A rare vintage photo of Hillview!

 While doing some follow-up research after publishing my video on the Battle of Bukit Batok (previous article), I happened to come across a vintage photo on the Australian War Memorial photo collection site.
It was untitled and undated and at first glance you would probably think it was just some kampong somewhere in Singapore or even Malaya then.

On closer examination, the hair on the back of my head literally stood up! It was precisely what I was searching for, and even better was that it had a very rare view of the area before it was called Hillview.  

This is the vintage photo which must have been taken before the end of 1947 or earlier.

Source: Australian War Memorial. Public domain. Captions by hjtann.

The photo shows a cluster of buildings beside a major road. This was Upper Bukit Timah Road at the 14km, or then the 9-1/2 milestone point.
The buildings are not of a kampong but were the Public Works Department (PWD) office and staff quarters at the junction with Dairy Farm Road. Dairy Farm Road is on the far right of the picture. The PWD had its offices there because it was near where they obtained granite gravel from the Dairy Farm quarry for their road building projects.

My grandfather, Louis Goh, worked as a mandore (foreman) with the PWD and had his office there. He was supervising the building of roads in the 1960s.

I was sourcing for exactly a picture like this because during the 2nd World War in Singapore, a British Army unit, the Argylls and Sutherland Regiment, occupied the buildings as its field Regiment HQ.
The unit attempted to stop the Japanese tanks from going down Bukit Timah Road to the city by blocking the road just 600 yards away near St. Joseph Church.

What may be more interesting to some of you is that the photo shows the Hillview ridge before the building of Hillview Road just across the road from the PWD offices. Hillview Road was built in early 1948 by cutting across the ridge from Upper Bukit Timah Road. You can see part of the KTM railway line running alongside the road.

p.s. I just added in an additional photo to show what the area would later become.
This is an aerial photo taken from the National Archives collection (NAS Photo no. 267628) that shows the same area in 1963. I have rotated the photo to try and orientate for easy comparison. The PWD buildings are on the bottom left of this added photo.

Related links:-
The building of Hillview Road and KTM girder bridge.

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

The railway bridge at Hillview Road.

Before the year 1948, what would become Hillview Road was nothing more than a country track that was the land boundary between two gambier plantations belonging to Messrs. J Jacobs and Messrs. Tang Kok. This boundary track led from Upper Bukit Timah Road at 9-1/2 milestone into the Bukit Gombak farms and rubber plantations.

What had puzzled me for a very long time was the railway girder bridge that was built over the later Hillview Road.  I was confused because I knew that Hillview Road was only constructed in 1948 but the KTM (Keretaapi Tanah Melayu) railway line was built in 1932, a good sixteen years before the road was built. So my question was 'Did they build the girder bridge over a country track?'. If so, why would they do that? Was there a need to build a bridge there? It didn't make sense to me.
Moreover, about 500m further down, there was also another country track called Lorong Taluki. This track crossed the KTM line too but there was no bridge, just a slope up to the embankment and then down the leeward side. Why did they need a bridge here?

I even referred to my good friend, Dr Lai Chee Kien, who has extensive expertise with the rail system in Singapore. Dr Lai and I both lived at Fuyong Estate before where we would see the KTM trains passing everyday on the high embankment along the Hillview ridge. Dr Lai wasn't too sure of the reason as well. So, was the bridge there even before Hillview Road was built?

For a long time, I left the question open till about a month ago when I found a photomap dated 15 April 1948. The aerial map showed the on-going construction of Hillview Road and Hillview Avenue on that date. It totally resolved the question of the girder bridge!

(Click on photo for a detailed view)

The girder bridge was built at the same time as the construction of Hillview Road in 1948!
There was no girder bridge when the railway line was built in 1932. In order to construct Hillview Road, KTM had to create a temporary diversionary rail siding to allow for the construction of the girder bridge.*
(Correction: From further research into the area, the previous original sentence is incorrect!.
While building the road, they DID NOT build a diversionary rail to bypass the road and bridge construction.
It seems that the curve of the railway line at this section towards Bukit Timah Road was the original path of the railway line. The girder bridge over the road was a new section of the railway line that was built and replace that curved section.)

Hillview Road was created by cutting through the ridge from Bukit Timah Road. Passing the road today, you can still see the cut made then. Hillview Road is like a huge hump with the summit exactly where the gate of the former Union Carbide Co (then National Carbon) was. Hillview Road and Hillview Avenue were specifically created for access to the two new factories of National Carbon and Malayan Guttas.

As I had mentioned in a previous article, the creation of Hillview Road and Hillview Avenue was the first time that the area was officially called 'Hillview'. The name was used because at the other end of this Hillview ridge near Bukit Batok Hill, there was a grand private country estate called 'Hillview Estate'. This country house Hillview Estate was the wartime headquarters of the Australian Division that fought the invading Japanese army in 1942.

