Street names in Singapore often tell important stories. These streets can be named after important leaders and early settlers that have contributed to Singapore’s development or after prominent landmark features present in the area.[1] 
Toa Payoh
Origins of Street name
Toa Payoh, in the Hokkien dialect, translates to “big swamp” (with "Toa" meaning "big" and "Payoh" meaning "swamp"). The Malay word for swamp is paya.  It is the Chinese equivalent of Paya Lebar, which also translates to big swamp land.[2] Toa Payoh therefore indicates the large swampy area that existed before Chinese settlers moved into the area.   
Toa Payoh in the 1960s
Toa Payoh is  the second satellite  town after Queenstown that  was  built by the Housing and Development Board (HDB). The plan to develop Toa Payoh was announced by then Deputy Prime Minister and Acting National Development Minister Toh Chin Chye in August 1960. 
In total, Toa Payoh was envisaged to have 35,000 units to house some 250,000 people. There were also plans to have about 480 shops, over 20 schools, and other amenities such as markets, clinics, cinemas, community centres, hawker centres and places of worship (of different religions) in Toa Payoh. 
These amenities, together with the housing units, were laid out based on the “neighbourhood concept”. This concept divided Toa Payoh into several neighbourhoods before grouping them around a town centre that acted as a focal point for the entertainment and shopping needs of residents.[3] 
Initially, the plan to develop Toa Payoh ran into difficulties when it proved difficult to reach an agreement on the terms of resettlement with the squatter families that had occupied the Toa Payoh site. Negotations dragged on as the squatters demanded more compensation.[4]
Toa Payoh in 1963, before its development[5]
To increase support for the plan, the HDB promoted the development of Toa Payoh by releasing information on the jobs that would be created with the construction of the town. There would be jobs to be had in the town’s 100 shops, four markets, 20 primary and secondary schools, community centres, theatres and other public amenities. There would also be work for some 4,000 during the construction of the flats in addition to work for another 4,000 employed in brick-making factories, sand pits, timber yards and transport companies.
Samsui women taking on construction work in Toa Payoh, 1960s[6]

By 1963, the government finally announced that work on Toa Payoh would start. A HDB spokesperson reported that “surprisingly and most unexpectedly, well over half of the attap dwellers in the area, who were in the past reluctant to move out, have now suddenly accepted the offer”. This, he speculated, was due to the stop of organized resistance led by the Barisan Sosialis against the government’s development plans.[7]

The construction of Toa Payoh, 1960s[8]

Shared common spaces in Toa Payoh
A video about the Toa Payoh Garden Lookout Tower
An aerial view of Toa Payoh Garden in the 1970s. The Toa Payoh Cinema can also be seen in the background.[9]
A playground where young children of different races inter-mingled with each other[10]

First Toa Payoh Secondary School


First Toa Payoh Secondary School was the first secondary school built to cater to the secondary school population of Singapore’s first satellite town solely developed by HDB, Toa Payoh. The school was part of the first such housing development with a town centre, social and recreational facilities and light industries. Lessons began in 1968 and the school functioned as an integrated school offering English and Chinese. However, over the years with the diminishing Chinese stream population, and parents realising the importance of English as the lingua franca, the school became an English medium institution.[11]
The early years of the school as a common space for the different races
Cikgu MohamedNor (as he is fondly remembered) found First Toa Payoh Secondary School a world apart in terms of facilities when he was transferred to the school in 1968. It was a ‘proper government school’ with Technical workshops, PE Room, Malay Language Room and a Staff Room among others, which were sorely lacking on the islands. At FTPSS he started the Malay Dance group and had students like Rahimah Rahim and her brother Mat Latiff to teach the dance to Chinese and Indian students as well.[12]

Cikgu Mohamed Nor during a video interview in the 2000s

Students gathering for a parade


Class photos[13]


Toa Payoh Community library

Toa Payoh Public Library (TPPL) was officially inaugurated on 7 February 1974 by then Minister for Culture, Mr Jek Yeun Thong. It was the second public library to be opened during the rapid expansion of the public library network in the 1970s.

It is located in the heart of the Town Centre and originally had a large circular water fountain and public walks fronting it. This has been converted into an amphitheatre. Within walking distance of the library, there are cinemas, supermarkets, restaurants, banks, public car parks, a bus terminal, public places of worship, sports and games facilities and schools.

