Balestier Market


History
From the outside, the Balestier Market looks just like any other hawker centre, boasting a variety of food choices and beverages. However, one must know that other than serving as a food centre in modern-day Singapore, the Balestier Market had its own humble beginning as a permanent place for local vendors to sell their produce back in the 1920s. Back then, the market was known to have been close to a dark timber bridge said to have spanned the Whampoa River, and it was popularly referred to as Or Kio, which means 'Black Bridge' in Hokkien.

The original market was described in 1924 to have been "secluded but busy" and it was roofless then - a roof was added only later in 1925. It consisted of a row of small huts and also a pitched zinc roof, and was part of an attempt by local authorities to set up permanent market spaces in their bid to remove temporary hawkers who otherwise sold their goods and produce by the roadside. It was also to improve the regulation and licensing of hawkers. However, such efforts were not entirely well-received as some hawkers continued to sell from makeshift stalls by the roadside, eluding the authorities.

Interestingly, the market also served as a centre for the distribution of food rations during the Second World War, when Singapore was under the occupation of the Japanese from 1942-1945. And despite its renovation in 1999, the number of vendors had dwindled greatly by then and increasingly, customers preferred to do their marketing at the bigger Whampoa Market, which was also known as Tua Pah Sat or 'Big Market' at Whampoa Drive. Business fell gradually over the years, and this had also prompted many stallholders who had been at Balestier Market over generations to choose to retire when it closed for redevelopment in 2004. 

Today, we see that the only surviving 'rural' market on mainland Singapore houses a food court serving local favourites, The infrastructure was also gazetted as a conserved building by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on 1 December 2003. 

Jerome giving a mini-introduction of the Balestier Market

When we entered the food centre, the first thing we did was to find an empty table, and like 'typical Singaporeans' - we 'choped' the table with our bags. Then, we set off looking for food to fill our tummies. With the wide range of local favourites available, it took each of us quite a while to settle on what we wanted to eat and gather back at the table.

Though the food centre today must look vastly different from the original market in the 1920s, the building still reminded us of how the market must have looked like in the past - with the pointy tips reminiscent of the small huts of the past - as we gobbled down our food to recharge for the rest of the trail.

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