Image from Ian Lloyd (1985), Singapore from the Air, with special thanks to Vikas Bhatt Kailankaje
After Arab Street (Kampung Kaji / Jiawa Koi) and Haji Lane at the centre of this photograph, there were the following streets (to the left, in the foreground):
Clyde Street and Jeddah St (Kg Masjid Bahru),
and… Maarof Mosque (aka Masjid Maarof Jeddah St / Clyde St), built in 1870.
When it was demolished in 1996, it was already 126 years old. Its demolition also took place 12 years after the Kg Gelam areas just next to it (from Haji Lane and Arab Street through to Bussorah Street, Sultan Gate, and Jalan Sultan) had been gazetted as a Conservation District…
* In this image, Shaik Madersah Lane and half of Bali Lane and their shophouses have been obliterated and in their place is Ophir Road, which cuts violently through the whole shophouse fabric. Today the streets and buildings to the left of Ophir Road are all gone, demolished in 1996.
In 2002 the outlandish and overly-ostentatious office tower called Parkview Square (let’s call it “that horrid Chocolate Gotham City thing”), was built over the site of Maarof Mosque (Masjid Bahru) with empty green fields all around it.
The areas of Kampung Gelam that are still extant today, albeit much altered, can be seen here:
NOTE: On 18 Jan 2014, a public lecture on Masjid Maarof of Clyde St / Jeddah St 1870-1996 was organised by Singapura Stories and hosted by Malay Heritage Centre at Istana Kampung Gelam, Singapura. Click here for the Singapura Stories event link and here for the official event page on Malay Heritage Centre’s official Facebook site.
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