Toa Payoh is one of the oldest public residential estates in Singapore. It is so called a 'matured estate' and has undergone upgrading to refresh the estate, part of the government's ongoing plans to rejuvenate older estates. This clock tower was a feature added during upgrading.
See how it oddly tries to blend in with the open corridors with hanging laundry of the block of flats behind it. You'd be interested to know that HRM Queen Elizabeth II visited a resident in this block as part of her tour of Singapore a few years ago. Furthermore it was a return visit, the earlier one being maybe 20 years earlier...No kidding, check the poem extract below!
This is an iconic housing block in Toa Payoh, according to our guide. One of the first blocks there. I took these pictures while I was on a heritage trail to Toa Payoh earlier this month.
The guide (in white T-shirt, centre) is an independent niche bookseller, ie. owner of Books Actually, which niches in literature books. He grew up in Toa Payoh. Well, he read a poem titled "A Brief History of Toa Payoh" written by a former journalist in this hot spot. In case you're wondering why trail participants are carrying umbrellas!I'll quote a bit from the poem: "...the pride and self-sufficiency /of early settlers /eclipsed: /town centre, bus termini, the first SEAP Games, /the emporium's sacks of fragrant rice, /children's playgrounds, the garden's lake and tower, /the Queen's lookout /excite no more/and the children of Toa Payoh/are the mothers and fathers/of Woodlands, Pasir Ris,/distant orbits of the new satellites..."
Well, Woodlands and Pasir Ris are the newer satellite residential estates, further away from town. And yea, the children now all grown up are living in the newer estates because prices in the older housing estates have skyrocketed..
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Terrific shots! Looks like a lovely place to live! Thanks for the tour!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Singapore shots.
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful blog! Thank you for joining in with My World Tuesday. You make a very good contribution.
ReplyDeleteThe clock tower seems to be an ambassador from somewhere far, far away. Your photos and your post were great. Thanks.
ReplyDeletewhat i really like about Singapore is that it really upgrade the buildings or renovate them. We don't do much here in our country. Informative post. my world is up too.
ReplyDeleteSingapore is a very modern city. I had been there as a child, right after our Japanese concentration camp in Indonesia, the British rescued us and took us to Singapore. From there we went to Holland.
ReplyDeleteAn inteesting post. It is good to see that these places are not just scrapped i favour of more faceless skyscrapers.
ReplyDeletean interesting post...lovely captures and so enjoyed reading the commentary. have a wonderful week
ReplyDeleteReader Wil,
ReplyDeleteI'll try and post something about WW2 sites in Singapore in future.
Thank you mkreider so much for the kind words. I'm just an accidental blogger and now it seems I'm on a roll doing this thing. I think it'll roll on for a bit.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos!!
ReplyDelete