The sarabat stalls at Hillview Road

A sarabat stall is basically a makeshift coffee stand, in days gone by.
Unlike an itinerant or travelling hawker, the sarabat stall was usually rooted temporarily at the same spot for a period. It would sell freshly brewed coffee, tea, cold drinks and snacks for a quick bite.

Often ramshackle and unkempt, they were found usually at places like construction sites or near places where people gathered like markets, factories and bus terminals. It was mainly good for a quick cuppa or a smoke during office break or while waiting for the bus.

 
The name sarabat derived from the Malay sarbat or ginger juice that was mixed with the milk tea, the main beverage sold at these stalls. This concoction is still available today as Teh Halia.

The sarabat stall opposite the Eveready battery factory gates along Hillview Road.
Behind the fence is the Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing Co. 

There were two sarabat stalls that operated along Hillview Road in the 1950s and 1960s.
These were located aside the main road directly opposite the main gate of the National Carbon factory. This factory was also known as Union Carbide or the Eveready battery factory.  The factory began production way back in 1948 but it is not clear as to when the sarabat stalls starting operating at this location.

The above photo shows one of the two sarabat stalls in existence then and was taken pre-1963. 

The aerial photo below of Hillview Road was shot in 1958 and already shows the two sarabat stall along the fence of the Hong Kong Rope factory (yellow circle).

Beside the two semi-permanent sarabat stalls, I was told that there was also an occasional push cart hawker selling cut fruits and cold plum and starfruit juice at times. These hawkers catered mainly to the factory workers during their lunch and tea breaks, especially to the staff of both the Eveready factory and the adjacent Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing factory. Customers included the occasional kampong folks and residents of Princess Elizabeth Estate as well, who had to pass the stalls as they walked along Hillview Road to reach the main road at Upper Bukit Timah.

(Photo source: NAS)

The sarabat stalls were located at the top of the ridge, across which Hillview Road ran from Upper Bukit Timah Road to Hillview Avenue. It was at this very point that the Green Bus Co #5 bus had Request Bus-stops* on both sides of the road, obviously to serve the factory workers as it was just by the company's main gate. 

In the above picture of Hillview Road, you might be able to make out the sloping road that peaked at the area where the stalls were. Today, the slope is not as steep as it once was. The gradient having been reduced with the building of the condominiums around the mid 90s, as well as with the regular accretion from road re-surfacing and maintenance over the decades.

(Photo source: NAS)

Green Bus Co Service #5 driving up the slope from Hillview Circus.
It would crest the Hillview ridge just where the sarabat stalls stood at the top of the ridge.
Note that even in 1955, there were no concrete footpaths along the sides of Hillview Road.

(Photo source: NAS)

Green Bus #5 coming up the slope from Upper Bukit Timah Road side.
The KTM Railway girder bridge was built when Hillview Road was constructed in 1947.

(Photo source: ijamestann.blogspot.sg)

Photo taken in 2011 after the removal of the KTM railway line over Hillview Road.

You can see that the slope is much gentler than in the old days.

*Request Bus-Stops
For those who are unaware, especially of the younger generation today, bus stops in the old days of the mosquito buses were known as 'Request Stop'.  A bus will stop at a 'bus-stop' only when a passenger wanted to alight by pressing the bell, or if there were passengers waiting to board at the marker, which was usually only a metal pole with a number plate. The bus would continue on if the bell was not rung, unlike today where it is usual for all buses to stop at every bus-stop in order to keep to their planned scheduled times.

A "Request Stop"  outside St. Andrew's Cathedral

 


In those days, there had been many incidents and arguments where the bus would not stop while a passenger will claim that they had rung the bell. Nasty bus drivers, which were common, might hesitantly and purposely stop a long way from the Request Stop and some would even continue on and let the passenger off only at the next stop! Most bus-stops did not have shelters except for those in popular areas. The Request-stops at Hillview Road were not sheltered in those days.

(Photo source: NAS)

The sarabat stall opposite the gate of the Eveready battery factory.

At the far right distant, you can see the KTM railway bridge running over Hillview Road.

My own personal recollection of the sarabat stalls is very vague. It would be in the early 1960s when my father was still working at the Eveready company. I can only recall that my dad used to stop his car at the sarabat stall and would alight to buy cigarettes from the Indian Mama (uncle). We would be driving out from Princess Elizabeth Estate and he would only patronise this stall as he was familiar with them. It was a habit he had, or perhaps he had credit with the Mama? Apart from that scant memory, I cannot recall if I ever had a drink at this stall at all. I was too young then.

Illegal itinerant hawkers as well as makeshift sarabat stalls were all moved off the streets from 1965 to 1971 as part of the government's plan to resettle all hawkers to more hygienic and proper facilities.
So, for those of you who lived at Hillview after the mid 60s, it would be very unlikely that you would have known of these sarabat stalls. There were also sarabat stalls at the #5 bus terminus at Princess Elizabeth Estate too.


In a future article...
If you look again at the aerial overhead photo, you can see a yellow square at the junction of Upper Bukit Timah Road and Hillview Road. This was directly across Hillview Road from the old Chartered Bank. 
It marks the homes of two Indian families who used their house front as shops to sell Indian food. Many will recall these two Indian shop houses as they were also beside the main bus stop heading into the estate.

I will blog about this eating house in a future article, as well as about the HDB Food Centre (photo below) that was built in 1994 at the new HDB Hillview Estate.

(Photo source: Internet)

Quick links to related articles about Hillview Road
The building of Hillview Road
The removal of the Railway Bridge
The development of Hillview Avenue
The Eveready Battery factory

Tien Tor Long

A documentary series was recently broadcasted on Channel New Asia called Days of Disaster.
Last Sunday, March 8, there was an episode titled Megafloods which covered the floods of Singapore over the past few decades.

I was asked to watch this episode by my blogger friend, ex-schooltecher Mr Yeo Hong Eng.
 Yeo Hong Eng is the author of The Little Red Cliff, a book in which he tells of his young days living in rural Bedok.  Hong Eng was featured in the episode in an interview about his days when Bedok was severely flooded in 1954.

During the show, a picture flashed on the screen for about one second but it immediately caught my eye! It had nothing to do with floods but it was shown as an example of industrialisation in Singapore.

The picture they used was the Union Carbide factory at Hillview Road.

Screen capture from Channel News Asia.

Many of the early residents of Princess Elizabeth Estate would be closely associated with this factory as many of them worked there. These include both my father and my mother who were once employed by Union Carbide. I have previously blogged about the factory in an earlier posting here.

People living in the vicinity of Hillview will know the factory as the Eveready battery factory or Tien Tor Long in the local dialect. Tien Tor means battery and Long is factory in Hokkien.

It was a landmark at Upper Bukit Timah in those days because of its tower which can be seen from far away.
At the top of the tower was a huge model of an Eveready Silver battery which was lit up at night and acted as a beacon. It could be seen from far off coming up or down Upper Bukit Timah Road.

In the picture you can spot Princess Elizabeth Estate in the background at the base of Bukit Gombak. The private estate beside it does not seem to have been built yet so I surmise that this picture was taken before 1965. If so, then the factory would have been known as National Carbon and not renamed as Union Carbide yet.

From the angle of this picture, I reckon that it was shot from the top of Fuyong Estate which lies across the main Upper Bukit Timah Road. Most probably from the slope where today the St Francis Methodist School lies.

It is one of the clearest picture I have yet seen of Tien Tor Long.