Hillview 'Dry' Market - 1967

I recently came across a new photo that did not come from the National Archives.
This was a rare picture of the original Hillview Market that was opened in September 1967.

The Hillview Market was the first government built market at Princess Elizabeth Estate. From the estate's  founding in 1953 till 1967, the estate did not have a proper produce market. The residents in the small estate had to depend on farmers who lived in the area coming together to sell their fresh produce direct to the households. The makeshift hawker market was then located in front of Blk 16, near the Green Bus terminus. 

In 1965, the PEE residents petitioned their MP, Mr Chor Yeok Eng, to propose to the HDB for a proper market. This succeeded and construction began in 1966. It was to be located along the main Hillview Avenue, making access easy to all.

What most people don't realise today was that this market was one of the earliest experimental 'dry' market. Traditionally, the HDB provided wet markets,  where they basically build a huge sheltered space, and allocated lots within this open space under one roof. Wet markets, as the name implies, was always wet with water which led to hygiene problems and smells.

The Hillview Market was a new concept where small 'shops' or stalls were allocated to the hawkers who could only sell their wares within their stalls. Thus, making each hawker responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of their own shops. There were 54 shop stalls selling meat, fish, vegetables, cooked food or sundry items. Each type of business was sectioned off into different blocks as seen in the picture.

I had previously written about this market in an earlier article where you can read the details at this link:- The Old Hillview Market

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

Old Market at Princess Elizabeth Estate

The old market at Phillip Walk, Princess Elizabeth Estate

When residents started moving into Princess Elizabeth Estate in 1952, there was no market of any sort for daily produce like fresh fish, meat or vegetables. The fledgling estate had a few sundry shops along Hillview Avenue and beside the bus terminal. These shops provided a variety of goods and services. There were coffeeshops, dhobies (laundries), Dr Rajah's clinic, charcoal shop, barber and hairdressers as well as a few Chinese and Indian provision shops. But there was no market!

Seeing an opportunity to earn some money, many of the nearby kampong folks set up makeshift stalls that eventually led to the beginning of what would be a small 'market'.
This was located at the open area in front of the row of shops beside the bus terminal, an obvious meeting place with the kopi-tiam as anchor. The stalls then slowly increased to occupy the area along the footpath which was beside the Community Centre fence.

This was the area where the initial makeshift market was set up, in front of blk 16.
The area was cleaned up after the market moved to the newly built hawker pitches at HillView Ave.

Kampong folks living up on Bukit Gombak and from the adjacent Chinese Village started selling their home grown farm vegetables and fruits, and soon more stalls began to be built along the footpath.

This was the beginning of the PEE market. As the market grew and became more established, hawkers would bring in meat like pork and mutton, fish and other produce to sell. The market operated only in the morning.

I can still recall the hawkers bringing their wares on baskets hung on a pole and the produce sold were all wrapped with newspapers, or with meat it was simply tied on a rattan string without any wrapping! Eggs were sold in wire baskets and fresh chickens were slaughtered on the spot. The smell and poor sanitation were simply part and parcel of those days.

In those early days of the estate, people were more tolerant of those roadside conditions, as the next nearest markets would be at Bukit Panjang Village or at Beauty World, and getting to either was no easy task then.

In 1965, the Member of Parliament for Bukit Timah, Mr Chor York Eng, initiated a project to build a proper market for residents of Princess Elizabeth. It was a very innovative project then, in that, the government would build and rent out what they called 'hawker pitches' at a low cost to itinerant hawkers and settle them in proper units that had lighting and running water!

This was long before the concept of dry markets was even thought of. People in those days were only used to 'wet markets' where hawkers of all kinds would simply pitch their own stands and stalls in an open space. The hawker pitches at PEE was truly innovative in its days. It was also an early experiment by the Hawkers Dept of the Ministry of Labour.

Princess Elizabeth Estate would be an early adopter of the concept of a dry market, even before this concept was known as it was. Fifty-four hawker pitches, each in inself a small shop with proper lighting and running water was built. This was a truly novel idea for its time.
The new 'modern' market would be built in the open quadrangle that was bordered by Blk 1, 2 & 3 and  Hillview Avenue. The location where this market was would be where today the condo sales showroom along Hillview Avenue is, beside the new Hillview Community Club.

