Singapore's first market, known today as Lau Pa Sat 老巴刹 has its roots in the riverside fishermen's market when Raffles landed at Singapore River in 1819. A lot has changed in the last 200 years.
Its entire surroundings is transformed beyond recognition imagination - Lau Pa Sat is today, nestled in the shadow of gleaming, looming glass towers that sprouted up all around it. The old market has undergone great physical changes and its character has also morphed from a fish market to a festival market to today's buzzing hawker food centre.
It was a Fish Market in 1819
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| Bute Map of Singapore published in 1820 |
When Raffles arrived in 1819, there was a fish market at the south bank of Singapore River, a little south of where Boat Quay is today i.e. it existed before Raffles arrived. This fish market is the precursor of today's Lau Pa Sat.
Today, the site of this fish market is near the foyer of OUB (Overseas Union Bank) Plaza at the south bank of Singapore River.
First Teluk Ayer Market
Raffles soon ordered the fish market moved west over to the Telok Ayer Bay side as he wanted to develop Boat Quay at Singapore River. In the Jackson Town Plan of 1822 drawn up on Raffles' orders, we can see a jetty and the bayside market at Teluk Ayer which means "Bay Water" in Malay.
This was the second edition of Lau Pa Sat, known then as Teluk Ayer Market, built in 1824 principally as a fish market where fishermen land their catch. Boat Quay and Teluk Ayer Market were connected by Market Street (which ran ramrod straight from east to west).
Teluk Ayer Market was a wood and thatched attap (dried palm leaf roof) structure. At one stage, it was "upgraded" to a tiled roof for fire safety but the wooden structure was not strong enough to support it. Hence, it had to be reverted back to an attap roof. The poorly constructed structure had to be renovated many times until it was decided in 1930 to replace it for safety reasons.
Second Telok Ayer Market
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| Telok Ayer Market painted by Percy Carpenter in 1856 |
This new bayside building was used for forty years, during which it underwent a few renovations and expansions.
Map of Singapore from 1846 showing the bayside, octagonal Teluk Ayer Market at Teluk Ayer Bay with Market Street that connected it to Boat Quay. Mount Wallich, Mount Erskine and Scotts Hill overlooked Teluk Ayer Bay.
In Chinese Feng Shui or geomancy, it is believed that octagonal shape or bagua 八卦 can ward off negative forces or influences. It is unlikely that Coleman had the bagua in mind when designing the octagonal Telok Ayer Market.
Third Telok Ayer Market
View of Telok Ayer Bay from Mount Wallich in 1856 (painting by Percy Carpenter). Telok Ayer Market can be seen in the background. Telok Ayer Market had to move again due to Telok Ayer Bay Reclamation works, Singapore's first land reclamation project which began in the 1880s. Mount Wallich as well as Mount Erskine and Scotts Hill were flattened and their soil used to fill Telok Ayer Bay. Today, only the street names Wallich Street and Erskine Road remain.
The newly reclaimed land was ready for use in 1890 and a new (third) Telok Ayer Market needed to be built. Market Street was extended further west to serve the new Telok Ayer Market which opened on 1 March 1894. This third edition of Telok Ayer Market of 1894 is the Lau Pa Sat of today. So, when you eat at Lau Pa Sat today, you are enjoying your meal at a historic, century old building from the Victorian era.
The third Telok Ayer Market was designed by Municipal Engineer James MacRitchie (who also designed MacRitchie Reservoir). MacRitchie retained the octagonal design of Coleman's Telok Ayer Market, and used huge cast-iron pillars to support the building.
The columns were casted by W MacFarlane & Co of Glasgow.
The filigree cast-iron work was by P&W MacLellan of Glasgow, who was also responsible for the Cavenagh Bridge built in 1868.
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| Hawkers outside Telok Ayer Market in 1915 |
Telok Ayer Market was a fish and vegetable market i.e. a wet market in local parlance. Outside, mobile two-basket cooked food hawkers and rickshaw pullers plied their trade.
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| Market Street today 2022 |
Market Street was extended further west to serve Telok Ayer Market from Boat Quay.
