Factories around P.E.Estate #13 - Malayan Textile Mill

       After all these years describing the various former companies and factories located at Hillview, you would think that Malayan Textile Mill would be on top of the list. It being one of the original four factories set up back in 1953. Yet until now, it was left out because I really did not have much information on this entity! It'll also probably be the last factory to be covered in this series on the factories around Princess Elizabeth Estate.

Fronting Hillview Avenue with its distinctive serrated roof, the Malayan Textile Mill was built on a large 3000ha piece of freehold land. In the 1950s, textile production in East Asia was becoming very popular due to the low cost and producers in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan were getting renown for their quality textiles.

Malayan Textile Mill was set up to spin yarn.  Yarn being the raw material used by other textile mills to produce finished fabrics, textiles, knittings and other types of cloth.

The Malayan Textile Mill machinery spinning yarn on spools.

In the tumultuous 1960s, the factory was involved frequently with workers wildcat industrial action and strikes. This was a time of growing awareness of workers rights, mainly over the low wages and working conditions.

By the 1970s, there were up to 25 textile mills in Singapore but most were inefficient and unprofitable. It was an industry where local expertise and skilled workers were in very short supply. Experienced textile workers tended to migrate to other factories with better pay. This eventually led to a detrimental situation for the entire textile industry in Singapore, and to the eventual closure of most mills.

The Malayan Textile Mill was bought over by another company and renamed as the International Spinning Mill. It lasted well into the early 2000s when it was sold to real estate developers to built condominiums on the site.

Today, Hillview Green Condominium sits on the old factory site along Hillview Avenue.


Related links:-
#1 Factories that were located at Hillview
#2 Cycle & Carriage
#3 Ford Motor
#4 Amoy Canning
#5 Malayan Guttas
#6 Castrol
#7 Union Carbide
#8 Kiwi Polish
#9 Magnolia Dairies
#10 Hume Industries
#11 Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing Co
#12 Central Oil Refinery
#The Hillview Industrial Estate

Factories around P.E.E. (6) - Castrol.

If you lived at Princess Elizabeth Estate or at the later Hillview HDB Estate, there was one prominent landmark that you could never miss. It was situated by the Hillview Circus (roundabout). Cars or vehicles driving by this place will have to slow down due to the very steep incline that is Hillview Road. Thus, you were given a clear view of this landmark as you passed the site.

This was the Castrol lubricant manufacturing factory with its huge distinctive silver oil storage tanks.

The storage tanks appear to be painted a dark colour but most everyone remember it in its silver livery.
(Photo taken in 1973.)

The Castrol plant was set up in 1963 with the encouragement of the Economic Development Board. Those were the years of frenzied factory building with great economic incentives given to major brands that wished to set up factories in Singapore.

It was originally called Castrol (Far East) Pte Ltd and was the first major overseas subsidiary of the British Castrol company which specialised in machine and engine lubricants.
The factory was opened in 1963 by Dr Goh Keng Swee amidst great flourish with the first drum of lubricant marked for shipment to Kobe, Japan.

As a young lad, I thought that the factory was an oil refinery due to the unmistakable oil storage tanks located there. It was only much later that I learnt that Castrol only manufactured lubricants for engines and that this plant at Hillview was its major manufacturing facility outside of Europe.

Castrol operated its factory from 1963 until 1993 when the Hillview area was rezoned from an industrial area to a condominium residential zone.  The factory then relocated to new premises at Jurong Industrial Estate.

Unless you are now in your 70s and lived at Princess Elizabeth, you probably would not have known the previous occupant of the Castrol site. The original factory that stood on that Colonial Industrial Estate site was the Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing Company.

Today, the site is occupied by the Glendale Park and Hillview Park Condominium complexes.

The old Castrol site at Hillview Ave. The condo is Glendale Park.
Note Hillview Circus in the foreground - one of the last remaining roundabouts in Singapore.
I sincerely hope that the authorities will not convert this circus in their zeal for 'progress'.

