The Railway lines at Hillview

In my previous article that I posted in July regarding the Hillview factories along Upper Bukit Timah Road, a lot of interest was centred on the two railway lines that ran past Hillview. These were, firstly, the 1903 Singapore-Kranji Railway, and secondly, the 1932 KTM Railway that 'replaced' the 1903 railway line. I must clarify that even though I occasionally write about the railways, I am not a rail enthusiast, nor an expert on this subject, and my writings about them only relate to my blog articles here.

One of my contacts, a local railway expert, Trevor Sharot, had earlier re-discovered and confirmed the existence of a tunnel that was seen in old 1950 aerial photo maps. This tunnel is under the now 'Green Corridor' and is not clearly visible by any and all who trek along this conservation corridor. It is covered by shrubs and overgrowth. I have marked it out in this 1950 aerial photo. I will do a writeup on this tunnel in a future blog article.

The hidden tunnel under the old 1932 railway track.

Another old friend and railway enthusiast, Peter Chan, also got in touch with regards to the older 1903 Singapore-Kranji Railway. Peter's grandparents lived at the Chestnut area and had seen the building of the 1932 KTM railway that was to replace the 1903 Singapore-Kranji Railway.
More fortuitously, Peter's grandfather had the presence of mind to take photos of the construction in those days, and Peter shared one with me.

What is interesting about the black & white 1931 photo is that it shows the steel truss bridge being built across Upper Bukit Timah Road in 1931 for the new KTM Railway that would run to Tanjong Pagar. This now retired truss bridge is being conserved today as a heritage item along with the rail corridor.

What is of greater interest in this B&W photo (especially to rail enthusiasts) is that you can see behind the bridge, the level on the hillside where the older 1903 Singapore-Kranji Railway line ran down from the hill (where Ford Motors would later be built). It was on a higher level above Bukit Timah Road.

With Peter's permission, I enhanced the old B&W photo and found that I could then make out the old telegraph poles that ran alongside the 1903 Kranji railway tracks! The old telegraph poles were significant in determining the layout and alignment of the 1903 tracks as seen in my previous posted article. (The red line).
In the old days, telegraph poles were built parallel alongside the railway lines.

 Note the 1903 telegraph wires up on the bridge level (right of pic).
There also appears to be overhead electrical cables alongside Bukit Timah Road as well. These can be seen beneath and beyond the bridge.

Peter then sent me more photos he had!
These were the actual remnants of the telegraph poles which he found and had kept!

Parts of the 1903 telegraph poles.

The telegraph wire insulator.
(Peter's souvenir from 1903)

According to Trevor, the 1903 Singapore-Kranji Railway, after passing Bukit Timah Village, had originally been planned to run through the valley that would eventually become Hillview Avenue. That is, it would have been on the western side of Bukit Batok Hill running through the pineapple and rubber plantations located there and onwards towards Bukit Panjang.
However, it was built eventually on the eastern side of Bukit Batok Hill, past Mendoza Village, up the crest (where Ford Motors would be built) and then down towards Hillview. Why the routing was changed is yet to be made clear. Maybe someone out there knows?

Hillview as seen from Upper Bukit Timah 1957.

Source: National Archives of Singapore/British Royal Air Force Collection.
Thanks to Lai Chee Kien and Trevor Sharot for confirmation of the 1903 line location

Here is a picture that is worth a thousand words!

Colorised from an old RAF Sqn 81 aerial survey photo taken in 1957, this is the Hillview region at 9th milestone (14km), Upper Bukit Timah Road.

On the left are the factories of Hillview in 1957, starting with Hume Pipes Co Pty Ltd at bottom, Rheem Hume Co Ltd, Malayan Guttas Ltd, National Carbon and finally, the Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing Co. The Chartered Bank Hillview Branch is to the right of Hong Kong Rope Mfg Co.

Fuyong Estate is across Upper Bukit Timah Road and the KTM Railway truss bridge straddles the highway prominently at this point.

