take us back to a Singapore we have all but forgotten.

The first is a video posted online by Gary Porter on the Memories of Singapore Facebook group that shows the National Theatre crescent-shaped fountain, the fountain at Holland Circus and a gathering of hawkers. The second is an excerpt from a French / Italian 1967 movie Cinq gars pour Singapour or Five Ashore in Singapore that was filmed in Singapore in 1966 that takes has us take walk through one of my favourite childhood places, Change Alley. The third is from the 1967 British film Pretty Polly, which starred Hayley Mills and Shashi Kapoor.

 

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Recoloured waters

A view of the Singapore River from my favourite bridge, the Cavenagh Bridge. The view is now very different one from the one I did when I first set my eyes on it as a child, with the river emptied of its seemingly overladen twakows – lighters that seemed to have non-existent freeboards. The twakows provided the means to bring goods from the ocean going ships anchored in the harbour to godowns upriver and were the backbone of trading business on which Singapore owes much of its early success to. 

The once filthy waters of the river, spilling not anymore into the harbour, but into a body of sweet water – the Marina Reservoir, carved amazingly out from the sea and is now surrounded by the modern skyline that has come up at what is today Marina Bay, has since been cleaned up – the result of a huge ten year effort that began in 1977 that also saw it emptied of its twakows. It is the new trades – that serving new temporary imports in the form of tourists, have replaced the old, and it is this that now recolours the river’s once dark and murky waters, bringing new life to the area. 

More on the Singapore River and the old harbour:

• The river I once knew
• The 5footway.inn at Boat Quay
• The Merlion that once stood at its mouth (now shifted)
• The old harbour
• The former Customs Harbour Branch Building
  
• The monument that was never built

The 5footway.inn at Boat Quay

An interesting experience I had recently was a stay I had at the conservation shophouses along Boat Quay. The shophouse, or rather the upper floors of it at No. 76 Boat Quay and the next door unit No. 75, now plays host to a rather chic looking hostel, the 5footway.inn. The hostel at Boat Quay is the latest in a series of boutique hostel chain 5footway.inn’s four properties. Two are found in Chinatown and another in the Bugis area, all conveniently located within conservation districts in Singapore.

The Terrace is where one can interact, relaxation over a cup of coffee, and have breakfast at.

The 5footway.inn at Boat Quay.

I must admit that my motivation for accepting the kind offer extended by the hostel to spend a night, was have a peek inside the conservation unit and to discover how it has transformed since its earlier days when living in one of the overly crowded shophouses, many of the lower floors of which might have been used as warehouses and offices, might not have provided as pleasant an experience – especially in days when the river was better recognised for its smell rather than anything else. And with my last hostel experience going back to the well forgotten days of my lost youth, it did seem like if would also be interesting to see how hostels and the experience of staying in one has changed over the years.

The reception area. Computers are provided for use by the guests.

My night’s accommodation was in a comfortable private room. Simply furnished as one might expect, it did have under a high loft bed, a small desk as well as a key-card operated locker. The desk proved to be useful –  being where I could enjoy the high speed wireless internet connection with my laptop in the privacy of the room. The wireless connections are one of the things the 5footway.inns I am told have a reputation for and pretty neat especially for one who does spend a fair bit of time in cyberspace.

The private rooms are furnished with a Queen sized loft bed.

Under the loft – a keycard operated locker and a desk.

The common spaces around the hostel are also rather pleasant spaces to relax in in which one can also interact with other hostel guests. The reception area is one – a row of desks arranged along one wall is where desktop computers are provided for use by the guests. The space, illuminated by both natural and artificial lighting, is decorated with Edwin Koo’s black and white prints which provide a flavour of what one does find in a gallery, Gallery 76, of the award winning photographer’s provoking images.

Another view of the reception area.

Another view of the terrace – which offers great views of the river …

… and beyond it … it is also a wonderful location to observe the rising of the sun.

The gallery which has a permanent display of 30 of Koo’s works, forms part of a larger common space which opens up to a terrace which provides wonderful views of the Singapore River. The common space serves both as a lounge at which seating is arranged, and where complimentary machine dispensed hot beverages and water is available, as well as a breakfast area. Breakfast is provided to guests is simple but adequate and includes cereal, toast and fruits. If one is an early bird, and if Mother Nature does oblige, breakfast can be taken at the terrace from which one is able to watch the  changing hues of the break of day. Once the sun does come up, it is in its warm golden rays that breakfast can be enjoyed in.

The view at breakfast.

The lounge area is also where a gallery, Gallery 76, featuring 30 of award winning photojournalist Edwin Koo’s works is found.