In its early years, the ground floor of the Library housed the Children's Room and the Library Extension Section which administered the Mobile Library Service. Behind the Library Extension Section was the Mobile Library garage. A spiral staircase connected the Children's Room with the first floor where the Storytelling Room, Staff Workroom, Office, a Meeting Room, a Lecture Hall, and a large Library Stack were located. The second floor accommodated loan and reference services for adults and young people and a Staff Workroom.[14]








http://sgsnaps.com/toa-payoh-from-marshland-to-satellite-neighborh






Notes

[1] CPDD, Inquiring into Our World, Marshall Cavendish Education, 2013, page 66. See also Savage & Yeoh, Toponymics: A study of Singapore Street names, Eastern Universities Press, 2003, page 9

[2] Ibid, page 387

[3] Adapted from: Development of Toa Payoh Begins, Dec 1964, History Sg (An Online resource guide), < http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/history/events/6a0f21de-b30e-4df5-897b-664b1ffdb0da> , 2014



[6] Image taken from: http://blogtoexpress.blogspot.sg/2010/11/tribute-to-samsui-women.html

[7] Han, Toa Payoh New Town,2015

[8] Image taken from: https://remembersingapore.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/old-toa-payoh-1960s-2.jpg

[9] Image taken from: http://www.singaporememory.sg/contents/sma-8cb8b6d2-3a86-486b-aea1-0626ece30307

[10] Image taken from: https://remembersingapore.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/toa-payoh-playground-1975.jpg?w=640

[11] FTPSS, Our Narrative, < http://ftpss.sg/the-1970s>, 2015

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Singapore Infopedia, Toa Payoh Community Library, <  http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_959_2005-01-03.html>, 2010

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Geylang Serai

Image
Geylang Serai The name “Geylang Road” can be traced back to 1831.   The word “Geylang” is believed to be either a corruption of the Malay   word kilang which refers to “mills” or “factories”, since the road used to be the site of coconut plantations and mills operated on it to produce coconut oil. Another possible origin is the early presence of the Orang Gallang tribe that lived along the coasts and rivers of Singapore island and was well-known for their piracy activities around the area. The term Geylang Serai refers to an area that is bounded by several adjacent roads in the area. The history of the street is linked to the Alsagoffs, a wealthy Arab family who owned a big property in the neighbourhood. Formerly, the area was called Geylang Kelapa because of the number of coconut palms (kelapa in Malay) planted in the area. In the later half of the 19 th century, the estate was developed into an estate for the cultivation of serai (lemongrass). The name was soon chan...
Read more

Jalan Besar

Image
Origins of the Name Jalan Besar only appeared in the 1880s, when the colonial government constructed it through nipah land and called it Jalan Besar , meaning "big or wide road" in Malay. The "Wide road" in recent years[1] A peculiarity of the street names in Jalan Besar is that many bear the names of World War I British generals and admirals and two French generals such as Allenby, Kitchener, and Beatty. The names of famous battle places such as Flanders, Somme and Verdun are also reflected. Today, Jalan Besar is a gazetted conservation area. Most of the roads above were cut from the 1920s onwards when the then-swampland was filled in with incinerator ash from Singapore's first incinerator built in the vicinity of today's Syed Alwi Road. From 1926, the Colonial government decided to name the newly opened roads after personalities and battle-sites of the European conflict so as to remind the then-colony of Singapore of the conflicts in Europe. ...
Read more
Image
Dhoby Ghaut is derived from the Indian Words dhoby , meaning “laundry” and ghaut, meaning “the steps along the bank of a river”. The name stems from the laundry activities that used to take place here from the 1830s onwards. Indian dhobies used to wash their clothes using the water from Stamford Canal. The clothes were dried on empty land subsequently occupied by the Ladies Lawn Tennis Club, now occupied by the triangular-shaped park opposite Cathay cinema. In the past, the whole area was associated with laundry activities and Queen Street in Tamil was vannan teruvu or “Street of the dhobies” and the Malays called it “Kampong dhobi”. [1] Launderers working in Stamford Canal, Singapore in the 1920s  Source: Thimbuktu, Blog to Express [2] Former Cathay Building The Former Cathay Building was designed by Frank W. Brewer in the Art Deco style, an architectural style that was very popular in Singapore in the early twentieth century. The Art Deco façade wall fronting the...
Read more