South Bridge Road
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South Bridge Road (Chinese: 桥南路) is a road south of Singapore River in Chinatown, Singapore which starts from Elgin Bridge and ends at the junction of Neil Road, Tanjong Pagar Road and Maxwell Road.
The road was built by convict labour in 1833 which started at the south of Thomson Bridge (now the Elgin Bridge) where it took its name from and the road is the extension of North Bridge Road which starts from Crawford Street to the north of Elgin Bridge. From 1885 to 1894, steam tramways plied the full length of the road from the town area to the New Harbour (now known as the Keppel Harbour). As the trams could not face the competition of rickshaws, they then ceased operations. The Singapore Electric Train Company had its trams running along the road from 1905 to 1927. Trolley buses also used South Bridge Road as one of their routes which they competed with the "mosquito bus" until 1962 when the current motor bus system was introduced.
Eu Tong Sen ran a chinese medicine shop known as Eu Yan Sang which was established in 1910 and refurbished in 1990 and reopened in 1992. It is run by Richard Eu who is the grandson of the former. Eu Yan Sang now operates shops around the island as well as overseas such as Malaysia and Hong Kong.
The Chinese call the road ta ma lo or "great horseway" as well as chat bok koi or "paint wood street". "Paint wood street" refers to where there is a police court and the river. The road is also known as gu chia chui tua be chia lo in Hokkien which means "big horse (carriage) road in Kreta Ayer". The Tamils refer to it as "kalapithi kadei sadakku" or Cawker's Shop Street.
[edit] Landmarks
- Elgin Bridge
- Eu Yan Sang
- Fook Hai Building
- Hong Lim Complex
- Jamae Mosque
- Maxwell Food Centre
- One George Street (or ERGO insurance building; formerly Pidemco Centre)
- Sri Mariamman Temple
[edit] References
- Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2004), Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names, Eastern Universities Press, ISBN 981-210-364-3.
