Lee Kuan Yew's Walkabout at Princess Elizabeth Estate 1963

Nineteen Sixty-three was a tumultuous year both for me and for Singapore.
For me, I was still in primary school learning my ABCs and Times Table. Yes, in my time, children hardly ever attended kindergarten then. We started 'learning' in primary school. I was barely cognisant of what was happening outside of my school life!

For Singapore, it was a politically heady time. Singapore had declared itself independent from the United Kingdom, it appointed its own Head of State (Yang di-Pertuan Negara) and had its own Prime Minister. In de facto, Singapore freed herself from British colonisation that year.
Ahead was a planned merger with some states of Malaya and Borneo, that was being opposed both locally and internationally!

In the political turmoil after the 1959 election, Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew won a 1962 referendum for merger with the Federated States of Malaya and some North Borneo states to form the new Malaysia.  To quell opposing views about the forth-coming merger, Mr Lee visited all 51 constituencies in Singapore in 1963 to explain their rationale for this merger.

On 5th May 1963, he visited Princess Elizabeth Estate as part of his tour of Bukit Timah Constituency.

Keep in mind that back in 1963, there were no resident's committees, no citizen consultative branches, no grassroots organisations, etc. Estates, kampongs, villages and settlements were all run by whoever appeared to be the leader and accepted by the community as head. All were volunteers.

At Princess Elizabeth Estate, the 'management' of the estate was taken up by the community centre management committee (CCMC), who sort of oversaw more than just what took place within the community centre. They also played the role of  'estate managers' when requested and acted as liaisons with officialdom on behalf of residents in the estate.
The community centre was not as yet under the purview of the People's Association.
Then they were all volunteer residents from the estate who stepped forward to help their own community.

I recently came across archived photos of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's visit to Princess Elizabeth Estate in 1963, during which he also laid the foundation stone for the new People's Association Community Centre building at Prince Charles Rise. These photos are from the archives of the National Archives Singapore (NAS) and all copyright belong to them. I do not own any of the attached photos.

If you lived at Princess Elizabeth Estate then and can recognise anyone from these pictures, please do drop me a comment so that we can all enjoy these old memories the better.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew arrives at Princess Elizabeth Estate in his Landrover along Princess Elizabeth Drive.
Children from Princess Elizabeth Estate School lined the road as guard of honour to welcome him.
PEE School is at the far background and the row of houses at the left were the new
Popular Estate terraced houses that were not yet occupied.

I can still vividly recall this event and more so because we schoolchildren were each given a cupcake and a bottle of
Green Spot orange drink when we were re-assembled back in school after his arrival.

Mr Lee being garland by Dr Raja at the car park that was also the Green Bus Terminal.
Can anyone remember that Estate signboard at the bus terminal?
Dr Raja, the only physician in our estate was the CCMC Chairman at the time.

The walkabout began with a tour of the estate and meeting residents.
They were walking across the small field in front of Blk 22. In the background is the rear of Blk 21 where I lived.
Dr Raja leads the entourage in front of LKY.
Mr Lee Teck Hup is at the far right.

Passing Blk 20 Princess Anne Hill, the longest block of flats in the estate.

Coming down (Princess) Elizabeth Drive from Blk 24.
Notice how narrow Elizabeth Drive was? With cars parking along the edge, another car can pass only in one direction.
If cars came head on, someone had to reverse and back away to allow the other to pass.

The same procession from an obverse view. LKY waving to residents at Blk 23.
The man beside Dr Raja in front I can only remember as Tony Chua's father.

Entourage heading down Princess Anne Hill to Prince Charles Rise to the new
PA Community Centre building site for LKY to lay the foundation stone.
Man on the left of LKY was my father, Tann Yean, who was also on the CCMC,
Dr Raja on the right of LKY.

LKY speaking to residents on the construction site of the new PA community centre
in front of Blk 17, Prince Charles Rise.
He spoke about the upcoming Merger with Malaya to form Malaysia.

The new PA Community Centre was built over the old badminton courts and the grove of Mangosteen trees.
Notice the ramshackle huts and zinc roofs on the far left? That was the old 'market' stalls.

Mr Lee laying the foundation stone for the new Community Centre.

Bees invade Princess Elizabeth Estate

On the evening of 4th August 1981, a block of flats at Princess Elizabeth Estate was invaded by a large swarm of bees.

This tale was told to me by Wendy Ng, who lived at the affected block at that time with her brothers and parents.
It was her brother Wilson, as reported in the Straits Times the following day, who called the Environment Ministry about the danger to the residents.

Strangely, they were informed that the Ministry would only send workers to eradicate the bee hive only the next morning !
I wonder if this is the normal operating procedure?  Wouldn't the danger of getting stung warrant an immediate response to this situation?
The report also mentioned that 2 residents were already stung by the bees. Just turn off the lights and shut your doors and windows, advised the Police.

Hmm, in today's age of social media, I wonder how the people would respond to this kind of advice.

I guess that's the price you pay when your estate is located beside the luscious natural greenery that is Bukit Gombak.

Blk 22 Princess Anne Hill where Wendy lived with her family.
Many residents also knew this as the 'Gonzales' block.
Mr Raphael Gonzales was the PAP MP for Serangoon Gardens in the 60s
and lived the ground floor unit on the left. Wendy lived on the 3rd floor above him.

A follow-up report in the Straits Times of 6 August 1981.

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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.