Built in the 1930s, Tiong Bahru Estate is one of the oldest housing estates in Singapore. It was the first project undertaken by the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT), a government body administered by the British colonial authority, to provide for mass public housing in Singapore. The estate consists of about 30 apartment blocks with a total of over 900 units. The apartment blocks are made up of two to five-storey flats and the units are assorted three to five-room apartments.
The construction style of the estate is a mix of art deco and local Straits Settlements shop-house architecture. The flats feature rounded balconies, flat rooftops, spiral staircases, light wells and underground storage and shelters. One notable feature of Tiong Bahru estate is that all its streets are named after Chinese pioneers of the 19th and early 20th centuries (Lim Liak, Kim Pong, Guan Chuan, Chay Yan, etc.).
Not many people could afford to live in the Tiong Bahru Estate during the pre-World War II years. It was the choice place of living for the upper class and also the place where the rich and powerful kept their mistresses. For this reason, the estate used to be known as Mei Ren Wuo (¡°den of beauties¡± in Chinese).
The population in Tiong Bahru estate tripled after the Second World War, and it gradually lost its exalted status as an exclusive upper class housing estate. However, it retained its close-knit Kampung (small village in Malay) spirit and became a bustling and lively little town where everyone knows and looks out for each other.