The red roofed buildings today house the Rail Mall shopping arcade and eateries. It was built in the early 1950s by philanthropist, Mr Lee Kong Chian, as low-cost workers quarters to house his employees who worked his rubber plantations in the area. I used to live at Fuyong Estate from the mid-60s till the mid-1980s. My old house was the 4th semi-detached unit up the hill behind 'Rail Mall' . The back of my old house faced the factories across the road and everyday I would see the KTM trains going by.
You can't miss the trains because at this point, just before the girder bridge at Hillview Road, they were required to 'WISEL', as the signal signboard indicated. Whistle to warn of an approaching train.

Among other things to note here was the railway sidings just to the left of the bridge. There were two sidings, off the main railway line, that were used exclusively by the Hume Pipes Co. These were used to load the manufactured pipes for conveyance up to Malaya then, where Hume Industries was a major supplier of concrete pipes for the country's development. 

The first railway line that ran through Hillview was the 1903 Singapore-Woodlands Railway (aka the Tank Road-Kranji Railway). I have sketched out the approximate line location where the 1903 railway ran through this part. (red line).  The other railway line that passed Hillview was the 1932 KTM railway line. The 1903 railway line became defunct, and eventually removed, when the 1932 KTM railway line started operations.

Initially built by the Federated Malay States Railways (FMSR). It was later incorporated by the governmental Malayan Railway Administration (MRA) and in 1962 became known as the Keratapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), the name which most of us associate the railway line with. 

It was the FMSR that built the black truss bridge over Upper Bukit Timah Road, which has now been declared a heritage conservation structure.

The former KTM railway line was closed and subsequently removed in 2011 and the old rail bed is now preserved as part of the Green Rail Corridor conservation project.

Related reading.

The Hillview Road Girder Bridge

The dismantling of the Hillview Bridge

Malayan Guttas

The Hillview Chartered Bank Robberies

National Carbon Ltd (Union Carbide)

Rail Mall

Of Udaya and the Mendoza Cafe.

Quite recently, with all the talk about the Green and Rail Corridor proposals by NParks Singapore to preserve what's left of the natural space vacated by the KTM Railway,  the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) published a pictorial map of a proposed plan.  This was the upcoming linkage between Bukit Batok Hill to the Rail Corridor, near the old Bukit Timah Fire Station.

This is the URA plan for the Green Corridor linking Bukit Batok Hill with the Rail Corridor with an aerial walkway
and an Eco-bridge across Upper Bukit Timah Road. Picture source: URA Singapore
Superimposed labels are mine for illustration for this article. (click to enlarge)

When I saw this, I said "Ah, this is something for my blog. Something people will not know about unless they are in their 60s or older now and lived around Upper Bukit Timah!"

This 'something' is the large plot of land between Lorong Sesuai (the road leading to Bt Batok summit) and Upper Bukit Timah Road (up to the former Ford Factory).

This was the location of one of the last kampongs in Singapore. It was colloquially known as the Mendoza Village with its single road, Jalan Udaya. By the 1970s, the village had more than a hundred kampong houses within the precinct, but was completely obliterated in 1985 under Singapore's plan for the removal of all squatters and kampongs. However, the kampong was not technically 'squatters' until after the land was re-acquired by the government.

The site was until then owned by the family of a certain Mr. Joseph Png Swee Thong.
Joseph Png was a wealthy landowner who own large swathes of land in Bukit Timah and Bukit Panjang from the 1920s onwards. He also owned the stretch beside the KTM Railway line from the Bukit Timah Fire Station up to Kampong Merpati opposite the Ford Factory.

Part of the Mendoza village adjacent to the Ford factory.

This is a map produced in 1972 showing the area of Mendoza Village with its only paved public stretch of Jalan Udaya for access. Within the village, the roads were unnamed tracks. It was located immediately south of the Ford Motor factory on the eastern slope of Bukit Batok hill.

(Extract from Singapore Map 1972, National Archives)
The area shaded in blue was owned by Png Swee Thong & family.
Note the large number of kampong houses mapped.

