This is Part 5 of a 10-part series of excerpts from an NHB HRG Research Project (Ref. 029, 2019-2021) led by Dr Imran bin Tajudeen.
The original Kampong Melaka on the north bank and its relocation
In the first year of the East India Company’s establishment of a trading town in Singapore, the Melakans whom Major William Farquhar had induced to relocate to Singapore settled upriver from Kampong Temenggong next to his compound’s fence or pagar. This formed the first Kampong Melaka, mentioned in the account Hikayat Abdullah by the Melaka-born Jawi Peranakan or Peranakan Keling, Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munshi. The Chinese—mainly Teochew—also lived in houses amongst the Temenggong’s community and the people from Melaka, all on the north bank.
However, Raffles wanted to reserve this northern bank for official or civic uses. Thus, in June 1819, Raffles issued instructions for all the Chinese and Malays to move to the south bank. They were to move to form a Chinese Town from the mouth of the river to the new Presentment Bridge (later Jackson, Thomson’s and finally Elgin Bridge today), and a Malay Town to be sited upstream from the bridge. This Malay Town in the June 1819 instructions, however, was not at the exact site of what later became Kampong Melaka (spelled “Campong Malacca” in the survey maps of the 1840s and 1893). Instead, it was located between what are today South Bridge Road and New Bridge Road, where Upper Circular Road and Carpenter Street are today.
The area intended as Chulia Campong in the 1822 Plan became the neighbourhood of Kampong Melaka instead. J.T. Thomson’s 1843 survey map indicates the area as Campong Malacca, while another map of Thomson’s 1842–45 surveys used the spelling Kampong Malacca.
Other aricles in this 10-part series:
Part 1: Campong / Kampong: Forgotten shared urban ward names in colonial Singapore
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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