Though, adequate at its time, the girder bridge at Hillview Road was to become a bottleneck for vehicles with increasing economic activities in the 1970s. Hillview Road was then the only access to the industrial factories being built at Hillview. The solution, in 1969, was to extend the other end of Hillview Avenue to join Jurong Road at Bukit Batok.

The girder bridge was dismantled and removed on 26 November 2011 as a result of the return of the KTM land by the Malaysian government to Singapore. The bridge support buttresses were only removed in 2017 and we can expect that Hillview Road will be further widened in future to accommodate the increasing traffic through the area.

The KTM railway girder bridge at Hillview Road.

The bridge was dismantled in November 2011.

Other links to the girder bridge:-
The Girder Bridge at Hillview
The development of Hillview Avenue
The colonial Hillview Estate

Hillview Road in 1956

Found an old photograph showing the Hillview Road entry towards the "Princess Elizabeth Industrial Estate" taken in May 1956. Can you recognise this spot?

The S.I.T. blocks of flats at Princess Elizabeth Estate were built in 1953. At that time, this was the only road access to the housing estate and to the few factories that were set up at then, such as Kiwi Shoe Polish, Eveready Batteries (National Carbon), Malayan Guttas, Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing and Malayan Textiles.

The photo shows the junction of Hillview Road and Upper Bukit Timah Road at 9-1/2ms. The road on the right of the picture is Upper Bukit Timah heading towards Woodlands.

Besides the road signs "Princess Elizabeth Estate" and "Hillview Road", there are five other signboards visible. Due to the low resolution of the photo, I can only make out three of them - Raja Clinic, Kiwi Polish and Malayan Textile Mill Ltd. Can anyone decipher what the other signboards indicate?

The Chartered Bank branch would be built the following year at this junction. The Green Bus Company had started its No. 5 bus service along this road in February 1953 and there were bus stops on either side of Hillview Road just left of this junction (without shelter!)

Today, exactly on this junction sits the Hillview MRT Station of the Downtown Line.

Related posts:
The Hillview Railway Bridge

Factories around P.E.E. (7) - Union Carbide

I have been meaning to write an article about the Union Carbide factory ever since I started on this heritage blog as Union Carbide had a very significant connection with so many residents at Princess Elizabeth Estate. I have not done this till now for several reasons.

Firstly, I did not have a photograph of the factory. 

I asked almost everyone I knew who had some connection but the result was still zero. So I ended up having to use the low resolution aerial picture above.

Secondly, because of this close connection with so many ex-residents, I wanted to make sure that I had the facts correct. Alas, even this was difficult as many ex-residents are no longer around and those that are had very little memory left of it. Strange to say, both my parents worked at Union Carbide, but my mom who is still living, can't remember much as well.

The Union Carbide factory was built in 1947 immediately after WWII and was originally call the National Carbon (Eastern) Ltd., a subsidiary of the National Carbon of USA. Its main product was the Eveready flashlight batteries and these were made in the then state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Hillview.

The factory building situated beside the trunk Upper Bukit Timah Road made it one of the most prominent landmarks in this area. There was a 10m tower that had a huge model of the silver Eveready battery on top. This was floodlit at night  and the giant battery could be seen for miles around.

A huge model of this battery sat on a 10m tower.
It was the most prominent landmark in the area.

Found a photo showing the battery tower!
The landmark tower is on the left of the factory beside Hillview Road. 

Princess Elizabeth Estate was built about 5 years after the Union Carbide factory begun. The S.I.T. had specified that priority for homes in the new estate would be given to those who worked within the vicinity.

The resourceful management at Union Carbide encouraged its staff to apply for homes at the upcoming estate. The result was that almost twenty percent of all the homes at Princess Elizabeth Estate had someone working for Union Carbide!  Other residents worked at the nearby factories of Malayan Guttas, Hume Industries and Kiwi Polish company. Consequently, the community spirit in the estate became very close knit due to neighbours having known each other before moving in.

In the 1960s & 1970s, Union Carbide was also renowned as a powerhouse for sports. They had teams winning national sports events in football, softball and table tennis. In those days, sports events were mainly from business houses and Union Carbide was the Business League football champion for many years. The Princess Elizabeth Estate football field became the home ground for Union Carbide football teams. You can read this article about the estate football field.

Unfortunately. as Singapore's economy grew with trade liberalisation, Union Carbide battery manufacturing became less viable with the introduction of cheaper Japanese made batteries. They even tried getting tariff protection but eventually the Union Carbide battery factory at Hillview was finally shut down in 1985. Today the Hillview Heights condominium complex sits on the former factory site.