The hawker pitches were balloted to an overwhelming flood of applicants but priority was given to the existing hawkers from the old roadside stalls near the bus terminal. The ballot was held in September 1967 and the market begun operations shorty after.

Another novel approach was to divide the market into sections. One section sold meat and fish, another section was for vegetables, yet another was only cooked food and one section was for services, like kitchenware, sundry goods and tailors.

Mr Chor York Eng at the balloting ceremony, Sep 1967.

The market continued operations until the 1980s when the hawkers were offered better facilities at the newly built HDB Market at HDB Hillview Estate. The old market continued till most of the Princess Elizabeth Estate residents were resettled to new HDB towns. It was demolished together with the demolition of Princess Elizabeth Estate in the 1980s.

Related links of interest:-
Location of the old market & map
A landmark of PE Estate
An aerial view of PE Estate
Updated photo of the market 1967

Sundry shops and the old market

As with all new housing projects, P. E. Estate was built with a number of shops to serve the immediate community.

They were centralised at 3 rows of artisan quarters ( Blks 1 to 3 beside Hillview Ave), and another row farther in the estate next to the bus terminal (Blk 16).

For those who lived there, you might remember the following shops:

Blk 1   #1 The charcoal shop

            #2 Chinese provision shop

            #3 Malay barber

Blk 2   #4 Provision shop

            #5 Chinese coffee shop

            #6 Indian Barber – New Star Hairdressing & Barber

            #7 Chinese Tailor shop

            #8 Provision shop (original PEE Community Centre)

            #9 Provision shop

           #10 Coffee shop

Blk 3   #11 Rajah Clinic

            #12 Chinese provision shop

            #13 Indian Provision Shop (selling ice cream too!)

Blk 16  #99 Sin Wah Hin Provision Shop & Postal Agency

            #100 Dhoby (Laundry) shop

            #101 Ah Thian Provison Shop (site of the former PEE Community Centre)

            #102 Kopi tiam (Ah Pui 'fatman' coffee shop)

The provision shops at blk 3 (left) and the corner coffee shop (right)

I can recall the provision shops with its unique musky smell of gunny sacks, rice and dried goods. All the provision shops seemed to smell alike. I can tell you it's not pleasant! The shopkeepers used to keep their loose money change in 2 milk powder tins that were strung across the shop using a pulley system.

In the middle you can see the hung newspaper paperbags which were used for wrapping.

I also recall the shopkeepers would spend the afternoons making paper bags from newspapers. They would boil starch and glue newspaper into a triangular shape that would be used to contain your purchase of rice, sugar or loose items like beans. They would fold your purchase into a dumpling shaped pack and tie it with gunny jute string or another type of white vine string.

He would use his daching and weigh things in katis and tahils. 

Pounds and ounces were occasionally used but definitely not in kilograms at that time!

The dhobi laundryman hung his washing in front of his shop on a clothes line that consisted of a pair of twisted ropes. He didn’t use any clothes peg and simply slotted the clothes between the twists of the clothes line. It was such an ingenious method.

In the early years, there was only a makeshift market located at the footpath in front of the row of shops near the bus terminal. Vendors would bring their wares and goods in the morning and sold them out of baskets laid along the footpath. Much later, the more ‘established’ vendors started building wooden stalls and tables and eventually the quadrangle in front of that row of shops became the ‘market’

With the rise of Popular Estate and Bamboo Grove Park, the makeshift stalls became inadequate and a petition was made to the MP for Bukit Timah, Mr Chor Yeok Eng, for a proper market .

In 1967 a new market was built at the field fronting the shops beside Hillview Avenue.

It was a novel type of market then, where stallholders were given ‘shops’ instead of stalls. These individual shops, called ‘hawker pitches’, were more hygienic, had proper sales counters, electric supply for lighting and running water. The 52 hawker pitches lasted till the late 1980s when the adjacent HDB Hillview Estate market was built and the vendors were moved to the new HDB Hillview Market and Food Centre.