Why was it strangely called Mendoza Village? And what was the meaning of Udaya, the name of the only road way into the village.

Mendoza Village, or Kampong Mendoza, was named after Clement Mendoza. Clement Mendoza was an Indian Eurasian descendent of the Mendozas from Mangalore, India. In 1925, Clement Mendoza married Miss Agusta Png, the daughter of Png Swee Thong, who was the landowner. Ahh, you say!
Mendoza lived at a shophouse fronting Upper Bukit Timah Road. It was an eating-shophouse selling food and drinks. They collected rent from tenants who built their kampong houses there and was in fact the de facto landlord for the village. The village, with its Eurasian name, had mostly Chinese tenants but there were many Malay and Indian families who built their homes there as well. Within the kampong, there were also a few provision shops. One was ran by an Indian and another by a Chinese who named his store Kedai Beng.

A typical Chinese kampong house that would be found at Mendoza village.
(Picture source: National Archives Lee Kip Lin collection)

During World War II, British prisoners-of-war (POW) were forced to work at the Ford Factory. One group of POWs were from the 1st Leicestershire Battalion. They were made to build fences at the Ford Factory. Private Tom Sansome, a former POW, recalled that after toiling at the Ford Factory, they had to marched down from the factory to MacArthur POW camp at Reformatory Road. However, they were allowed to stop at the 'Mendoza Cafe' for refreshments before the start of their return march. "It was a small shack adjacent to the factory fence that we had built", recalls Pte Tom Sansome.

In an episode during the Japanese Occupation, the Mendoza family was caught harbouring an escaped prisoner from the work gang.  The Mendoza family was forcibly evicted from the house and the house was occupied by Japanese officers from then.

In 1958, the Malayalee community around the area started a library to promote reading amongst the Malayalee workers who worked at the nearby factories of Hume, Ford, Gammon, Union Carbide and the nearby granite quarries. They registered an association called the Kairali Library and used a kampong house in the village for this purpose.

In 1959, on his victory lap around Singapore, the Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew, stopped at the village to thank voters for his party's victory at the 1959 General Election. Mendoza Village was a staunch Party stronghold then. He paid a visit to the Kairali Library and when he was told that the 'road' outside the library was unnamed, Mr Lee declared that it would henceforth be called Jalan Udaya. By 1965, it was officially in the government street directory.
Udaya, a word with religious connotations, in Sanskrit or Marathi means 'growth' or 'increase'.

When Mr Chor Yeok Eng became the MP for Bukit Timah in 1966, he based his Citizens Consultative Committee (CCC) at a kampong house in this village across the road.

The entire estate owned by the Png family, said to be approximately 75 hectares in area, was acquired by the government in the 1980s. It was rumoured that the compensation to the landlord was $2m at that time. The kampong folks were offered flats at the upcoming HDB Hillview Estate at Hillview Avenue. The Kairali Library with its collection of Malayalam books was offered space to display its books at the new Bukit Gombak Community Centre at Hillview Estate. It was later given a room at the Education Centre set up at Blk 11 Hillview Estate.
The kampong was completely demolished by 1985 and Upper Bukit Timah Road at that area was widened to improve traffic flow.

In the late 1960s, I had to travel to school by bus passing the Mendoza Village to and fro, and I can still recall the Mendoza eating-shop facing the roadside. This was because my regular Indian barber had shifted his shop from Fuyong Estate, where I was living then,  to set up his new shop beside the 'Mendoza Cafe'. I believe they had partitioned the food-shop to rent the space to the barber.

Here is a very interesting overhead aerial photo of the area (you must have concluded from my blog by now that I'm an aerial photo fanatic!). This was from 1950 when the RAF did aerial surveys of Singapore Island.
In the photo you can see the Mendoza village beside the Ford factory building. You can also see the summit of Bukit Batok with the foundation base of the Japanese Chureito Syonan memorial still in existence then and the little Allied War Memorial behind it.
(Click on the picture for an enlarged detailed view)

In this picture, you can also see the relic of the original Tank Road-Kranji Railway line that ran right through Mendoza Village. Dismantled in 1932, the mound on which the railway sleepers were laid can still be seen today if you search and look closely.
I was there about two months ago doing bird photography and could still see some remnants of the mound. (oops, did I just give away my secret birding spot?)

