A number of historical urban neighbourhoods in Singapore Town bore the apellation “kampong” and their names were chared across different languages. They have largely been forgotten and do not figure in our heritage narrative.
A selection of these neighbourhoods were studied for a project conducted under the NHB’s Heritage Research Grant. They are listed below, with key notes on their names from map sources as well as in colloquial usage.
This is Part 1 of a 10-part series of excerpts from an NHB HRG Research Project (Ref. 029, 2019-2021) led by Dr Imran bin Tajudeen.
a. Kampong Bengkulu (Campong Benculu/Bencoolen)
Kampong Bengkulu is bounded by current-day Albert Street, Short Street, Middle Road, Waterloo Street. The Hokkien and Cantonese names for Albert Street and Middle Road refer explicitly to Kam-kong Mang-ku-lu (Hokkien) and Mong-kwo-lo (Cantonese). Articles and advertisements by Europeans in the English newspapers of Singapore in the 1840s to 1850s, and the Municipal notices of 1849-1855 also use this name for Queen Street and Church (Waterloo) Street.
In a map from 1842, Campong Bengkulu is spelled as Campong Benculu, while Campong Glam and Campong Rochor are also found in the same map. In another map from 1878, Campong Bengkulu is spelled as Kampong Bencoolen.
b. Kampong Serani and Kampong Dobi (Campong Dobie/Dhoby)
Kampong Serani was the name for Manila and Queen Street. It was also used in the transliterated form in Hokkien as “Sek Kia Ni Koi” (Serani Street). “Serani” was the Malay form of the term Nazarene, used to denote primarily Portuguese Eurasians.
Kampong Dobi, meanwhile, is another virtually forgotten toponym located at the upper end of Queen Street, where a north Indian community once existed. In Tamil this area was called Dobi Kampam, a transliteration of the Malay name.
c. Kampong Melaka (Campong Malacca)
Campong Malacca is bounded by current-day Angus, Cumming, Fisher, Kem, Keng Cheow, Solomon and Omar Streets. These streets were all known as “Kam Kong Ma La Kak” in Hokkien, the transliteration of the Malay name Kampong Melaka. Canal Road, and Hong Lim Quay had the additional appellations Kang and Hai Ki respectively to the standard “Kam Kong Ma La Kak”.
Campong Malacca is annotated in maps from 1842, 1846, 1860, 1893, and 1905.
d. Chuliah Campong (shifted) and Campong Kling – Cross Street and its vicinity
In the original Nov-Dec 1822 instructions that produced the Plan of Singapore Town by Lieutenant Jackson (the so-called Jackson Plan), a “Chuliah Campong” was indicated in the area where Clarke Quay MRT station and Central shopping mall is found today. By the 1820s and 1840s, however, this had actually become the site of Campong Malacca, as explained above.
It appears that Chulia Campong shifted further south. Already in the 1822 Jackson Plan, a “Kling Chapel” was indicated further south, in the vicinity of Cross Street. In fact, the toponym Campong Kling appears in the Municipal notices from 1849 to 1855 in this same area. The term refers to the area around Jamek Chulia Mosque and Sri Mariamman Temple at South Bridge Road, Cross Street, Mosque Street, Pagoda Street, and Temple Street.
However, this name ‘Campong Kling’ appears to have had limited circulation. Cross Street did nevertheless take on the name “Kiat Leng Kia Koi” (Kling People’s / Klingmen’s Street) and Kampong Susu in Malay (in reference to the dairymen who sold milk, “susu” in Malay).
We may surmise therefore that the Chuliah Campong in the 1822 plan did not materialise on the site upon which it had been indicated. The location became Kampong Melaka (Campong Malacca) instead. Meanwhile, Campong Kling developed further south, in the area around the Jamek Chulia Mosque and Sri Mariamman Temple. It shoul dbe noted that the terms Chulia and Kling were both used to refer to Tamil / South Indian communities, both Muslim and Hindu. In fact the street on the northern edge of Raffles Place (first name: Commercial Square) was originally called Kling Street before it was renamed Chulia Street in 1822 based on a request by the Indian community.
Alternative frames and new lines of unquiry
The project focuses on the histories of the neighbourhoods omitted by the Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others ethnic heritage district framing. The areas studied have also had their historical urban fabric expunged to a very great extent. For this reason, it is today difficult to see many of the contexts of the histories being retraced through the information gathered.
The approach mentioned above – of using shared neighbourhood names that go beyond the official colonial names for the urban neighbourhoods of Singapore Town — is posited as a means to shift the narration of the urban social history of colonial Singapore and its morphological units. While any division of the city is contingent, the alternative framing put forth here has opened up new lines of research inquiry and insights into the nature of the cultural diversity and interactions that have been forgotten in Singapore’s urban, architectural, and social history.
Fine grain diversity: Transcending place demarcations and re-studying colonial sources
The project also looks at how ethnicity transcends place demarcations, focusing on fine-grain distribution of individuals of different ethnicity or cultural backgrounds, and mapping an urban mosaic rather than assuming large racial blocs.
The study also explores questions raised by the close study of the town plans of Singapore, demonstrating also the potential of emplacing or identifying the locations of institutions, urban properties of different individuals and mapping these in different combinations, The information collated from the building drawings form an important building block for a fine-grain history not just of architectural features it of social histories involving the owners, architects, and the institutions or organisations occupying these premises.
The articles in this 10-part series:
Part 1: Campong Bencoolen, Campong Malacca, and other forgotten names
Part 2: Compound houses and compound shophouses
Part 3: Lorongs in Kampung Bengkulu: The forgotten alleys of history
Part 4: Kampong Serani: Some Notes on the Eurasian Community in Town
Part 5: Kampong Melaka and the other story of Singapore River
Part 6: Chinese beyond Chinatown: Kampong Melaka
Part 7: The multiple sites of the Chulia community
Part 8: Malays in the heart of “Chinatown”: Kg Penghulu Kesang
Part 9: Kampong Bengkulu’s Jewish Mahalla and Japan Town
Part 10: Kampong Dhoby, Queen Street: A lost North Indian quarter
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