Desker Road is one of Singapore's oldest and most colourful streets. In the old days, pubescent schoolboys trying to act beyond their age will whisper Desker Road in hush tones and when teasing one another 😳 Why? Let's find out 🤔
Desker Road runs for two blocks, roughly east - west between Jalan Besar and Serangoon Road. Most people know this general area as Little India, but Desker Road has developed its own personality and is nicknamed Little Bangladesh (because businesses catering to the Bangladeshi community congregate here).
The Bangladesh community in Singapore call this place "Mini Mart" because this is where they do their grocery shopping for familiar vegetables, fish and sundries imported from Bangladesh.
In 1989, Urban Redevelopment Authourity (URA) gazetted Little India as a conservation area. Desker Road was included in the conservation plan in 1991.
In this map of Singapore from 1836, Serangoon Road and Jalan Besar were surrounded by swamps, and Chinese paddy fields and vegetable plots.
In the 1850s, Europeans followed Indian cattle traders and dairy farmers who first set up businesses here due to abundant grass and water. Abattoirs and butcheries were also established to process the animals.
The largest abattoir and butchery belonged to Andre Filipe Desker, one of the most prominent businessmen in colonial Singapore. Desker, a wealthy Eurasian from Malacca, came to Singapore in the 1840s. Desker owned properties stretching from Desker Road all the way south to Sungei Road along the Rochor River / Canal (i.e. almost the whole of today's Little India).
Andre Filipe Desker's butchery opened for business on 1st Jun 1865 to supply mutton of imported Bengal and Patna sheep.
Desker passed on at age 72 in Mar 1898 but his memory lives on in the street named after him.
In 1894, the colonial government set up the municipal abattoir at the intersection ot Desker Road and Jalan Besar.
Today, the site is occupied by blocks of 88 Housing Development Board (HDB) public housing flats built in 1982.
The flats are opposite the popular Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant. I come here for their freshly pulled la mian.
Rows of terrace shophouses were built along Desker Road at the turn of the last century (1900 - 1910).
Today, these conservation properties are mainly painted in shades of sky-blue, baby-blue, jade-green and apple-green, reminiscent of its early days as a Straits Chinese, Peranakan, and Eurasian enclave.
The ornate facades are decorated with an eclectic mix of Chinese, Malay and European elements - baroque style relief sculpture, wooden jalousie windows, and intricate Malayan fretwork.
Three flat-arched windows framed by rusticated Doric and Corinthian columns.
Taking a walk down Desker Road, the end nearer to Jalan Besar has hip cafes and international brands like this pizza chain from San Francisco.
Gentrification of Desker Roads starts from here.
Heading down to the intersection with Serangoon Road, we are in Little Bangladesh.
You can see the looming 25-storey HDB block at the Jalan Besar end in the background.
Bangladeshi restaurants, grocers, barbers, remittance services, etc., set up along Desker Road, especially near the intersection with Serangoon Road.
Here you can get Mughlai parata, Kacchi biryani, borhani, samosa, etc. They are all made for the Bangladeshi community, so they are as authentic as you can get in Singapore.
You can even get a freshly folded paan here for $1 (2023 price).
On weekends and public holidays, the community gather here at "Bangladesh Square" at the intersection of Desker Road and Jalan Lembu. Standing room only on weekends.
Desker Road gained a reputation as a red light district.
Back lane action in 1954.
In the 1960s, the Red Butterfly Gang was active in red light districts including Desker Road. The notorious all-woman gang ran protection rackets and also lured men with sex, then rob them at knife point 😱
It's a cat and mouse game in the 1970s.
The white powder promised miracles 🤔 🤭
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