Did Raffles have any plans of chinatown??

Raffles drew up a plan for chinatown, his blueprint was developed from years of first-hand experience in Penang.His instructions to the Singapore Town Planning Committee in 1822 thus stated that houses should have a uniform type of front each having a porch of a certain depth, open to all sides as a continuous and open passage on each side of the street. This probably led to the five-foot way which the shophouses in Chinatown are famous for. Some researchers have reflected that the shophouse was a fusion of the narrow-fronted houses that are a familiar sight in Amsterdam with the ones of Southern China, especially in Guangzhou and Fujian.

Exploring Chinatown

At Telok Ayer Street, it was hard to believe that this magnificent place was once a historical site. This street was once occupied by the hokkiens.

Raffles separated the early Chinese immigrants according to provinces of origin and also by what the British perceived to be different classes. Thus Hokkiens occupied Telok Ayer Street, China Street and Chulia Street; Teochew-speaking Chinese occupied Circular Road, Boat Quay and South Bridge Road; and the Cantonese occupied mainly Kreta Ayer, Upper Cross Street, New Bridge Road, Bukit Pasoh and parts of South Bridge Road. This arrangement contributes to the reason why today, one may encounter a different speaking dialect group in each different part of Chinatown.

How did chinatown come about?

It all started during the 19th century when Sir Stamford Raffles concieved Chinatown. He was not satisfied with the way that the settlement around the Singapore River and Boat Quay had developed. The Singapore River and Boat Quay was very different if you were to compare the past and the present. Most of the immigrants that were living in Chinatown were from China at that time.

Our Singapore's history-filled Chinatown

As you wander through the streets of Chinatown on a sunny day, one will be amazed at how innocently blended in greater contrast is an old pre-war shophouse that is standing side by side to a renovated one. These sights of the old and renewed houses appearing in random as one goes down the streets, only serves to remind us of the past and our present efforts to preserve it.