History of Pasar Geylang Serai Market. Enduring Heart of Malay Life & Culture in Singapore

Geylang Serai Market and Food Centre is a hawker centre with one of the longest history in Singapore. Its roots go back to the 1920s, starting life as a street market and then a makeshift hawker shelter in Geylang Serai.

Geylang Serai Market and Food Centre

Address: 1 Geylang Serai, Singapore 402001

Image credit: Google map screenshot of Geylang Serai Market 2021

Geylang Serai Market and Food Centre occupies the historic space bounded by Jalan Pasar Baru in the north, Changi Road to the south, Jalan Turi in the east and Geylang Serai to the west. (Uniquely, the stretch of road named "Geylang Serai" does not have the usual qualifier like jalan, lorong, road, street or avenue. It is simply "Geylang Serai". Period.)

There are different versions of how the name "Geylang Serai" came about. The 1844 map of Singapore by John Turnbull Thomson has a "Gaylang Road" and "Gaylang District" which was mainly coconut plantations. So, one school of thought attributes the name "Geylang" or Gaylang" to corruption of the Malay word kilang which means “mill” or “factory”, referring to factories producing coconut oil.

Orang Laut who once lived at Singapore River were resettled after Sultan Hussein and the Temenggong signed the Singapore Agreement with the British East India Company (represented by Sir Stamford Raffles) in 1819. Some Orang Laut were resettled at Gaylang River that runs through Gaylang.

So, another school attributes the name "Gaylang" or "Geylang" to Orang Galang, an Orang Laut (sea nomad) tribe that lived around the coasts, Gaylang River and Pulau Gelang at the mouth of Gaylang River. Orang Galang communities were once widespread in the Riau islands (Indonesia) such as in Karimun Besar island and Pulau Galang island (south of Batam island).

The area was also known as Geylang Kelapa as it was mainly coconut plantations and coconut oil mills (kalapa is Malay for coconut).

In 1848, the Arabic Alsagoff family bought land in and around Geylang Kelapa. Spice trader Syed Abdul Rahman Alsagoff from Yemen, was the first of the Alsagoff family to settle in Singapore arriving here in 1824. The Alsagoff's estate named Perseverance Estate stretched from Geylang Serai to Jalan Eunos. The Alsagoffs switched the plantations from growing coconut to lemongrass. Geylang Kelapa was renamed Geylang Serai which remained to this day (serai is Malay for lemongrass).

In the mid 1800s, the present Geylang Serai Market & Food Centre was a lemongrass processing mill or Kilang Serai at the entrance of Kampong Geylang Serai, opposite Joo Chiat Road. The Kilang Serai was known in English as Citronella Press Factory. When Citronella Press Factory closed in 1890, the villagers planted coconut, rubber and vegetables in Geylang Serai.

Between 1905 and 1927, an electric tramline ran from the city centre (Singapore River) to its eastern terminus at Geylang Serai.

In 1927, the electric trams were replaced by trolley buses which ran between Tanjong Pagar and Geylang Serai till the 1950s (when they were replaced by diesel engine buses by Changi Bus Company).

At Gelang Serai village, there was a makeshift hawker shelter known as Geylang Serai Market which the authorities erected some time before 1930. The shelter closed soon after 1930 but hawkers continued to ply the area and the “market place” continued.

In 1930, the Municipal Board named the “area north of Geylang Road, between Paya Lebar Road and Jalan Eunos” as “Geylang Serai”. Putting the official stamp on the name which locals used for over half a century by then.

In the 1930s, the population of Geylang Serai swelled with people resettling from the city for cheaper housing. People were also resettled from the Kallang Basin to make way for construction of Kallang Airport. Kallang Airport opened in 1937, and was considered the "finest airport in the British Empire".

Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942 and Kallang Airport became an Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Base.

During the Japanese Occupation (1942 - 1945), part of Geylang Serai was converted to planting tapioca and renamed Kampung Ubi which in Malay means Tapioca Village.

The Japanese turned the grounds of Geylang Serai market into an amusement park. After the war, the makeshift street hawker-market area returned.

Between 1952 and 1957, the authorities turned the site into “Changi Trade Fair”, later named "Great Eastern Trade Fair", then "Great Eastern Park" with New City Cinema within its grounds. But, the venture closed in 1958 and the space was reverted to an informal street hawker-market area.

New City Cinema was renamed Taj Cinema (in 1954), and later Singapura Cinema (1971).

Geylang Serai was once prone to flooding (hence, many of the kampung houses here were built on stilts). During the 1954 floods, Great Eastern Trade Fair served as the relief centre for the Geylang area.

In 1962, the government launched the Geylang Serai Development Scheme which included building a proper wet market on the site of the defunct Great Eastern Park. This covered wet market which residents called Pasar Geylang Serai opened in 1964 (by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew).

The opening of the market, unfortunately, coincided with the 1964 race riots. Many street hawkers slated to move into the new Geylang Serai Market shied away for fear of attacks. So, Geylang Serai Market was initially underutilised while the street hawkers continued to ply the streets around it.

As part of the nation-wide policy to provide public housing across the island, re-development of Geylang Serai took place in three main phases from the 1960s to the 1980s. Three HDB (Housing & Development Board) flats were built on the former Great Eastern Park grounds.

By 1970, with a growing population, Geylang Serai Market was thriving again.

In 1975, Geylang Serai Market was expanded and upgraded. The new Geylang Serai Market had a wet market, sundry and textile shops, and a food centre, almost all ran by Malays and Indian Muslims.

In 2006, the old market (and the old HDB flats) were torn down and rebuilt in stages.

Stallholders returned when the new market was partly completed in 2009. The new two storey market was fully completed in 2011 at a cost of $18.2 million. It has a food centre, wet market, and sundry and textile stalls.

Today (2021), Geylang Serai Market and Food Centre is one of the most popular hawker centres for Malay, Indonesian and Indian Muslim street food.

Many former Geylang Serai residents now live in other parts of Singapore (and the world) but a part of them never left the heart of Malay life and culture in Singapore. Many still come back to Geylang Serai Market regularly for their weekly groceries, eat at their favourite food stalls and meet up with relatives and life long buddies.

Popular food stalls in Geylang Serai Market & Food Centre 👈 click

Bazaar Ramadan Geylang Serai 👈 click