Heritage hunters may want to check it out as this is about the ONLY place where you can still see the original 1903 Tank Road-Kranji Railway line left today.
You can also see the colonial 'Hillview Estate', the namesake for the future Hillview region, at the bottom of the photo.  To learn more of this country estate, click on the related link below.


Postscript: addendum to this article 26 October 2019.
After publishing the above blog article, I was contacted by members of the Mendoza family (Anne and Thomas) with whom I had no previous contact, expressing their thanks for highlighting their family history with regards to the Mendoza kampong. They also gave me permission to publish their private family photos here.
Anne also confirmed that the Mendozas were the landlord, and that she remembered that as a little 9-year old child, she accompanied her aunt, Ah Yee, around the kampong to collect rent from the tenants.

Joseph Clement Mendoza (with dog).
The namesake of Mendoza kampong at Jalan Udaya.
He married Agusta Png, daughter of the landowner Joseph Png Swee Thong.

The grave of Joseph Png Swee Thong, who owned Kampong Mendoza.
He lived to a full 101 years old and died in 1951.
He was buried at St. Joseph Church cemetery at Chestnut Drive.

A newspaper cutting from the Singapore Free Press of 4th Dec 1958
announcing the 'electrification for 'Kampong Mendosa Bukit Timah Road'

Postscript 2: 
I also received from a friend from the UK, WW2 researcher Ken Hewitt, a picture of the ex-POW, Tom Sansome whom I mentioned above. Tom Sansome just celebrated his 100th birthday last month.

Ex-POW, Tom Sansome (in wheelchair), who was forced to work at the Ford Factory during WWII.
Tom just celebrated his 100th birthday in Sept 2019 with congratulations from Queen Elizabeth
Photo: courtesy of Ken Hewitt

Related links:-
The Ford Motor factory
Bukit Batok Hill
The Japanese Memorial Syonan Chureito
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

Sixty-six years ago over Hillview

I found another old RAF aerial photograph, taken in 1950, of the area above what would become Hillview Avenue.

At the end of World War II, the British Military Administration, in order to conduct a mapping survey of Singapore Island, found that the fastest way then, given the limited resources, was to do an aerial photo mapping survey. The task was given to the RAF Photo Reconnaissance Squadron 81.
The magnificent pictures they took are now in the National Archives.

In 1950, Princess Elizabeth Estate was not constructed yet as the site was only considered in 1951.
Union Carbide Co Ltd, maker of the Eveready Batteries, and Malayan Guttas Ltd, manufacturer of Wrigley Chewing Gum, were the only factories then located at Hillview Road. The massive factory complex on the right of the picture is the Hume Pipe factory wth the Manager's Staff Housing located behind on Hume Heights.

Fuyong Estate, which was built by philanthropist Lee Kong Chian, was a row of houses facing Upper Bukit Timah Road. These were meant as low cost houses to cater to the shortage of housing in those days. This row of houses is still in existence today, but has been converted as eateries and restaurants called Rail Mall.. Terrace houses would later be privately built behind the row of low cost housing and incorporated as part of Fuyong Estate.

On the top left are the Public Works Dept (PWD) offices which ran the adjacent PWD granite quarry for gravel used mainly for road building works. Part of the pastureland of The Cold Storage Dairy Farm can be seen beside the PWD offices.

On the top right is the Singapore Quarry, privately owned by Mr Chia Eng Say, whose namesake is now given to the road fronting Rail Mall at Fuyong Estate.

Notice the KTM railway line that runs across the picture with the grider bridge over Hillview Road.
If you look very carefully at the land just beside Upper Bukit Timah Road, left from the black truss  bridge onwards, you will see some remnants of long streaks in the ground.

