Big Road has a big history
Fri, Nov 11, 2011 | tabla!
By Suresh Nair
JALAN Besar simply means "big road" in Malay and ranks as one of the first roads to be built in Singapore, during the 19th century era of (founder) Sir Stamford Raffles.

Older Singaporeans have plenty of personal anecdotes about it, dating back to how it was cut through the betel nut plantation and fruit orchard owned by the Norris Brothers, who bought this piece of land in a largely swampy area for 113 rupees ($4 in today's conversion rates) from the British East India Company in the 1830s.

Of course, for football fans, Jalan Besar is the Singapore version of Wembley, the English stadium considered the birthplace of football. Jalan Besar Stadium, which opened in December 1929, hosted the Malaya Cup (1932-1966) and the Malaysia Cup (1967-1973) encounters for 41 years before big matches moved over to the National Stadium.

The stadium was also used as an assembly point and language centre during the Japanese Occupation in the 1940s, it was the venue for a mass rally in 1964 to mourn the death of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and even hosted the 1984 National Day Parade.

Currently it offers a seating capacity of 6,000 but plans to increase the capacity by 2,000 to 4,000 by early next year for the start of Malaysia Cup fever, where the new-look Singapore Lions hope to revive the glorious 1970s era of the Kallang Roar.

Retired businessman Rahman Johari gets flashes of a "swampland" whenever he thinks of Jalan Besar.

"My father used to tell stories of flying ducks, snipe, fish, mud lobsters and snakes before the area was slowly reclaimed by dumping refuse. I watched some of the best football matches at the old Jalan Besar Stadium, where crowds of 10,000 would sit even along the sidelines and another 10,000 would be waiting outside the stadium!" reminisced Mr Rahman, 79.

If you look at the street names in the Jalan Besar area, many bear the names of World War I British generals and admirals and two French generals: Allenby, Kitchener, French, Maude, Jellicoe, Tyrwhitt, Foch, Sturdee, Beatty and Petain. The names of battlegrounds such as Flanders, Somme and Verdon are also reflected.

Most of those roads were cut from the 1920s onwards when the then-swampland was filled in with incinerator ash from Singapore's first incinerator built in the vicinity of today's Syed Alwi Road. From 1926, the Municipal Council decided to name the newly-opened roads after personalities and battle-sites of the European conflict so as to remind the then-colony of Singapore of the conflicts in Europe.

Another endearing landmark for Singapore oldtimers was the New World, which made way for redevelopment in the 1980s. Occupying a large area bounded by Serangoon Road and Kitchener Road, it first opened in 1923 and attracted people from all walks of life, from Indian and Chinese labourers to European merchants, with its exciting entertainment programmes.

Former Singapore basketball player Peter Ho, 62, remembers how he watched boxing and wrestling matches, variety shows and ogled at Filipino and Indonesian artistes at a small cabaret there.

"New World had close to what every family discreetly wanted, from Teochew and Hokkien operas, Bangsawan or Malay opera shows, as well as a mini-trade fair which sold everything from trinkets to clothes to canned food. It was the source of popular entertainment in an era without television or even radio, all the way up to the 1950s," he told tabla!.

Today, the original gate of the New World is nostalgically relocated to City Green, City Square Mall's urban park. The reconstructed gate now stands at the junction of Serangoon and Kitchener Roads and features the words "The New World" on its gateway arch to symbolise the interconnectivity of Singapore's past, present and future.

Jalan Besar is also home to one of the most famous Singapore landmarks, Little India, which sprawls over the major roads of Serangoon Road, Jalan Besar and side roads like Race Course Road, Dunlop Street, Owen Road, Rangoon Road, Kitchener Road and places like Tekka Market, Cambridge Market and Jalan Berseh Food Centre.

Now, with the MRT running through Little India (the North-East Line offers convenient access to Serangoon Road, Tekka Market and Race Course Road), the entire area is set for a major facelift. When Member of Parliament for Jalan Besar GRC Yaacob Ibrahim launched My Home In The City, a five-year masterplan, earlier this year he said: "It's about having a home in the city. We will link up the various heritage points, and we are blessed with the Downtown Line that will cut across the entire GRC. Therefore we will build our plans around those elements."

The $460 million facelift includes 11 MRT stations in the Jalan Besar vicinity on the upcoming Downtown Line, slated for completion in three stages by 2016. There will also be six projects under the nationwide Active, Beautiful and Clean (ABC) Waters programme, which integrates waterways with the living environment. These include floating decks, waterwheels and a floating bazaar to allow residents to reconnect with waterways such as Sungei Whampoa, the Kallang River and Rochor Canal.

For those who form the Jalan Besar "old guard", like Mr Rahman, it's a dream come true... a transformation from swampland to satellite township. As he put it: "I never believed I would see such ultra-modern changes in my lifetime. Jalan Besar will be a far, far longer road to walk for an old man like me!"