The Fabled Bugis Street We Lost · History & Self Guided Tour from Kampong Bugis to Bugis Junction

I was excited to stumble upon an online conversation about memories of Bugis Street. It turned out that the conversation revolved around how the participants missed the experience of shopping for trinkets at Bugis Street 😔 There was no mention of Bugis Street before the 1990s, even though the conversation was supposedly about nostalgia.

Then, I realised how jurassically ancient I am 🦖 😅 But, more importantly, how quickly my memories of 1960s Bugis Street is already buried under layers of time. That makes me sad and hence I wrote this post.

Five decades is a very long time in Singapore's breakneck development dash.

Curious, I googled "Bugis Street" and was fed a flood of promotional material on what to eat and buy in Bugis Street and Bugis Junction shopping mall. The original Bugis Street and what or who were the Bugis have faded from most Singaporeans' consciousness (no thanks in part to Google's business driven algorithm).

And that's the thing, in today's virtual world, if it doesn't exist online, it doesn't exist in real life 😢 (It's a sobering thought about Google's [which is profit driven] power over human consciousness but that's a discussion for another day.)

I am putting this post together because Bugis Street of the 1960s was one of the most vivid memories of my childhood and defining images of old Singapore for me (and probably my generation).

Who were the Bugis? (Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)

The Bugis were among the first immigrants to modern Singapore. When Raffles opened the trading post at Singapore River for the British East India Company in 1819, Bugis traders were among the first to arrive. Five hundred Bugis landed in Singapore in 1820, just months after the Singapore trading post was established.

The Bugis homeland is in Sulawesi Island in east Indonesia. They were traders with trade links stretching across the vast Indonesian archipelago from Sulawesi to the Riau Islands and Sumatra. They brought spices from east Indonesia to Singapore and sent foreign goods from the entrepôt of Singapore to the far corners of Indonesia.

In the early 1800s, the Dutch colonialists were asserting control over the Bugis, limiting their freedom to trade. Clashes with the Dutch led the Bugis to come to Singapore, seeking protection under the wings of the British (arch rivals of the Dutch with whom they crossed swords in the Banda Islands in the 1600s over control of the nutmeg monopoly). 

The Bugis became a force in the Riau islands and Johor through marriage and involvement in palace intrigues of the Johor-Riau sultanate. The Bugis were skilled seafarers and fierce fighters. It is said that the word "bogeyman" was derived from the term "Bugis man" but this is just conjecture. Bogeyman is generally accepted to originate in 16th century England.

During their heyday, there were some 2,000 Bugis in Singapore. The British settled the Bugis at the confluence of the Rochor and Kallang rivers - in a quarter known as Kumpong Bugis. (Map of Kampong Bugis 1886 courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.)

A Jalan Bugus street once ran along the southern beach between Kampong Bugis and Kampong Gelam where the Sultan's Palace was located. (Map of Kampong Bugis 1836 courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.)

Today, Kampong Bugis is reserved state land, Indian temple, disused school and condominiums.

What happened to the Bugis in Singapore?

The Bugis thrived under the protection of the British until the arrival of steamships in the late 1800s, superseding the Bugis kora kora and phinisi sail boats (image of kora kora courtesy of Wikipedia). Steamships independent of the monsoon winds forced entire millenia old trade networks in the archipelago to restructure. The game changed, in today's parlance.

Losing their traditional trade networks, many Bugis left Singapore to return to Indonesia to serve islands not on the main route of steamships. The population of Bugis in Singapore dwindled to mere hundreds and most whom remained, assimilated into the Malay community.

In Bugis culture, there are five genders. Male (Urane) and female (Makurane), bisexual / intersexual (Bissu), male transgender female (Calabai), and female transgender male (Calalai).

In Bugis communities, bissu perform the role of shaman and priest. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

How did today's Bugis Street come about? 

The story is a little convoluted but I like to state upfront that the Bugis Street of today is a faux facade and was part of Albert Street rebranded. The original Bugis Street was expunged in the 1980s. It no longer exists. (Map of Singapore 1958 courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.)

The original Bugis Street was in a precinct together with Malabar Street, Malay Street and Hylam Street. The precinct was bounded by Victoria Street, Rochor Road, North Bridge Road and Middle Road. It was located near but not adjacent to Kampong Bugis (some 2 km away to the east). (Map of Bugis Street 1976 courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.)

The precinct was occupied by spilled over population from overcrowded Chinatown across the Singapore River to the west, and from the adjacent Hainanese enclave (of Purvis Street, Seah Street and Middle Road). It is not clear why a street here is named Bugis Street (some distance from Kampong Bugis). It is said that there was once a canal here where the Bugis would sail up to trade.

The Chinese divided old Singapore into two zones. They call the area west of Singapore River, Tai Po ("Big Town 大坡" in Cantonese). The area east of Singapore River was called Siew Po or "Little Town 小坡".

The precinct of Malay Street, Hylam Street, Malabar Street, and Bugis Street was the throbbing heart of Siew Po. It was the shopping, dinning, and entertainment hub of Siew Po.

The precinct was known as Pek Sua Pu 白沙浮 in Hokkien which literally means "white sand mound" because of mounds of white sand at the adjacent beach.

This precinct was a legal red light district, first dominated by European ladies and in the 1930s by ladies from Japan. The brothels were along Malay Street. The Cantonese called Malay Street "Hak Kai 黑街" which literally means dark street. (Image courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.)

