Street Names In Selected Areas Of Singapore

Place names tell us much about a country — its history, its landscape, its people, its aspirations, its self-image, The study of place names called toponymics unlocks the stories that are in every street name and landmark. In Singapore, the existence of various races, cultures and languages, as well as its history of colonization, immigration and nationalism has given rise to a complex history of place names. But how did these places get their names? This revised and expanded 4th edition of the book incorporates additional information, from archival research as well as interviews that have come to light since the last edition. Also included are many new entries that have presented themselves as Singapore’s built environment undergoes redevelopment. Expanded by over 100 pages.

Since 1819, more than 6,200 place (street and village) names divided into more than 3,900 name groups were known in Singapore. Based on digitised historical newspapers, dated back to 1830, municipal records and Malay dictionaries, the origins, meanings and date of naming for many place names are uncovered. As part of Singapore history, place names known since 1936 are recorded in this book.Although place names are fairly static in nature, there have been more than 100 name changes. The naming trends transitioned from English to Malay and then back to English names. Discover that Toa Payoh was not named after a big swamp, Anderson Road was named before John Anderson, a former Governor, took up his job and many more new findings in this exciting book.This book is a complete listing of all place names since 1936, together with the most comprehensive annotations to date — a first in Singapore. It is also the only book of its kind that analyses naming trends. Information on the origins or date of naming was based on primary sources such as old maps, minutes of municipal meetings, Chinese books and digitised newspapers.

This book represents archival work as well as field work and interviews. The introductory chapters provide an overview of the academic importance of studying place names (toponymics). In Singapore, there has been much controversy over place names due to the introduction of Hanyu Pinyin names. Singapore street names are also complicated by the fact that the names represent colonial, Chinese, Malay, Indian and Arab names. On top of that, many street and place names are also referred to by various ethnic groups in a colloquial manner which is quite different from the official name. This book will help developers to be able to name various buildings and other developments in a historically appropriate and culturally relevant manner. It will also be of interest to those who would like to know the history and background of Singaporean street names.

For most of its modern history, to speak of Singapore was to speak of the Singapore River, physical centre of the city and site of the greater part of the colony's entrepot trade. The river has been transformed over the last 25 years from a polluted industrial sewer choked with traffic to a clean, placid waterway that forms the centrepiece of Singapore's financial, civic and entertainment districts. This transformation symbolizes the city-state's efforts to remake itself for the 21st century.Stephen Dobbs sets out the history of this waterway, and of the people who made it their home and workplace. He describes the tidal swamp in the early days of the British settlement, where merchants ignored Raffles much-vaunted city plan and built their businesses on the limited high ground along the marshy riverbanks.Later, even as the long distance shipping moved to new port facilities elsewhere on the island, the river remained the base for a large regional trade, and boatmen and businessmen struggled to cope with silting, over-crowding, and bridges that were too low to be passed at high tide.Looking at the post-war years, Dobbs zeros in on the boatmen who carried goods between the "e;godowns"e; or warehouses along the river and the freighters lying at anchor in the roads. Despite its pollution, the river remained home to a vital community of coolies and tally clerks, and the tumultuous urban life that swirled around them.Today the waterfront community has been relocated. The shophouses and warehouses along the river are now chic cafes and upmarket restaurants, fish have returned to the Singapore River, and urban dwellers stroll on walks along the river's edge.Blending social history, geography, economic history and urban studies, this book will be of interest to anyone wishing to understand Singapore's many transformations during the past two centuries.

What are place names? From where do they originate? How are they structured? What do they signify? How important are they in our life? This groundbreaking book explores these compelling questions and more by providing a thorough introduction to the assumptions, theories, terminology, and methods in toponymy and toponomastics – the studies of place names, or toponyms. It is the first comprehensive resource on the topic in a single volume, and explores the history and development of toponyms, focusing on the conceptual and methodological issues pertinent to the study of place names around the world. It presents a wide range of examples and case studies illustrating the structure, function, and importance of toponyms from ancient times to the present day. Wide ranging yet accessible, it is an indispensable source of knowledge for students and scholars in linguistics, toponymy and toponomastics, onomastics, etymology, and historical linguistics.

Streetscapes are part of the taken-for-granted spaces of everyday urban life, yet they are also contested arenas in which struggles over identity, memory, and place shape the social production of urban space. This book examines the role that street naming has played in the political life of urban streetscapes in both historical and contemporary cities. The renaming of streets and remaking of urban commemorative landscapes have long been key strategies that different political regimes have employed to legitimize spatial assertions of sovereign authority, ideological hegemony, and symbolic power. Over the past few decades, a rich body of critical scholarship has explored the politics of urban toponymy, and the present collection brings together the works of geographers, anthropologists, historians, linguists, planners, and political scientists to examine the power of street naming as an urban place-making practice. Covering a wide range of case studies from cities in Europe, North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, the contributions to this volume illustrate how the naming of streets has been instrumental to the reshaping of urban spatial imaginaries and the cultural politics of place.