Tiong Bahru Market memories: This is what it looked like in the 1980s

Photo: Tiong Bahru Estate / Facebook
Photo: Tiong Bahru Estate / Facebook

If you’re one of the loyal regulars who’ve graced the various stalls of Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre frequently, then just like us, you’ll probably be feeling a little down that it’s now (temporarily) closed for renovations.

You’ll have to wait till May 19 to be within reach of tantalising dishes such as char siew wanton noodles from Bu Jian Tian or chicken rice from Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice. Unless you prefer Jian Bo Shui Kueh — then you can have it anywhere around Singapore because it’s a franchise chain now.

But that’s enough for a downer topic. Let us put a little smile of nostalgia on your face.

An extensive photo gallery shared on the Tiong Bahru Estate Facebook Page back in 2011 — it has now resurfaced in popularity on social media — shows what Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre looked like in its glory days back in the ’80s.

Constructed in the 1950s on the same spot where the current market stands, the then-Seng Poh Road Market was merely a simple wooden structure with zinc pitched roofs. Besides hawkers pitching in to the structure by building huts with thatched roofs, not much changed until the whole place was torn down for a complete rebuild in 2004. It reopened two years later and was given the new title of Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre.

Take a walk down the memory lane below, and see what the market was like in its heyday.

Photos of Tiong Bahru Market in the 1980s

 

All photos courtesy of Tiong Bahru Estate via Facebook



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