Hylam Street named after the Hainanese had many Japanese residents and businesses in the 1930s. Hence, this precinct was also known as "Little Japan". (image courtesy of National Archives Singapore).

Malabar Street in its last days in 1989 before it was expunged. (Image courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.)

After the Second World War (1942 - 1945), Pek Sua Pu precinct became an entertainment and dining hub. There were many open air zhi char and seafood stalls, and drinking places.

Gradually transvestites appeared in the precinct and became one of the highlights of Bugis Street partying from the 1950s till the fabled street was expunged in the 1980s. It was a favourite haunt of British / Australian servicemen and American GIs on rest and recreation who called Bugis Street "Boogie Street".

As a child, I remember Bugis Street was bustling with life, somewhat rowdy (understatement 😜 ), full of the smell of sizzling food, sound of laughter, menacing touts, drunken sailors dancing on tabletops / rooftops and "ladies" mingling and floating like butterflies in the midst of all these action.

Things can get pretty wild as the night wore on with antics such as the "Dance of the Flaming Arseholes" ritual on the roof of the public toilet. It was quite an amazing spectacle.

Some claimed that the phrase "to boogie" originated from the legendary partying at Bugis Street. (But, boogie is generally understood to be a form of blues music which originated in southern USA in the 1920s.)

All these were "cleaned up" in the 1980s. The entire precinct was demolished with Malay Street, Hylam Street, Malabar Street and Bugis Street all expunged. A huge shopping, office and hotel complex known as Bugis Junction opened in 1995 over the demolished precinct. 

Faux facades of Hylam Street, Malay Street and Malabar Street provide the backdrop for shops and restaurants at the ground level of Bugis Junction. 

The faux Bugis Street dubbed New Bugis Street opened in 1991. The faux Bugis Street is a strip of mass manufactured kitschy trinket and clothing stalls 🙄

A Walk from Kampong Bugis to Bugis Junction

Follow me as I walk westwards along North Bridge Road from Kampong Bugis to Bugis Junction. The walk is 2 km long and takes 30 minutes (not including optional food stops).

Lavender MRT station is a convenient place to start or assemble (if you are a group).

First stop is Kallang Riverside Park where the Kallang and Rochor rivers meet. Two hundred years ago, Bugis kora kora boats would be moored in the waters here.

Kampong Bugis, the home of the Bugis, is today an empty field flanked by Kallang Riverside condominium and Sri Manmatha Karuneshvarar Temple (established 1888).

It won't be green fields for much longer though.

From Kallang Riverside Park, we head to the intersection of Crawford Street and North Bridge Road. We will walk down North Bridge Road towards our destination, Bugis Junction. 

North Bridge Road was known as 小坡大马路 or "Little Town Main Road".

Fifty paces take us to North Bridge Road Market & Hawker Centre where you can catch your breakfast.

Alternatively, you can have kopi guyu (butter coffee), toast and eggs at Heap Seng Leong coffee shop at Block 10, North Bridge Road which is just adjacent to the hawker centre.

Otherwise, walk a little further west along North Bridge Road to block 466, Crawford Court for Tai Hwa Bak Chor Mee. But, that might eat into your schedule as waiting time is easily one hour.

At the junction of Jalan Sultan and North Bridge Road, we will continue down along North Bridge Road towards Bugis Junction.

Walking down North Bridge Road towards Bugis Junction.

If you had saved some stomach space, you can have Nasi Padang at Warong Nasi Pariaman at the junction of North Bridge Road and Kandahar Street.

The majestic Sultan Mosque at Kampong Glam is just steps further west along North Bridge Road. The Sultan Mosque built in 1928 is named after Sultan Hussain Shah who signed the agreement with Raffles to set up a trading post at the Singapore River in 1819.

Across North Bridge Road from the Sultan Mosque are Zam Zam and Victory restaurants. The two fierce competitors are century old stalwarts of biryani and murtabak in Singapore.

Here we are, Bugis Junction at the intersection of North Bridge Road and Rochor Road. The integrated shopping, dining, office and hotel complex is built over the expunged Malabar Street, Malay Street, Hylam Street and Bugis Street.

The shops are housed inside faux facades of the expunged streets.

Inconspicuous, token signs referring to the expunged streets. I doubt many of today's visitors noticed the signs.

Today's "Bugis Street" is across Victoria Street opposite Bugis Junction. It is not located at the original Bugis Street (but is a stretch of the former Albert Street).

The ghosts of Bugis Street won't recognise this place 😔

Food Stop at Rentak Bugis Stall in Tekka Centre

Last stop of our Bugis journey is a Bugis food stall. It is in Tekka Centre, so we take the MRT from Bugis Junction and go two stops to Little India. This is the only Bugis food stall in Singapore that I know of today.

Stall owner Shah Palakka is proudly Bugis. On weekdays, Shah serves familiar Malay / Indonesian staples like nasi campur, lontong, satay, pisang goreng, etc., with a slight Bugis twist (hint of aromatic spice and slightly sweeter due to use of palm sugar).

On weekends, in addition to the usual menu, Shah serves the Bugis specialty burasa. Burasa is made by steaming rice, which is then cooked in coconut milk and bay leaves before it is wrapped in banana leaf and finished by steaming until fully cooked. The sweet aromatic rice cake is eaten with serundeng or sautéed spiced grated coconut pulp. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)

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Written by Tony Boey on 17 Nov 2021

Bugis Street in Saint Jack 1979

Bugis Street 妖街皇后 by Yonfan 1995