These long streaks were the original Tank Road-Kranji Railway line that ran alongside Upper Bukit Timah Road. (You didn't know that, right?) The  old railway line was dismantled and replaced by the KTM Line that was built further uphill. The 1957 Chartered Bank would be built over the old track line.

Click on the picture to get a more detailed and enlarged view.

Places around P.E.E. (5) - Keramat Habib Syed Ismail.

Just outside Princess Elizabeth Estate, on Upper Bukit Timah Road beyond Fuyong Estate, was a quaint building that supposedly housed the relics of a pious holy saint.

The Keramat Habib Syed Ismail was located across the road from Hume Industries in a tiny kampong area beside the KTM railway line.
You could see the keramat as you reach the top of the uphill climb towards the Ford Motor building after passing the black KTM train bridge. It was a small wooden building, circular in shape without walls and was painted  green and yellow. Beside it stood a small wooden kampong house, presumably belonging to the caretaker family.

In my younger days, I thought that this was a mosque as I'd often saw worshippers gathering there for prayers. It was only after I shifted to the nearby Fuyong Estate that I learnt more of this place.

A keramat is a muslim shrine that contains the remains of someone who is revered as a very holy or pious person or religious teacher. Much like the Catholic tradition of shines to saints.

The keramat at Bukit Timah was said to contain the grave of Habib Syed Ismail, a holy man from India, who came to Singapore in the early years of the twentieth century and lived in that area beside Bukit Timah Hill.

The keramat of Iskandar Shah located at Fort Canning.

The keramat was similar to that of the re-constructed keramat of Iskandar Shah at Fort Canning, except that it was smaller and was more circular or octagonal in shape. I remembered it had a railing around the pillars and that it was painted in green.

Over the years, there were many legends or myths that grew out from this place.
One legend was said that Habib Syed Ismail could communicate with the Jinns (or malay spirits) that lived in the forests at Bukit Timah. There was a small waterfall nearby at the Singapore Quarry that was said to be a sacred place because Habib Syed used to meditate and communicate with the spirits there.

Another legend was that due to the position of the keramat and its sanctity, the invading Japanese Army during WWII could not occupy that place and that the battle line for Bukit Timah actually stop right before the keramat. It was said that many Chinese kampong folks took shelter for safety at the keramat during the war to prevent their capture by the Japanese Imperial troops.

The practice of worship at keramats is actually frowned upon by mainstream Muslims, but like catholicism, it is tolerated as long as it does not detract from the main religious dogmas.
Other famous keramats in Singapore include the Habib Noh at Shenton Way and the keramat at Kusu Island.

I am now trying to contact my old friend, Buangino, who was my neighbour at Fuyong Estate.
Buangino is the only person that I know of who has photographs of the old keramat at "Batu Lapan" Bukit Timah. If I get them, I will post it here.

The keramat as well as the nearby malay kampong were all demolished in the 80s or early 90s and the area now is reclaimed by nature.


(*Keramat is sometimes spelt Kramat)


Related links: The Holy Rock of Batu Lapan

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.

Places around P.E.E. (2) - St Joseph Church, Bukit Timah

For a small estate of 200 households, there was an exceptionally large proportion of Catholics living at Princess Elizabeth Estate. Most of them attended the nearby St Joseph Church. It was usual to either walk to church through the Lorong Taluki kampong or by bus to the Salvation Army bus stop at Hillview Road and walk the short distance to church.

St Joseph Church, re-built by Fr Teng in 1965.

For administrative purposes, the Catholic church is divided into dioceses, each run by a bishop, and further sub-divided into parishes for easy administration. So the parish priest would be the one you may be most familiar with as he tends to the area where you lived.

P.E. Estate came under the domain of St Joseph Church at Upper Bukit Timah Road. The parish priest at that time was a dominating larger than life figure called Fr Joachim Teng. With his booming voice, he sent shivers through many parishioners and really scared the hell out of a lot them! (In the process I guess saving them for heaven).  Children ran away at his sight. Yet Fr Teng tended his flock zealously, going round his parish that once stretched from Jurong to Woodlands. Older parishioners will recall him riding his British Matchless motorbike in his cassock!

