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7 Yong Siak Street

📍 7A YONG SIAK STREET
🗺️ D03 — Tiong Bahru, Queenstown, Alexandra
🏢 MCST 3565Apartment · Retail✓ Management Directory

About 7 Yong Siak Street

7 Yong Siak Street (Singapore 168644) combines ground-floor shop space with walk-up flats above, numbered 7A and 7B. It stands in the pre-war section of Tiong Bahru, in postal District 3 (Tiong Bahru, Queenstown, Alexandra), and OneMap records it as part of Tiong Bahru Estate. The strata lots are managed by MCST 3565. The pre-war estate was built by the Singapore Improvement Trust between 1936 and 1941. The precise year for this block could not be verified.

The building is best understood through its architecture, which it shares with the rest of the conserved estate. The style is usually described as Streamline Moderne with Art Deco touches: long horizontal lines, rounded corners and flat roofs.

Interesting facts

  • The flats adapted the local shophouse plan. They kept five-foot ways, back lanes, airwells and spiral service staircases, but were laid out as modern self-contained homes.

  • Docomomo Singapore notes the use of what were then new materials, such as hollow concrete blocks and steel-framed windows, and the way taller three-storey ends mark the street corners.

  • Locals nicknamed the blocks aeroplane houses in Hokkien. One explanation is that the rounded stair towers recalled the control tower at Kallang Airport.

  • Sources differ on the designer. SIT architect Alfred G. Church is most often credited, while Docomomo names Langdon Williams of the SIT.

  • The red bricks are said to have come from the Alexandra and Hock San brickworks.

Nearby

Tiong Bahru MRT (East-West Line) is about ten minutes' walk. Havelock MRT (Thomson-East Coast Line) is a similar walk towards Zion Road. The horseshoe-shaped Block 78, the largest pre-war block, is at the far end of the street. Tiong Bahru Market and hawker centre on Seng Poh Road is about five minutes away. Zhangde Primary School is on Jalan Membina.

Key facts

  • Address: 7 Yong Siak Street (units 7A and 7B), Tiong Bahru Estate, Singapore 168644

  • District: 3 (Tiong Bahru, Queenstown, Alexandra)

  • Property type: Walk-up apartments with ground-floor retail, conserved pre-war SIT block

  • Completed: Estate built 1936 to 1941; year for this block not verified

  • Developer: Singapore Improvement Trust

  • Tenure: Pre-war Tiong Bahru flats are reported to be on 99-year leases dating from the mid-1960s; not verified for this block

  • Nearest MRT: Tiong Bahru (EW17), Havelock (TE16)

  • MCST: 3565