Tiong Bahru Walking Tour

If you consider a walking tour nothing more than a boring history lesson staged outdoors, Sharon Lim and Helena Lim (unrelated) of Persimmon restaurant, located in the Link Hotel, will prove you wrong with their monthly walking tour of the Tiong Bahru neighbourhood.


Merlion sculptor Lim Nang Seng's eye-catching creationM

Built in the 1930s, it is one of the oldest housing estates in Singapore and the island’s first mass public housing project. Unlike the latterday HDBs’ boxy and utilitarian designs, the flats here boast lovely curves, bold colours and unusual details like rounded balconies, spiral staircases and underground air-raid shelters. Add in the unique art-deco and Peranakan shophouses from the ’30s, and it’s no wonder there is talk of this charming old vicinity being designated as a World Heritage Site.

The tour kicks off with a strong cup of kopi at Persimmon. Sharon and Helena then herd the participants – a group mostly comprised of expats, alongside a sprinkling of locals – through the streets. Highlights include a visit to the bird corner (formerly Block 53) in Link Hotel, where uncles regularly gather for singing bird competitions; a stop-off at businessman/philanthropist Tan Tock Seng’s grave, along the grassy slope next to Jubilee Church on Outram Road; and a look around the iconic Tiong Bahru wet market – known to have the freshest produce on the island – fronting Seng Poh Road and Liam Liak Street. Along the way you’ll get to admire a sculpture by Lim Nang Seng, the craftsman behind the Merlion; sample what Sharon describes as the best macaroons in Singapore, at Centre P’s on Guan Chuan Street; and even peek into a home studio on Eng Watt Street, now used by designers Jo Turner and Mike Tay to showcase their prints, fabrics, cushions and posters inspired by local flowers. Sharon spices up the tour with bits of gossip – apparently the wealthy used to keep their mistresses in this neighbourhood – and shopping tips. She points out an old optical shop on Tiong Bahru Road that stocks hard-to-find, retro-style blackrimmed spectacles, a specialist egg seller and an old-fashioned sewing supplies store on Eng Hoon Street.

Left: the famed wet market. Right: Peranakan shophouse

The tour finally ends back at Persimmon, which at one point in time housed a seamstress’ emporium, pawn shop and bicycle store. Working up an appetite after the hour-long walk under the hot sun makes the dégustation lunch of Persimmon’s Euro- Singaporean specialities the perfect ending. Don’t miss the fisherman’s pie, a seafood laksa topped with a puff pastry, which managed to please even a diehard East Coast laksa lover. 

$28 (includes lunch). Tours run every fourth Wednesday of the month.
Go to www.persimmon.com.sg for further details.