One of the great things about the hostel has to be its location. Set in a row of former godowns to twakows carrying goods from sea going vessels emptied their cargo, the area the hostel finds itself in is one which has been transformed into one of the island’s destinations for food and entertainment. It is also within walking distance of shopping malls, Chinatown, the historic Civic District, the commercial district with its towering blocks of glass and steel and most importantly to the MRT and public bus stops. The location is also where some stunning nighttime views of the river and the illuminated buildings around the river can be seen – and makes it a very convenient location from which one can do an unmolested night shoot in the wee hours of the morning – after the area is emptied of its night time crowds.

A nighttime view of the river and the skyline around it from the nearby Elgin Bridge.

The Elgin Bridge and the north bank of the river across from Boat Quay.

A view from the terrace of the 5footway.inn.

Boat Quay is also close to the skyscrapers of the commercial district.

During my stay the one thing I would have liked to have had during my stay would have been the convenience of ensuite facilities in its private rooms which it didn’t have. Having said that, I do have to also add that I do not have any negative impressions of  its common toilet and bathroom facilities. A female area is found on the lower level and a male area on the upper level – for which I can say, at least for the male facilities, quite clean and adequately sized. All in all, I found the 5footway.inn at Boat Quay, which does also have dormitory like accommodation available, to be clean and comfortable with its free high speed wireless internet, great location and affordable prices all great plus points. Certainly a stay at the 5footway.inn at Boat Quay, for anyone looking for a clean and no-frills place to stay whilst in Singapore, is one which should be considered.

The river I once knew

I first set eyes on the Singapore River in my very early years when I accompanied my mother on her regular forays to the department stores in Raffles Place. To get to them, we would cross the river on the wonderfully designed Cavenagh Bridge. The open balustrades of the bridge offered an excellent view of the comings and goings on the busy river. It was fascinating to the curious child that I was, to watch the heavily laden wooden twakows (cargo boats) straining upriver with the cargoes that their much larger, steel-hulled cousins in the inner harbour had fed them. Even more fascinating to me was the spirited movement downriver of the boats whose bellies had been emptied by the industrious coolies at the many godowns (warehouses) lining the river.

Cavenagh Bridge.

Watching the coolies at work fascinated me more than seeing the passing of the twakows. I would stop and stare at the men as they took small but quick steps across the narrow planks that linked the boats to the stepped, concrete banks of the river. The planks would strain under the weight – not so much that of the bare-bodied men themselves, but of the load that each balanced on one shoulder. The loads seemed not just to outweigh the men who bore them, but to also be larger than the coolies’ lightly built frames. At times it looked as if the planks were too narrow, but I never once saw those men lose the ability to balance themselves and the offset loads that they carried.

A scan from an old postcard showing the river in busier days, filled with the twakows that transported goods from their steel hulled cousins upriver to the numerous godowns that lined the river.

In those days, besides the colourful distractions that the twakows, godowns and coolies provided, the waterway had a reputation for its less than pleasant smell. In fact, many visitors who arrived prior to the late 1980s remember Singapore for the river’s smells. It was an odour that I well remember myself and was reason enough for my mother to avoid stopping by the very popular Boat Quay food stalls. These had fitted themselves onto the narrow strip of land between the back of the buildings that lined the river (one was the Bank of China Building) and the river itself.

The (old) bank of China Building set against the new building has been one of the few survivors of the area around the river since I first became acquainted with the area in the late 1960s.

Much of what went on in and around the river had indeed contributed to how it smelled, as well as to the murky waters that the twakows ploughed through. A massive effort to clean up the river began in 1977 and meant that life in and around the river as it was, would soon be a thing of the past. The twakows, a feature of the river for over a hundred years, disappeared in the early 1980s, an event that I somehow missed. By the time I got around to visiting the river again, they had vanished from the waters that had once held hundreds of them. Soon, the river was to be cut off from the sea that had given it life, with reclamation work at Marina South and the construction of the Marina Barrage. The river did not go quietly, however, and is now entering its second life, integrated into a potential source of fresh water for the modern metropolis that has grown around it.

A massive effort to clean up the river began in 1977 and the twakows, a feature of the river for over a hundred years, disappeared in the early 1980s, Many of the godowns along Boat Quay (seen here dwarfed by the steel and glass of new Singapore) have since been transformed into food and entertainment outlets.

Nevertheless, the river will always evoke its colourful past for me. I still look at it through the eyes of the child, and what I see are images of the twakows, coolies and godowns that are today all but forgotten.

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This post has been published in the July / August 2011 issue of Passage, a Friends of the Museums, Singapore publication as “Singapore River Reminisces, Boat Quay in the 1970s”.

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