River Valley Road

River Valley
Name transcription(s)
• Chinese	里峇峇利
• Pinyin	Lǐbābālì
• Malay	Lembah Sungai
Eateries in pre-war shophouses along River Valley Road offer local delicacies. Note: A number of these buildings have been demolished to make way for a new condominium.
Country	Singapore

River Valley is a planning area located within the Central Area of the Central Region of Singapore. The planning area shares boundaries with Orchard in the north, Museum in the east, Tanglin in the west and Singapore River in the south.

In the 1840s, there were two River Valley roads that ran on either side of the Singapore River. The Singapore River was seen as a valley between Fort Canning Hill, to the north side of the river, and Pearl's Hill, to the south side of the river. The roads on either bank of the Singapore River were named River Valley Road — the current River Valley Road and Havelock Road. Both these River Valley roads were present in John Turnbull Thomson's 1844 map.

Adjoining the area around the Singapore River and on high ground, River Valley naturally attracted wealthy Europeans and Chinese merchants who wanted to move away from the crowded town centre and began building their homes in the countryside up river in the 1830s.

One of the first residents to move into the River Valley district was Dr Thomas Oxley, the new colony's surgeon. In 1827, he bought land here from the East India Company and established Killiney Estate as a nutmeg plantation. He had Killiney House built as his residence. The road nearby was named Oxley Road after the surgeon. When the plantation closed, he sold the land in several lots. River Valley Road was once part of Dr Oxley's estate before being divided up in the 1860s.