Vintage photos of the battery production line at Union Carbide factory at Hillview.

Pictures from NHB PICAS photo archive.

Here is a photo, courtesy of Bro Roger from Boy's Town, showing the location of Union Carbide with its prominent battery tower.

A street called Clarence Dale

In the National Archives of Singapore, there is an old dusty pile of documents marked S.I.T 1067/51.
In it is a section called "Naming & Renumbering of Roads within Princess Elizabeth Estate".
It contains pretty mundane official correspondences and notes from various government departments during the construction of Princess Elizabeth Estate in 1951.
However, some quite interesting trivia can be found if you spent some time, like I did, going through this historical document.

There was only one road that led to Princess Elizabeth Estate in 1951 when construction started.
Hillview Road was already in existence and stretched from the junction at Bukit Timah Road 9-1/2ms, pass the National Carbon (Eveready) factory and ended at the gate to Malayan Guttas factory.

During the building of Princess Elizabeth Estate, the road was extended from the end at Malayan Guttas for a further 1/2 mile straight down. In between this new stretch, a branch road was created that led directly into the new estate.

In view of the donation of the land made by the French Belgian bank, Credit Foncier Far East, the SIT offered the privilege of naming these 2 new roads to the donors. However, Credit Foncier bank declined the offer to name the roads. The SIT planning dept then set about naming the roads.

They proposed that the new road connecting to Hillview Road be called Princess Elizabeth Estate Road and the branch road to be called Princess Elizabeth Drive.
Strangely, they also proposed naming the pathways inside the estate that ran in front of the blocks of flats. This was most unusual as these were not roads or streets but merely footpaths from one block to the other, albeit, forming a network of footpaths within the estate itself.

They proposed the following names for these footpaths.
Elizabeth Hill, at the hilltop of the estate boundary,
Elizabeth Rise, the slope from the plain to the hillside.
Elizabeth Green, surrounding the football pitch, and
Clarence Dale, at the 'bottom' of the estate.

The proposal for these names were sent to the Singapore Rural Board which was the authority with regards to naming of places in the rural districts of Singapore.

The Rural Board rejected the proposed names for the estate. The reason being that the names were too similar and that it would lead to confusion for the people, especially since the estate was meant for the 'lower classes of locals'.

While the main roads retained the proposed names of Princess Elizabeth Estate Road  and Princess Elizabeth Drive,  the names of the internal footpaths were changed to the following:-

Elizabeth Hill became Princess Anne Hill,
Elizabeth Rise became Prince Charles Rise,
Elizabeth Green became Philip Walk, and
Clarence Dale became Clarence Walk.

After occupation of the estate began in 1952, Princess Elizabeth Estate Road was re-named as Hillview Avenue. This was done as it was planned that the new road would eventually lead to the upcoming Colonial Industrial Estate. Hillview Avenue was extended to start at the circus with Hillview Road.

Places around P.E.E. (1) - The Salvation Army Home

At the junction of Hillview Road with Upper Bukit Timah Road, and directly across the Standard Chartered Bank, is a modern edifice called Praisehaven run by the Salvation Army.

The Salvation Army building "Praisehaven"

In the 1970s, I lived at the neighboring Fuyong Estate for a few years after relocating from Princess Elizabeth Estate. At the time, the Salvation Army was running a Nursery Home for Children called the Lee Kuo Chuan Home for Children.

Lee Kuo Chuan was the father of the philanthropist Lee Kong Chian who donated the land to the Salvation Army for setting up the Home in 1951. I can recall the old Home was a single story building that always seemed to be painted in shades of yellow or orange. It was built on the hill slope and had a well manicured terraced field in front, and it was always this field of green with its royal palm trees that you notice first as you passed it.

The Home was for abandoned or disadvantaged children and my parents would always threatened to send my siblings and myself there whenever we were naughty.

Inmates at the Lee Kuo Chuan Home.
The original building was a single storey building.

In my teens years, as student in secondary school, I came into direct contact with the Home as a member of the schools' Interact Club. The club had 'adopted' the Home as part of our social outreach, and we volunteered our time to the Lee Kuo Chuan Home. We would troop down to the Home each Friday afternoon and were at the disposal of the matron, whom I remembered was a Dutch captain. She had a very friendly matronly look in her white uniform with red epaulettes. 

For some reason, we were always given the task of painting the place. It seems every time we went there, we would be painting a wall or the fence or some furniture.  

After I left school, I continued to pass by the Home as a shortcut ran beside the Home from Fuyong Estate to the bus stop in front of the Home. In time, I noticed that the Salvation Army had switched from running the Children's Home to a Home for the aged and elderly.

The present building was built some time in the 90s but I am not aware of the actual period. 

The Salvation Army also runs a Thrift Shop there now.