Sungei Road

Sungei Road
Name transcription(s)
• Chinese	结霜桥
• Malay	Jalan Sungei
Country	Singapore

Sungei Road (Chinese: 双溪路; literally River Road) is a road in Singapore situated between Serangoon Road and Jalan Besar and runs along the Rochor Canal. The area around Sungei Road was formerly the homes of affluent Europeans and Asians, where many ornately designed buildings were built in its place. From the 1930s to the present, the road has been synonymous with the Thieves' Market, the largest and oldest flea market in Singapore, where the locals can hunt for old bric-a-brac or second-hand goods, as a cheap replacement for one's faulty or lost item. It's also the place where the well-known Sungei Road Laksa, a local spicy noodle soup originated.

The market will be permanently closed on 10 July 2017 for "future residential development use".

Sungei Road got its name because it runs along the banks of the Rochor River (Sungei Rochor), hence its Malay name, sungei, meaning "river". Sungei Road starts opposite the former Kandang Kerbau police station and was therefore known to the Chinese as "tek kah ma ta chu", which means "tek kah police station" in Hokkien.

In the 1820s, the area around Sungei Road was designated by Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore, for the homes of affluent Europeans and Asians, when he divided the early settlements according to different ethnic groups. The Arabs and Malays who had settled at Sungei Road previously were relocated eastwards to Kampong Glam. Ornately designed two-storey and three-storey shophouses that came with covered 5-foot (1.5 m) way were built in its place.

At nearby Lavender Street was the attap house of Cho Ah Chee, the carpenter of the ship S.S Indiana in which Raffles travelled to Singapore in 1819. It is believed that Raffles gave the house to Guangdong-born Cho, in recognition of his services at the time of the founding of Singapore. The house has been demolished in the 1970s and a small public park has taken its place.

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