Fr Teng was renowned as a church builder. He is credited with building St Francis of Assisi at Boon Lay, St Anthony at Mandai, St Stephen at Aljunied, and of course, the re-building of St Joseph at Bukit Timah.
For all his efforts, the government awarded him the Public Service Star. Fr Teng died in 1984.

Fr Joachim Teng

St Joseph Church at Bukit Timah has a long and illustrious history. It was built in 1846 by French missionaries to tend to the rural catholic population.  St Joseph used to own huge plots of land around the church at the Chestnut/Cashew area. Boys Town & the CHIJ convent were all built on land previously own by St Joseph Church. It was also one of the few churches that had its own cemetery by the church.

I had blogged once before about St Joseph (article here). The famous explorer and naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace also used St Joseph Church as his base in his early research into natural evolution (see this article here)

St Joseph Church. c.1905.

My earliest recollection of St Joseph as a child around 6 or 7 years, was of the doric columns and the huge  statue of St Joseph at the door way. At the main door there were two giant clam shells which was used to hold holy water. I recall playing on the stone steps leading up to church. They were covered with moss wherever there was a joint or crack. One scary thing for a child was being told that the graves of the early parish priests were buried in the aisle of the church. We were always afraid of stepping over their grave stones!

The church was already at that time getting old and run down. This church that I attended as a child was actually the second St Joseph church building that was erected in 1905 to replace the original wooden building.  Fr Teng initiated the 3rd re-building of a new St Joseph in 1963 and was completed in 1965.


For those who may be unfamiliar with Catholic practices, the Catholic Church is 'universal'. It is the same church wherever you go. It has the same beliefs, the same rituals and the same dogmas whether you are in Singapore, Australia, Africa or anywhere. Your 'membership' comes with your faith and baptism. Catholics may attend any church in the world and the only difference may be the vernacular.

A dilemma arose for Catholics in Princess Elizabeth Estate in the early 1970s when another Catholic Church was built at the other end of Hillview Ave on Old Jurong Road. That will be in another blog....

Related posts: History of St Joseph Church Bukit Timah
                       The cemetery at St Joseph Church

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.

Factories around P.E.E. (4) - Amoy Canning Corpn

Amoy Canning Corpn was built in 1951 at the 8ms. Upper Bukit Timah Road. It was considered to be at the southern end sector of the 'Colonial Industrial Estate'. Across the road was the Singapore Cold Storage Magnolia Factory.

I do not know much about this factory, only that I used to pass it everyday on my way to school in those days. The factory started off processing soya sauce but its most famous product was the 'Green Spot' orange drink.

In fact, the most prominent thing about this factory was a giant replica of the Green Spot bottle facing Upper Bukit Timah Road. Travelers going down the road cannot fail to notice this landmark. It was astute advertising even in those days! The bottle was on a revolving platform and that made it stand out even more.

Amoy Canning with its giant revolving Green Spot bottle 

Taken in 1993.  Sadly, Green Spot was no longer produced by then.

Amoy Canning Corp was located opposite the junction of today's Old Jurong Road and Upper Bukit Timah Road, next to the former Bukit Timah Fire Station.  Springdale Condominium now sits on its former site.

Upper Bukit Timah Road. Building is the Hock Soon Ind Warehouse
located next to the Amoy Canning factory.

The former Chinese kampong originally called Kg Quarry
and later Yuasa Barracks was down the road from Hock Soon Warehouse.

Beside Amoy Canning was a former rubber factory but this was later replaced by the Hock Soon Industrial Warehouse. I remembered that Kah Motors had one of its Honda showroom at Hock Soon Warehouse.
Further down was a Chinese kampong originally called Kg Quarry but later known as Yuasa Barracks.
Today, this entire stretch has been completely replaced by condominium developments.

An old advertisement by Amoy Canning Corp.