Middle Road, Singapore

Middle Road
Name transcription(s)
• Chinese	密驼路
• Pinyin	mìtuó lù
• Malay	Jalan Tengah
• Tamil	மிடில் ரோடு
Country	Singapore

Middle Road is a road stretching along the Downtown Core and Rochor planning areas within the Central Area of Singapore. It starts from its junction with Selegie Road and ends at Beach Road. Middle Road was already in existence in early Singapore, appearing in George Drumgoole Coleman's Map of Singapore in 1836. The area around Middle Road was the original settlement of the Hainanese immigrant community, a community noted for its active role in the food and beverage history of Singapore. From the late 19th century until the Second World War, the area around Middle Road, Hylam Street and Malay Street was also a bustling Japanese enclave known for its brothels of Karayuki-san and traditional shops run by the Japanese immigrants.

This road got its name because it formerly served as a demarcation line which separated the civic area from the ethnic settlements of Singapore as part of the British colonial government's town planning, known as the Jackson Plan. Jackson's 1822 plan for the European Town composed of four parallel roads laid out in the northeast-southwestern direction, and a major intersecting road. This perpendicular road is the present-day Middle Road. Due to increasing Chinese immigrants settling near the European Town, the Europeans subsequently vacated the area to dwell more inland, away from the urbanising city quarters.

Of the Chinese dialect groups that occupied the area of Middle Road, the Hainanese community was the largest. Its enclave was adjacent to European churches, army camps and the Raffles Hotel, and extended from the seashore along Beach Road westwards towards North Bridge Road. The three streets that run perpendicular to these two – Middle Road, Purvis Street and Seah Street were respectively called Hainan First Street, Hainan Second Street and Hainan Third Street by the Hainanese and other Chinese communities.

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