Tiong Bahru

The Singapore Improvement Trust built Tiong Bahru in the 1930s to move families out of overcrowded Chinatown, and it still looks the part: low Streamline Moderne blocks along Seng Poh Road, Yong Siak Street and Tiong Poh Road, with curved corners and porthole windows, birdsong in the trees and a lot of good coffee for so few streets. The name is Hokkien tiong, meaning grave, plus Malay bahru, meaning new: a new cemetery, after the old one under today's Singapore General Hospital. Tiong Bahru Road first appears on a 1913 map. The biggest block is the horseshoe at Moh Guan Terrace and Guan Chuan Street, built in 1939–40. Block 78 there holds the only purpose-built pre-war civilian air-raid shelter in public housing, opened only for occasional NHB tours.

Start at Tiong Bahru Market & Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road, the first stop on the National Heritage Board's ten-marker Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail. It opened in 1951 as Seng Poh Road Market, was rebuilt in 2004–06 and still works as a market: the wet market, where the day's fresh produce is sold, gets going downstairs from about 5.30am, and 85 cooked-food stalls fill the floor above. Jian Bo Shui Kueh at #02-05 has steamed chwee kueh, soft rice cakes under its own chye poh (preserved radish), since 1958. The early line is mostly neighbours, and the stall sells out. People also come upstairs for Lor Mee 178 at #02-23. If you're unsure what to order, join the longest local queue.

From the market, walk to Qi Tian Gong at 44 Eng Hoon Street, Singapore's first temple to the Monkey God, founded in 1920 in an attap hut. Then wander over to Yong Siak Street, still the lane for books and coffee. Woods in the Books is the children's bookshop that outlasted BooksActually, and Tiong Bahru Bakery on Eng Hoon Street does the kouign-amann. Seng Poh Garden has the Dancing Girl, stop eight on the trail. Stop two is the corner of Seng Poh Road and Tiong Bahru Road, once Hu Lu Temple and the Wah Heng coffeeshop, where songbird cages go up on some weekend mornings, with no fixed schedule. Tiong Bahru Park, a 3.3-hectare NParks lawn with dog walkers, is about five minutes from the market, on Tiong Bahru Road near Lower Delta.

A few places on the edges are worth the extra walk. Wat Ananda Metyarama at 50B Jalan Bukit Merah, toward Outram, is the oldest Thai Theravada temple in Singapore, founded at Silat Road in the 1920s, and its current building opened in January 2014. Zion Riverside Food Centre sits under the trees by Alexandra Canal. One MRT stop west of Tiong Bahru, Redhill Food Centre does zi char, the cook-to-order dishes you share round the table, for dinner. Chinatown is 20 to 25 minutes on foot via Outram Park. On the way, NUS Baba House, the Peranakan townhouse at 157 Neil Road, is closed for restoration until 2027, with its interior online as a virtual tour, so stop at Tea Chapter on Neil Road instead. Queenstown's older markets are a few stops west on the East-West Line, and they're best early, so keep them for another trip.

Where to eat

• Jian Bo Shui Kueh, Tiong Bahru Market #02-05, 30 Seng Poh Road: chwee kueh since 1958. It starts between about 5.30am and 7am and sells out by late morning
• Lor Mee 178, Tiong Bahru Market #02-23: the other stall people come for. The centre is open 6am–11pm, but many breakfast stalls close by early afternoon
• Tiong Bahru Bakery, 56 Eng Hoon Street #01-70: kouign-amann after the hawker centre. Open 7.30am–8pm on weekdays and 8am–8pm at weekends
• Zion Riverside Food Centre, 70 Zion Road: 32 open-air stalls near Great World MRT. No. 18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow is the plate to look for
• Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane: zi char for dinner, about five minutes' walk from Redhill MRT. Stalls keep their own hours