Boat Quay today is chock-a-bloc with fine restaurants offering cuisines from around the world. It has always been a dining hotspot in Singapore. Here's a bit about its history to add to your food, giving it another layer of flavour which might make it even more delicious for you 😄
Raffles' landing site at Singapore River. Image credit: Wikipedia
Raffles of the British East India Company first stepped foot on Singapore at the north bank of the Singapore River on 28 Jan 1819. From where Raffles stood, you can see Boat Quay directly across the river on the south bank. (This statue of Raffles has his back to Singapore River, and his eyes looking east in the direction of today's Raffles City.)
Boat Quay was the eastern edge of the "Chinese Campong" or Chinese enclave in Raffles' town plan (also known as Jackson Plan) published in 1822. Chinese Campong stretches westwards to Kreta Ayer (today's Chinatown). Across the river from Boat Quay was the European Town and Empress Place where grand colonial administration buildings would be built.
An Orang Laut village in Indonesia in the 1990s. What Raffles saw might look something like this. Image credit: Wikipedia
There was a small fishing village with dwellings on stilts at the Singapore River banks and sightly further upriver was an Orang Laut (sea gypsy) village. The two banks at the Singapore River mouth were swampy, unsuitable for berthing boats. Raffles ordered the swamps filled with earth from a small hill at today's Raffles Place to make embankments on both north and south banks.
Commercial Square (today's Raffles Place) was built on the flattened hill, and Boat Quay built on the reclaimed land over the swamp. Launched in 1822, this would be Singapore's first land reclamation project.
Screengrab from Google Map
Boat Quay was known as the "belly of the carp" 鲤鱼肚 because Singapore River's southern bank looked like the bulbous belly of a well fed carp.
Chinese traders eagerly set up shops here as they believed this was auspicious with the "belly of the carp" promising wealth, luck and prosperity. Very good Fengshui according to Chinese geomancy principles.
By the 1860s, Boat Quay handled 3⁄4 of Singapore's trade. Large ships in the harbour would transfer their goods to lighters (tongkang or twakow), which would bring them to Boat Quay.
Coolies (labourers) would carry the goods like tea, coffee, spices, rice, etc. in heavy bales ashore from the bumboats berthed at Boat Quay to the traders' store houses and godowns.
The view was majestic and the vibes invigorating but the smell wasn't so great. For 150 years, Singapore River was treated like an open sewer. There was a constant pungent smell stench of rotten eggs hanging in the air. It was the smell of rotting animal carcasses, human waste, and any and all rubbish simply thrown into the river. Who here is lucky enough to have smelled the old Singapore River? 👃 🙋 I have 😂
By 1977, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew decided that enough was enough. He had a vision of Singapore River as a world class entertainment hub. Mr. Lee challenged the Ministry of Environment, "In 10 years let us have fishing in the Singapore River... ." And so, the S$170 million Singapore River clean-up was launched. Looking at the Singapore River today, it was a S$170 million very well spent.
Boat Quay's end as a twa kow hub came rather decisively in the 1980s when the Pasir Panjang container port opened in 1983. The twa kows and coolies hauling sacks of goods on wooden planks became history. They were displaced by container ships discharging goods by giant cranes assisted by computer technology. By 1983, Boat Quay's berths closed and twa kows (lighters) were cleared from Singapore River.
By 1984, people could swim in the Singapore River again. Cleansed, the next stage in the life of Singapore River was about to begin.
The last days of the old Boat Quay in 1983 before the demolition machines come. The once log jammed lighter boat berths were empty, the shophouses mostly vacant and dilapidated. The old sauntered around with faraway looks in their eyes, the young wide eyed but oblivious to the changes awaiting them.
The demolition machines came in in 1983. Fortunately, many of the heritage buildings were gazetted by the Urban Renewal Authority in 1989 for conservation.
In the mid-1990s, Boat Quay was born again. The once lorry lined Boat Quay Road returned as a pedestrianised mall. The once squalid riverfront shophouses dressed up as pubs, restaurants, cafes and trendy all-night watering holes. According to Boat Quay's official webpage, their main clientele are "professionals, expatriates, tourists and families". The lighter boats are gone for good, but one thing about Boat Quay never changed. From the beginning till now, Boat Quay is still one of Singapore's dining hotspots.
You've heard people say how they miss the old hawker centres. Here's two I missed a lot - Boat Quay Food Centre and across the Singapore River, Empress Place Food Centre.
Looking across Singapore River from Boat Quay Food Centre we can see Empress Place Food Centre. Empress Place Food Centre (often mistaken for Empress Road Food Centre off Farrer Road) was at the north bank of Singapore River near to where Raffles first stepped foot on the Lion City. This site is sometimes referred to as Lower North Boat Quay.
Both Boat Quay and Empress Place food centres opened in Sep 1973, resettling some 150 hawkers that operated around Boat Quay and Hallpike Streetincluding its side and back lanes. Cheap and good food, clean and cool environment, river view and just a short walk from the office, it was a boon for financial district workers. In 1983, the hawkers from both food centres were temporarily moved to Empress Place Transit Food Centre. Many people were sad when both hawker centres were eventually demolished in the 1993.
For a while in the early 1990s, the riverfront Boat Quay Road hosted a pasar malam (night market) before it gave up it last breath to the demolition squad.
Of the food stalls here, I know only Empress Place Teochew Beef Kway Teow. I have eaten at other stalls here before but it was too long ago and I cannot recall them now. Even for Empress Place beef noodles, I tried them only long after they have left Empress Place. Empress Place Teochew Beef Noodles was opened by the granddaughter of Tan Chee Kok, the man who brought Teochew beef noodles to Singapore in the 1920s, and the founder of Hock Lam Beef Noodles. Empress Place Teochew Beef Noodles is no more - it was last operating at Maxwell Road Food Centre by Tan Chee Kok's great granddaughter Melissa but closed in Apr 2020 (no thanks to COVID-19 pandemic social distancing measures) . But, Hock Lam Beef Noodles lives on at Old Airport Road Food Centre by Lee Chee Kok's grandson Francis and by his great grandson Edwin at North Canal Road. Yes, that's just the second street behind Boat Quay. More on the history of Hock Lam Beef Noodles 👈 click
When Boat Quay re-opened to the world in 1995, most of the cuisine were not the Nanyang flavours and aromas of its past heydays. That signature smell of Singapore River was also gone (but this I don't miss).
The reincarnated swanky Boat Quay is now where people look for enjoyment, put on happiness but I wonder who can say they belong here.
Boat Quay became a tourist trap with the usual tourist trap issues. In a way, things have not changed at Boat Quay. It was the chance to be rich that brought traders jostling for a piece of the Belly of the Carp. I will be surprised if doing business at Boat Quay wasn't even more cut throat back in its twakow, tongkang days.
But, this is far from the end of the Boat Quay story. Like Kucinta, the Singapore River cat with nine lives, who knows what the next life edition of Boat Quay will be like? Stay tuned.
May I warmly invite you to share your memories and insights on Boat Quay in the comments, please. Thank you.
Thanks for this piece, its really interesting to read up on history of places here in SG. I didn't even know about empress place and boat quay food centres!
Thanks for this piece, its really interesting to read up on history of places here in SG. I didn't even know about empress place and boat quay food centres!
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