That Corner of Trengganu & Sago Street in Chinatown · Painting by Hugo Vilred Pederson

While researching about the history of street hawkers in Singapore Chinatown, I came across this fascinating oil painting done by Hugo Vilred Pederson in 1897 (124 years ago). Since then, this street corner has a special place in my mind and I am curious about how it changed over the decades.

What first caught my attention about the painting was the two basket hawker at the front of the building. This would be one of the earliest images of street hawkers in Singapore. 

There were many street hawkers in Chinatown (known then as Kreta Ayer in Malay or 牛车水 Ngow Chay Shui in Cantonese). Ngow Chay Shui which literally means "bullock fetch water" was a Cantonese Chinese enclave. The enclave was so-named because well water (from today's Spring Street) was distributed around the area by bullock carts. 

The two basket hawker carried his entire "restaurant" on a bamboo pole across his shoulders. He plied his food from street to street, stopping where people gathered (in this case, the shrine in the background). In one basket was a charcoal stove for cooking e.g. to boil noodles. The other basket contained a pot of soup simmering over another charcoal stove. The hawker kept his ingredients, bowls, chopsticks, etc., in the two baskets.

Pederson painted a big plume of steam rising from the basket, so the shirtless hawker was probably selling a soup dish. The shirtless customers squatted or stood while eating. With chopsticks, the customers were probably eating noodles. They will be slurping up the soup straight from their bowls as no spoons were provided. Examples of two basket hawker dishes are rickshaw noodles and bak chor mee. 

Hugo Vilred Pederson was a Danish painter born in Copenhagen in 1870. Pederson trained at the Copenhagen Art Academy. On graduation, Pederson travelled to the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and British Malaya where he was sought after as a portrait painter, earning him the nickname "Rajah painter". Pederson was 27 years old when he painted that Singapore Chinatown street scene. Pederson passed away in 1959 at age 89.

In his painting, Pederson painted the street sign "TRINGGANU STREET". Trengganu Street was known as "戏院横街 hei yun wang kai" in Cantonese, which means “theatre side street". The opera theatre Lai Chun Yuen built in 1887 was the centre of Ngow Chay Shui (Chinatown). Smith Street was known as "戏院街 hei yun kai" meaning "theatre street". Temple Street was known as "戏院后街 hei yun hao kai" which means "theatre backstreet".

In this map dated 1923, Trengganu Street was spelt "TRINGANU STREET" with one "I" and one "G". Map courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Where is this place in the painting today?

The two main clues are the street sign "TRINGGANU STREET" and the shrine behind the hawker stall. Thanks to this vintage photo shared by Maidi Lei, this would most likely be the corner of Trengganu Street and Sago Street. The shrine was known as 三福宫 (Three Blessings Temple) and Sago Street was known as 庙仔街.

The vintage photo was undated but the rickshaw would put it as well before 1947 (the year rickshaws were banned in Singapore).

The original building in Pederson's painting and the shrine are no longer at the intersection. New buildings stood in their place. Hence, we will not recognise the places from Pederson's painting by surveying the ground today.

In this 1964 photo of Sago Street, Trengganu Street is the side street with the pre-war Singapore Improvement Trust (S.I.T.) flats built by the British Colonial Government known to locals as 飞机楼 which literally means "Aeroplane Building". Known officially as the New Bridge Road Estate, these S.I.T. rental flats were built in 1938.

These S.I.T. flats were known as "Aeroplane Building" because the long 3-storey building resembled an aeroplane fuselage (body). My thanks to Prof Lai Chee Kien for sharing this newspaper article.

三福宫 (Three Blessings Temple) and adjacent buildings on Sago Street were demolished to make way for these S.I.T. flats. Image courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

During the Second World War (1942 - 1945), the Japanese Army used "Aeroplane Building" as the West District Branch Headquarters of the feared Kenpeitai (Military Police). Inspections and interrogations by Kenpeitai were presumably conducted here for Sook Ching (ethnic cleansing) operations in which some 50,000 civilians were executed.

1958 map of Ngow Chay Shui (Chinatown) showing the S.I.T. flats stretching from Trengganu Street towards New Bridge Road. The S.I.T. flats were demolished in the 1970s to make way for today's Chinatown Complex. Map courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Another view of Trengganu Street and Sago Street junction with the "Aeroplane Building" in the background on the left. This was in 1976 when demolition works just began. It caused a commotion as hundreds of coins dating back to the 1910s - 1940s were dug up by the bulldozers. Image courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

In the 1990s, most Ngow Chay Shui buildings were conserved and restored under the "Chinatown Conservation Area" programme. Sadly, this came too late for Pederson's corner of Chinatown.

This is the intersection of Sago Street and Trengganu Street today (Jan 2022). It looks pretty unremarkable and nondescript now. In this street corner where 三福宫 (Three Blessings Temple), then 飞机楼 ("Aeroplane Building") once stood, now stands part of the huge Chinatown Complex which houses a wet market, retail stalls, food centre and two looming 25-storey residential blocks built in 1983.

Acknowledgment: I am grateful to Prof Yeo Kang Shua, Prof Lai Chee Kien and Maidi Lei for their valuable insights on the intersection of Trengganu Street & Sago Street. This is the third version of the article. I had earlier mistaken the location as the intersection of Trengganu Street & Temple Street.

Written by Tony Boey on 27 Dec 2021 | First review 30 Dec 2021 | Second review 3 Jan 2022