Aerial View of Hillview 1950s

This is an aerial view of the Hillview Avenue area taken in the late 1950s.
Click on the photo to get a larger detailed view.
I have labelled a few prominent landmarks as follows:

A -   Princess Elizabeth Estate
B -   Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing Co
C -   National Carbon Co (renamed Union Carbide Co in 1957)
D -   Malayan Guttas Co
E -   Central Oil Refinery Co.
F -   Kiwi Polish Co Pty Ltd
G -  Malayan Spinning Mills
H-   Hume Industries
H1- Hume Industries Manager's Quarters (Hume Heights)
J -   Ford Motor Co.
K -  Gammon Malaya Ltd
L -  Dairy Farm
M - Dairy Farm Granite Quarry (PWD)
N - Salvation Army / Lee Kuo Chuan Home
O - The Chartered Bank
P - Fuyong Estate
Q - Singapore Granite Quarry
X - Bukit Batok Hill
Z - F. E. Zuellig (M) Ltd (see TG Chua's comments below)



Related link: Development of Hillview Avenue

Hillview Industrial Estate

Hillview Avenue is better known today as one of the premier condominium belts in Singapore.
There are at least 25 condominium developments already completed with more on the way.
Yet, prior to 1993, the entire area was full of factories and bustling with lorries and workers.
There were as many factories then as there are condominiums now.

The Hillview Industrial Estate was a light industries zone which bloomed during the post independence days. The Economic Development Board, then headed by Mr Hon Sui Sin, had earmarked Hillview and encouraged companies to set up there. Many were attracted by the incentives and thus we had Cycle and Carriage, Metal Containers, Camel Paint, Lam Soon Oil, Cerebos, Yakult, Singapore Ceramics, Zuellig Animal Feedmill and many others setting up shop along that shady stretch.

However, the history of Hillview as an industrial zone goes further back to the post WWII days.
A British investment company called the Colonial Development Corporation bought 53 acres of land from the colonial government with the intention to set up pre-fabricated factories to be rented out or sold.
Thus, the Colonial Industrial Estate at Bukit Timah was born. It was named ".. at Bukit Timah" as they were also developing another estate at Redhill.

The Bukit Timah site was chosen as it already had a few major companies operating in the same area. These were Ford Motor Company, National Carbon (later renamed Union Carbide) and Hume Industries.
While these three were located out along Bukit Timah Road, the first factory within Hillview Avenue itself was the Malayan Textile Mills. This was followed soon by the Central Oil Refinery, the Hong Kong Rope Company, Davar & Co producing ceramic tiles, Siglap Development Co producing edible oil and Kiwi Polish Company.

The Kiwi Polish Company in 1953

The Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing Co.
Built at the junction of Hillview Road/Hillview Ave.
The roundabout (bottom right) is still in existence today.
Upper Bukit Timah Road is seen at the top.
Castrol Singapore was later built over the same plot.

The original intention was to create 2 acre plots with 'ready-to-use' factory buildings. However, some factories took bigger plots. The Malayan Textile Mill  took 9 acres, The Hongkong Rope Co took 8 acres.
Most of the other factories were built on the original 2 acres mukims.
It is interesting to note that todays' condominiums are mostly built on the same 2 acre plots.

How big is 2 acres? It's just over 8000 square metres.
If you are living in Hillview now, or can visualise the condos, 2 acres is, for example, The Lanai (being built), Hillvista, Chantilly Rise, Century Mansion, Meralodge. These were all built on the original 2 acre factory plots.

Hillview Heights occupies the ex-Union Carbide site.
Hillington Green was built on the former Malayan Guttas Co. and International Spinning Mills' land. Glendale Park/Hillview Park occupies what was once the HongKong Rope company's land, later used by Castrol Singapore.
Hillvista rose from the old Central Oil Refinery (later TACAM House Ind Building).
Chantilly Rise is where the Kiwi Polish Company was.
Hillbrooks occupies what was once Camel Paint and Metal Containers.