Bookshops, Vinyl and Film Rooms

Small bookshops, record shops and cinemas suit a wet afternoon, because you can drift from shelf to shelf and then sit down in the dark. We'd start at Wardah Books on Bussorah Street in Kampong Gelam (Kampong Glam), a minute from Sultan Mosque's main entrance, and end with a film. The catch is the calendar: most of these places close one day a week, and Wardah pauses for Friday prayers from 12.45pm to 2pm. If you're around Bras Basah, start at Objectifs and work outwards.

Kampong Gelam shelves

Wardah's catalogue runs from the Quran, Hadith and Sufism through philosophy and history to Singapore writing, poetry and children's books. It runs book clubs, including one for women and one for children, and an open mic night called Layl as-Shayr. In Ramadan it opens daily from 10am to 6pm, so come outside the fasting month for the late evenings. Bugis MRT is about 10 minutes on foot.

A Chinese bookroom on Bukit Pasoh

Grassroots Book Room began in 1995 as an independent Chinese-language bookshop and publisher, first at North Bridge Centre opposite the National Library, and it has stood at 25 Bukit Pasoh Road since 2014. It picks Chinese-language titles from Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it also recommends English books with a local flavour. Its original shelves cover history, philosophy, literature, drama, film and art, and picture books, lifestyle and food writing came later. It opens at noon every day except Tuesday, when it's shut.

Middle Road and the yellow chapel

Objectifs is at 155 Middle Road, on the corner of Waterloo Street, and its yellow chapel gallery holds the exhibitions and screenings. A lower gallery and a shop sit in the building next door. Exhibitions are free to visit and donations are welcome for its public programmes. It opens from noon, closes at 7pm Tuesday to Saturday and 4pm on Sunday, and is shut on Mondays and public holidays. Bras Basah MRT Exit E is about five minutes away, and A Bras Basah Morning on Waterloo Street has the temples on the same road.

Vinyl on Coleman Street and Lorong Telok

Wow Acoustics calls its shop on the third floor of The Adelphi, at 1 Coleman Street, its flagship. It sells vinyl, CDs and SACDs next to turntables, amplifiers, cartridges and speakers, and its catalogue lists audiophile label series such as Blue Note Tone Poet and Analogue Productions. It opens at noon and closes at 6.30pm, Monday to Saturday, and City Hall MRT is about five minutes' walk.

For dance-floor records, Lifted Trax is a third-floor shop at 25 Lorong Telok that serves DJs, diggers and collectors. Its used records run from house and techno to club jazz, disco and reggae. It's open Wednesday to Sunday, noon until 6pm to 8pm depending on the day, and closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Three small cinemas

The Asian Film Archive's Oldham Theatre is a screening room inside the National Archives of Singapore at 1 Canning Rise, where the Archive runs a regular programme of screenings and events. It's closed on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. The box office opens an hour before each screening and closes 30 minutes after the last one starts, so check the calendar for what's showing before you go.

SFS Somerset is a small cinema in Hall 6 at Cineleisure, 8 Grange Road, run by what it calls Singapore's longest-established cultural film organisation, the Singapore Film Society. The society's chairman curates the weekly line-up. Tickets are S$15, or S$9 for society members, and seating is free and first come. Each session is limited to 60 seats, so arrive early, and some screenings open with an introduction and a Q&A with the director. Somerset MRT is an 8-minute walk.

Filmhouse is on level 5 of Golden Mile Tower at 6001 Beach Road, up the lifts beside the main drop-off point, in a different building from Golden Mile Complex down the street. Its seats are steep because they were the circle of the 1970s Golden Theatre, and the original circle seats have been upholstered and kept. The Projector later took over the space and closed in 2025, and Filmhouse is a new business under different ownership. Its box office opens at 4pm from Tuesday to Friday and at 1pm at weekends, and it's closed on Mondays.

One of its halls, Redrum, has sofas in pairs on row K and beanbags on rows L to N, at regular ticket prices. Redrum and Green Room both mean two flights of stairs, so choose a film in the Blue Room if you need a wheelchair-accessible hall.

Planning around Monday

Monday is the awkward day. Objectifs, the Oldham Theatre, Filmhouse and Lifted Trax are all shut, while Wardah, Grassroots and Wow Acoustics are open. Singapore on a Monday: What's Open lists what else keeps its doors open, and Singapore in the Rain: An Indoor Day Out has more indoor plans. Hours move on public holidays, so check the venue's page before you go.