About 285 Outram Road
285 Outram Road (Singapore 169069) is a strata-titled shophouse building in postal District 3 (Tiong Bahru, Queenstown, Alexandra). The upper-floor units carry the addresses 285A, 285B and 285C. It is managed by MCST 1023, whose registration number shows the management corporation was formed in 1985. The year the building went up, its developer and its tenure could not be verified.
Very little is on record about no. 285 itself, so what follows is mostly about its setting. The building sits on the side of Outram Road that backs onto the Tiong Bahru estate, Singapore's first public housing estate. URA's Tiong Bahru Conservation Area runs up to Outram Road and includes two rows of shophouses along it. Wikipedia's account of the 2003 gazette counts 36 shophouse units on Outram Road beside the 20 blocks of pre-war flats.
Interesting facts
The name Tiong Bahru joins the Hokkien word for cemetery with the Malay word for new. Until the 1920s the land behind Outram Road was a mix of burial grounds, swamp and squatter huts.
The Singapore Improvement Trust cleared and filled the site between about 1927 and 1931, rehousing more than 2,000 squatters, before building flats there from 1936.
Tiong Bahru Road appeared on maps in 1913 and was once known as Burial Ground Road.
The grave of the philanthropist Tan Tock Seng, a stop on the National Heritage Board's Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail, is on the hillside along Outram Road.
Nearby
Havelock MRT (Thomson-East Coast Line), which opened on 13 November 2022, is under ten minutes' walk via Zion Road. Tiong Bahru MRT (East-West Line) and Tiong Bahru Plaza are about ten minutes away. Tiong Bahru Market on Seng Poh Road has a wet market downstairs and a hawker centre upstairs. The cafes of Yong Siak Street and Eng Hoon Street are a few minutes' walk. Zhangde Primary School is on Jalan Membina.
Key facts
Address: 285 Outram Road, Singapore 169069 (units 285A to 285C)
District: 3 (Tiong Bahru, Queenstown, Alexandra)
Property type: Shophouse with apartments, strata-titled
Completed: Not verified
Nearest MRT: Havelock (TE16), Tiong Bahru (EW17)
MCST: 1023 (formed 1985)