This is Part 4 of a 10-part series of excerpts from an NHB HRG Research Project (Ref. 029, 2019-2021) led by Dr Imran bin Tajudeen.
Part 2 of this series has discussed compound houses as part of the larger discussion on this building type. Another special residential preference among the Eurasians is the compound shophouses.
The compound shophouse
This building type is formed from setting back a row of shophouse dwellings (or terraced townhouses) and enclosing the front yard with a low brick wall, thus creating a small front compound. In two of the examples found in Campong Bencoolen / Kampong Serani, the row of such compound shop-houses are in fact detached from surrounding buildings, and the entire compound is walled. These examples of detached rows set within a walled compound are at 210, 210-1 to 210-5 Queen Street and 217, 217-1 to 217-5 Queen Street. The houses are also raised from the ground requiring a short flight of four to six steps to ascend to the front terrace from the front yard. Such means of differentiating these dwellings from the typical shophouse mark them off as special.
The specific use of this term ‘Compound Shop-Houses’ is found in two drawings by G.A. Fernandez – one for a row of three units at Waterloo Street for J.W. Cashin (1906) and another for a row of three that he built for himself at Killiney Road (1906).
There are altogether fifteen examples of such rows of Compound Shop-Houses found in the Campong Bencoolen to Kampong Serani area. They are listed in Figure 4 as C1 to C14. Highlights for the drawings found for a number of these units, and Eurasian names recorded as residents, are as follows:
- 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (but built as for 3 units) Waterloo Street for J.W. Cashin by G.A. Fernandez (1906) – it is highly significant that in this project, by the Eurasian architect Fernandez, uses the term ‘Compound Shop Houses” in the drawing title.
- 35-40 Waterloo Street (5 units) for S Tomlinson (1903)
- 1 to 5 Bencoolen Street for A.M. Esabhoy by Tomlinson and Tian Fook (1903)
- 234 to 238 Bencoolen Street
- 217, 217-1 to 217-5 Queen Street– built for Hyderbhoy Abdul Tyeb by Yeo Hock Siang (1900), but leased out to Eurasians
- 13-1 Queen Street for Goh Soon Watt by Lim & Seah (1931), a lone unit flanked by compound houses
- 210,
210-1 to 210-5 Queen Street –
- 210 and 210-1 for M. Lopez and P.L. Paglar by Chung & Wong (1922);
- 210-2, 210-4 and 210-5 for H.H. de Souza, L.P. de Souza, and J.J. Pereira, by J.J. Pereira (1923).
- 210-4 for W.H, Mosbergen, by Ee Hoong Chwee (1939)
- Note: in the 1923 set of drawings, the three owners’ occupations are listed respectively as: Clerk, Audit Office; Office Assistant, Land Office; and Clerk of Works, PWD, suggesting that residence in such dwellings was a mark of their respectable status as civil servants and clerks. The drawings were in fact drawn and signed by one of the proprietors of the units, J.J. Pereira.
North Indian landlords for European and Eurasian tenants
It is noticeable that A.M. Esabhoy and Hyderbhoy Abdul Tyeb are both north Indians, but built compound shophouses and appear to have leased them out and later sold them to Eurasians. This seems to be a prevailing pattern. In 1906, for instance, another north Indian, A.T. Esmailjee of 189 Cecil Street advertised houses nos. 217, 210-1 and 15-1 Queen Street as “suitable for respectable European and Eurasian families” (Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertise, 6 January 1906). These were all compound shop-houses.
Schools, Hotels, Pineapple, rickshaw depots
There is also a variety of institutional and industrial uses in the neighbourhood that was owned by Eurasians. There was also a noticeable concentration of businesses involving pineapples in the late nineteenth century. A sampling of the different uses, in chronological order, are:
- Pineapple factory at 162 Bencoolen Street:
- Addition to pineapple factory for l. J. Chater (NAS 88/1895)
- Lean-to Sheds for Preserved Pineapples, for D. Wilder (NAS 21/1898)
- The rear of shophouses nos. 158-159 Bencoolen Street, indicated as “old factory”, to be turned into Rickshaw Depot, for T. Paul Esq., by Almeida and Kassim (NAS 458/1899). The three shophouse units in front were also built for T. Paul by Almeida and Kassim (NAS 359/1899).
- Messrs F Clarke and Co. Livery Stables in a compound house at 207 Queen Street (NAS 6348/1903)
- Arianna Italian Bakery at 33 Queen Street (NAS 7232/1904)
- Mercantile Institute by P.E. Pereira at 209 Queen Street (NAS 6/1936)
- Mercantile Hostel in a compound house, also by P.E. Pereira (457A/1939 and 457B/1939)
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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