A truly authentic Singapore icon is about to be demolished to make way for modern buildings and be banished from our sights and thoughts forever.
Blocks 1 to 14, straddling between Hougang Ave 7 and Hougang Ave 3 are earmarked for demolition at the end of the year. These blocks have stood for around 35 years and the government probably felt they are somewhat of an anomaly in an estate surrounded by relatively new buildings.
I am powerless to change its fate, but I have attempted to take some pictures here for posterity. I hope these pictures (not exactly first grade, given that I took them with my Nokia 6500, slide) can provide poignant memories to anyone who ever stepped foot in the area; and I am quite sure there are many out there.
One day, many years from now, when I walk on the new soil and admire the new buildings in its place, I can flip through my collections and reminisce the old charm and mood of a place that once was, from the pictures that I have frozen for eternity.
On weekends, a motley crowd of laid-back visitors settles in the area for a leisurely breakfast from the many mini-stalls selling local fare.
Quaint and almost surreal, only metres away, the wet-market stalls bustle with activities as every stallholder has his/her endless stream of regular customers. Drowned in a cacophony, an overpowering smell, an overly-wet floor, one could pick out from among the confusing noise our Singaporeans' favourite art of price haggling, which these Hougang "marketeers" practise to a fine polish.
Some trades and practises are hard to find now in our modern society, such as this worker grating coconut from his old trusted coconut-grating machine.
My children, who have been to the market place on various occasions, can look at these pictures one day and reflect on the area's earlier existence. They would even be able to tell stories to their own children and grandchildren.
I grew up near this market area and still live a short distance from there. In fact, I once fought with someone in the area, or rather more accurately, I was beaten up by some guys there.
I will truly miss the market, which I regularly visit, when the inevitable happens at the end of the year. In fact, I am sadly missing it already.
Blocks 1 to 14, straddling between Hougang Ave 7 and Hougang Ave 3 are earmarked for demolition at the end of the year. These blocks have stood for around 35 years and the government probably felt they are somewhat of an anomaly in an estate surrounded by relatively new buildings.
I am powerless to change its fate, but I have attempted to take some pictures here for posterity. I hope these pictures (not exactly first grade, given that I took them with my Nokia 6500, slide) can provide poignant memories to anyone who ever stepped foot in the area; and I am quite sure there are many out there.
One day, many years from now, when I walk on the new soil and admire the new buildings in its place, I can flip through my collections and reminisce the old charm and mood of a place that once was, from the pictures that I have frozen for eternity.
On weekends, a motley crowd of laid-back visitors settles in the area for a leisurely breakfast from the many mini-stalls selling local fare.
Quaint and almost surreal, only metres away, the wet-market stalls bustle with activities as every stallholder has his/her endless stream of regular customers. Drowned in a cacophony, an overpowering smell, an overly-wet floor, one could pick out from among the confusing noise our Singaporeans' favourite art of price haggling, which these Hougang "marketeers" practise to a fine polish.
Some trades and practises are hard to find now in our modern society, such as this worker grating coconut from his old trusted coconut-grating machine.
My children, who have been to the market place on various occasions, can look at these pictures one day and reflect on the area's earlier existence. They would even be able to tell stories to their own children and grandchildren.
I grew up near this market area and still live a short distance from there. In fact, I once fought with someone in the area, or rather more accurately, I was beaten up by some guys there.
I will truly miss the market, which I regularly visit, when the inevitable happens at the end of the year. In fact, I am sadly missing it already.
