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Yio Chu Kang Road

History
Chinese immigrants to Singapore established themselves inland along riverine settlements by the 1840s. With the northern part of Singapore dotting with gambier and pepper plantations, Yio Chu Kang Road and its surroundings were soon settled by these early Chinese immigrants. Villages, in the early 19th century, situated along the river's mouth were known as a kangka or kangkar, meaning literally a "river's leg". It is believed that the name Yio Chu Kang was derived from the traditional Chinese way of naming a village after a family or clan that controlled the particular part of the river along which the settlement was located. However, some suggest that the villages were named after early settlers. Thus, it is believed Yio Chu Kang village was named after a certain Mr. Yeo, one of the earliest settlers there, who built his house (chu) along the river (kang). It is unknown when this road was laid. The road had remained home to a few kampongs even until the late 1980s, such as the Chia Keng Village and the Yio Chu Kang Village. A little distance off Yio Chu Kang Road through Jalan Kayu leads to an area where the first RAF base was constructed outside the United Kingdom. Built in 1928, the detached houses, at what is now known as Seletar Airbase, now come under the purview of the Housing and Development Board (HDB).

The road is connected to the Central Expressway (CTE) at the Yio Chu Kang Flyover while the Ang Mo Kio Underpass connects it to Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 and Hougang Avenue 2. The Ang Mo Kio underpass opened in 1993 and it is made up of a one-kilometre long depressed road below the Yio Chu Kang Road. Built at a cost of S$12 million, it serves as a link to reach the Central Expressway faster. Towards the Upper Serangoon Road end, Yio Chu Kang Road bifurcates into two, near the Serangoon Swimming Complex; one road connects to Upper Serangoon Road, while the other, called the Yio Chu Kang Link, connects to the Serangoon MRT station. The Yio Chu Kang MRT station is in the vicinity of the road at its Upper Thomson Road end.

Description
The street today is home to housing units, religious buildings, eating places, recreational facilities and some two- to three-storey shophouses. Apart from HDB housing units, many private housing units are located along the street, such as Sanford Park, Brighton View, Rosyth Lodge, Toho Green, Brighton View, Regentville, Dedap Gardens, Tuan Sing Park, Castle Green, Seasons Park, Calrose Gardens and Teachers Housing Estate (circa 1967). Most of these private units were built in the 1990s while a few other private housing units are still under construction. Covering a total of 397.5 ha of land area, a total of 21,700 private homes are expected in the Yio Chu Kang and Upper Thomson area by 2010.

Office cum shopping centres on the road include the Kovan Centre, ICB Shopping Centre and Highland Centre, while schools along the road include the Chatsworth International School Kindergarten, Bowen Secondary School and Hougang Primary School. A Japanese cemetery and memorial park is located off Yio Chu Kang Road, along Chuan Hoe Avenue, where the ashes of 10,000 Japanese who died here in World War II are buried alongside the ashes of more than 1,000 pre-war Japanese settlers here. Founded in 1891, it served primarily as a Japanese burial ground until 1947, and was converted into a memorial park in 1987.

Religious buildings on the road are the Singapore Pastoral Institute, Tai Seng Church, Assembly of Church, Yio Chu Kang Chapel, Church of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Thomas Orthodox Syrian Church with the First Evangelical Reformed Church next to it and the Masjid Al-Istiqamah at the junction of Serangoon North Avenue 2 and Yio Chu Kang Road. Community buildings along the street include the Pertapis Children's Home, Serangoon Stadium, Serangoon Swimming Complex, Moonlight Home For The Aged & Handicapped, Gracehaven; the Salvation Army with the Singapore Buddhist Welfare Services, Convalescent & Nursing Home next to it and the Serangoon Depot. The Singapore Buddhist Welfare Services Convalescent & Nursing Home, a charity hospital on a 0.5 ha land area, was built in the late 1990s. A school for disabled children, called the Asian Women's Welfare Association (AWWA) Special School, was constructed along Lorong Napiri, off Yio Chu Kang Road in 2003. Equipped with better facilities, it was built to replace an older building along Norris Road, off Serangoon Road, which was in a state of disrepair.



Author
Thulaja Ratnala Naidu



References
Dunlop, P. K. G. (2000). Street names of Singapore (p. 330). Singapore: Who's Who Publications.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 DUN)

Edwards, N., & Keys, P. (1988). Singapore: A guide to buildings, streets, places (pp. 52, 81). Singapore: Times Books International.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 EDW)

Savage, V. R., & Yeoh, B. S. A. (2003). Toponymics: A study of Singapore street names (pp. 413, 89). Singapore: Eastern Universities Press.
(Call no.: SING 915.9570014 SAV)

Charity hospital for the aged ready in 2 years. (1997, November 8). The Straits Times, p. 51.

Hee, J. (2000, September 30). School for disabled children needs help. The Straits Times, p. 78.

Lam, P. F. (1998, February 25). Japanese settlers were here before the war. The Straits Times, Life!, p. 1-2.

$12m underpass opens to ease peak-hour jams. (1993, October 11). The Straits Times, p. 25.

21,700 new homes for Upper Thomson and Yio Chu Kang. (1994, July 26). The Straits Times, p. 40.


Further Readings
Oral History Department. (1987). A pictorial history of Nee Soon Community. Singapore: The grassroots organisations of Nee Soon Constituency, National Archives, Oral History Department.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 PIC) 

Subject
Architecture and Landscape>>Streets and Places
Geography>>Population>>Urban Planning
Street names--Singapore
Urbanization--Singapore
Arts>>Architecture>>Public and commercial buildings
Arts>>Architecture>>Residential buildings
Arts>>Architecture>>Religious buildings

Librarian Recommendations
>> Chinese Villages in the North
>> Japanese Cemetery Park memorial headstones


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