A large part of my childhood memories was built in Balestier. Despite growing up there, I never know much about the place except that there's a traditional backery(Ghee Leong) that my parents often go to, and that Balestier is also the place for food lovers and the supper eaters. Talk about Balestier, and the image of fanciful lighting fixtures pop up. That's about what I knew. Thankfully by chance, I discovered the colourful heritage of Balestier through a sharing session with volunteers of SYSNMH.

Balestier was named after the first American consul to Singapore, Joseph Balestier. It was also known as "Or Kio"(meaning black bridge in hokkien) as it was said that there was a dark wooden bridge that spanned from Sungei Whampoa(Whampoa River) between Ah Hood road and Toa Payoh. In the olden days, 1830s-early 1900s, Balestier was a swampy sugarcane plantation(owned by Joseph Balestier) infested with malarial mosquitos and tigers. In fact, attacks by tigers were not uncommon, and the hokkien community who worked in the sugarcane plantation built the Goh Chor Tua Pek Kong Temple in 1847 to seek protection against tigers as well as blessings for themselves and family. As the name already shows,  the temple is dedicated to the Chinese deity Tua Pek Gong (Grand Old Man) who is believed to be the guardian of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Today the Goh Chor Tua Pek Kong Temple is an icon of Balestier, and in the temple compound, one can also see the wayang stage ( said to be the only one left in Singapore) which was set up in 1906. During festive seasons such as the birthday of Tua Pek Gong which falls on the second day of the second month in the lunar calendar, there will be Chinese opera or puppet performance on the wayang stage. And it's often a common sight to have vendors selling durians ( a local delight) during the peak durian season.

Just across the temple one can see the old Art Deco shophouses(230&246 Balestier Road). They have a clean and simple geometrical shape, especially popular in Europe & America during the 1920s & 1930s. Hoover hotel (246 Balestier Road) and Hoover Restaurant (230 Balestier Road) that were built in the 1950s, followed the Art Deco styles. Hoover Hotel and Hoover Restaurant are the namesakes of the demolished Hoover Theatre that was built in 1960. In fact, the name "Hoover" is a familiar name to those staying in Balestier, as there's a famous stall in the Whampoa Food Market called "Hoover Rojak". Queues at the stall are often long especially during lunch hours. Even though Hoover reminds one of the theatre, Hoover Theatre was not the first theatre in Balestier. In fact the first theatre was called Ruby Theatre built in 1958(showing only Chinese films), and its success led to other theatres like the Hoover Theatre in 1960 followed by the President theatre in 1973. Today, all these have closed down, and the entertainment site that one can see now is the Shaw Plaza where Hoover and President Theatre used to be at.

Further down the stretch from the Goh Chor Tua Pek Kong Temple is the Balestier Point. It's also a very distinctive landmark in Balestier that you will notice because of its Lego like structure. Balestier Point was built in 1986  and its inspiration was derived from a project in Cananda from the renowned architect Moshe Safdie. The Balestier Point is also the site where the old Ruby Theatre used to be. Balestier Point is a shopping cum residential unit where at the lower floors you see the retail and entertainment outlets and the upper floors house residential units of 2 and 3 bedrooms. These residential units are of freehold tenure and current valuation as at Aug 2013 starts from ~S$1.2m. In 1987, Balestier Point won the Singapore Institute of Architects Honourable Award.

Just across Balestier Point, one can see the Sim Kwang Ho shophouses(292-310 & 418 Balestier road; built in 1926s by a Chinese developer by the name of Mdm Sim Cheng Neo. One can immediately distinguish this from the Old Art Deco style shophouse earlier on by its more elaborated designs. You can sense the European influence from the design. In fact, the extravagant ornamental design was a reflection of the owner's wealth and status. Despite the European influence, one can also notice the Asian and Chinese symbols in the design. In fact, there's a bat image in the design because bats, known as bian fu in Chinese, are thought to symbolise "luck" due to the word fu. By the way, shophouses in the olden days have to be built with a 5-feet wide covered walkway to provide shade and protection against the weather. Interestingly one can also see images of Sikhs inscribed on the shophouse as the Sikhs were often employed as policemen in the colonial past.

Further down the Sim Kwang Ho shophouses, one can also see the water kiosk at the corner of the lane. The water kiosk is donated by the nearby temple called the Thong Teck Sia Tong Lian Sia Temple, and offers free water and tea to passer-bys, a continuation of its service in the olden days when it provided free drinks for the poor. I think it's currently the only free water kiosk in Singapore.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the famous shops in Balestier is the traditional bakeries. During the 1970s, there used to be around 200 such bakeries in Singapore but now only 8 remained. There are 2 such bakeries in Balestier, one is the Ghee Leong(just opposite of Whampoa Hawker centre) which my parents love, the other one is Sweetland Confectionary at Kim Kiat lane. Passing by, you will smell the freshly made bread just out from the ovens. Both open 24hrs a day. Ghee Leong Bakery is run by a Hainanese family and has been in operation for more than 60yrs. Because of the dwindling number of competitors in the traditional bakery industry, business so far has been good. A must try item is their freshly baked brown sugar loaf. Other popular ones are the red bean buns, the potato buns and the cocnut filling ones/

For coffee lovers, you will not want to miss the traditional coffee powder making shop " Lam Yeo Coffee Powder Making Factory" founded by Tan Thian Kang, a former assistant director of Nanyang Siang Pau. This is build in 1959, and "Lam Yeo" means Nanyang in Hokkien, which was derived from the name of the newspaper. Operation has been here for more than 50yrs and current ownership has since passed down 3 generations. The shop still retains the old tradition of roasting coffee beans with sugar and margarine, which give the beans a lusciously black outlook. However, moving on with current times and preference, the shop also imports gourmet coffee beans from South African and central America. The shop sells around 2000kg of coffee beans a month and half of these are the gourmet beans.