shopping It has been said that life for Singaporeans is not complete without shopping. Many people associate shopping with Orchard Road. However, before the 1970s, there were three main shopping areas: Raffles Place, North Bridge Road and High Street and People’s Park.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Raffles Place was the upscale shopping centre, and Robinsons (located where the United Overseas Bank now stands) was its premier store. Facing Robinsons was The Arcade, Singapore’s only European- style shopping arcade with steel girders and a glass roof, which was built by the wealthy Alkaff family. Beside this was John Little. Another European department store was Whiteaways, run by Whiteaway, Laidlaw and Co. Surrounding these European enterprises were upscale but smaller establishments: G.C. de Silva for fine jewellery, Gian Singh for Indian saris, Vanity and Elsie Mary for clothes, Michelle Beauty Parlour, and Mrs. Tommy Thompson’s for formal wear and woollens. One floor below Mrs Thompson’s was a popular rendezvous— the G.H. Cafe. The only ‘downmarket’ shopping space in Raffles Place was Change Alley, where Indian money changers plied.

Raffles Place, as a shopping area, had a tragic end when, on 21 November 1972, Robinsons was gutted by fire. Robinsons re- opened for business just before Christmas of the same year at Orchard Road, which was rapidly transforming into a shopping strip.

Wealthier Asians shopped at the North Bridge Road and High Street area. On the St. Andrew’s Cathedral side of North Bridge Road was a string of small, Indian- owned retail establishments that sold imported European shoes and US- made men’s shirts. Where North Bridge Road meets High Street were two department stores, Peking Store and the Aurora. Across the road was the main outlet of Bata Shoes.

On High Street was B.P. de Silva, a jewellery and silverware shop; the well- stocked Ensign Bookstore, a rarity when bookstores were scarce; and Chotirmall, a small department store. At the corner of South Bridge Road and High Street was The Miscellaneous Agency, a shop selling musical instruments. Sandwiched between it and Chotirmall was the Polar Café. Across North Bridge Road was an entire row of mostly Chinese- owned wholesale fabric shops. Among the retail shops in this section of High Street was Metro, then a small clothing shop.

The Chinese masses shopped in what is now known as Chinatown. Its focal point was People’s Park, one part of which was dedicated to food, and the other to fabric stalls. Eating out was not common, so to eat at People’s Park was something to talk about. Those who could not sew engaged the services of seamstresses there. People’s Park was razed in the late 1960s to make way for People’s Park Complex, where fabric stalls can still be found.

Orchard Road was a sleepy shopping street catering to the wealthy, until the rise of five- star hotels in the early 1970s served to catalyse the development of shopping facilities. With hotel bars, restaurants, dance clubs and shopping complexes, Orchard Road quickly became the entertainment strip for increasingly affluent Singaporeans.

Since the 1990s, alternative shopping centres have developed in new towns such as Yishun, Bishan, Woodlands and Tampines. Well- known department stores have opened branches in these suburbs. However, none of these suburban centres can displace the primacy of Orchard Road in terms of the sheer variety it offers.

Photo credit: Timothy Auger