There was a decorative fountain by W MacFarlane & Co of Glasgow at the center of Telok Ayer Market. It was later moved to Orchard Road Market in 1902. The fountain was moved in 1930 to Grand Hotel in Katong. In the 1990s after restoration, the fountain was re-installed at Palm Garden of Raffles Hotel where it now stands.
Bird's eye view of Telok Ayer Market in the 1960s looking west, flanked by Robinson Road and Shenton Way (on the left). The sea was just 500 metres from Telok Ayer Market but reclamation works from the 1970s pushed it much further away today.
The were many popular hawker food stalls at Telok Ayer Market. When I last visited it in the mid-1980s before going overseas for a few years, I remember it was already quite worn down. The mosaic floor was pitted, exposing raw cement and there were puddles of greyish looking water.
Telok Ayer Market literally disappeared between 1985 and 1988. In 1986, Telok Ayer Market food centre was closed for construction of a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) tunnel running underneath the building. Telok Ayer Market was dismantled piece by piece and its 3,000 cast-iron parts put into storage. Two years later in 1988, painstaking reassembly works began.
In 1987, Singapore issued her first octagonal coin. There were rumours that Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was concerned that MRT tunnelling may "break the dragon's back" and was bad for Feng Shui. It was said that a Feng Shui master advised PM Lee that every family should carry an octagonal bagua to ward off bad influences from MRT tunnelling. Hence, PM Lee ordered the issue of the octagonal $1 coins.
It was reported that PM Lee later dismissed the rumours as completely baseless.
Meanwhile in 1989, Telok Ayer Market was officially renamed Lau Pa Sat 老巴刹, the vernacular name by which Chinese Singaporeans long called the market. Pa Sat 巴刹 is the Hokkien and Teochew Chinese way of saying "pasar" which is Malay for "market place". "Pasar" in turn is derived from the Persian word "bazaar". Lau 老 means "old" in Hokkien and Teochew. Hence, Lau Pa Sat means "old Market place", a fitting name for Singapore's first market place.
Telok Ayer Market now known officially as Lau Pa Sat reopened in 1991 as a festival market with a food court and entertainment centre modelled after Covent Garden of London and Quincy Market of Boston.
When I visited Telok Ayer Market in 1991, it felt a little alien (even though I love Covent Garden which I visited in 1986 and Quincy Market in 1990). While the signature iron works were beautifully restored, the place had a different personality from the old Telok Ayer Market food centre. I remember we had Thosai that evening and Singapore actress Zoe Tay was on stage.
Despite all the bells (literally as the operators, the Jamabhoy family, installed chimes for the clock tower) and whistles, the festival market concept didn't attract sufficient footfall and revenue for continued operations.
In 1995, the Kopitiam F & B group took over Lau Pa Sat under a 30 year lease and operated it as a hawker style food court. Since then, Lau Pa Sat underwent several major renovations but remains basically a food court providing affordable meals for office workers and tourists in a comfortable environment.
Lau Pa Sat in 2006, a bagua shaped building nestled at the heart of Singapore's Central Business district.
Lau Pa Sat Today 2022
Lau Pa Sat today (2022) is clean, bright, and comfortable under giant fans. Ventilation was a bane of the old Telok Ayer Market / Lau Pa Sat which the modern giant ceiling fans finally resolved.
Under the ornate Victorian era iron works of Lau Pa Sat, there's an amazing range of cuisine from local Chinese, Malay, and Indian delights to regional cuisine like Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Arabian, and Western.
Lau Pa Sat never sleeps. When night falls the satay stalls come alive with greasy white plumes of aroma, and sizzle over charcoal flames. Great with beers to party the night away.
Written by Tony Boey on 5 Mar 2022
References:
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Image of Telok Ayer Market courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Telok Ayer Market courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Lau Pa Sat courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Telok Ayer Food Centre courtesy of National Archives Singapore. Image of Telok Ayer Market courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Map of Singapore 1958 courtesy of National Archives Singapore. Image of Lau Pa Sat reconstruction courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Lau Pa Sat in 1995 courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Telok Ayer Market stall courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of Lau Pa Sat in 2006 courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of hawkers outside Telok Ayer Market courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
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