From The Straits Times Archives

Revisit the changing face of Lavender

The Lavender street area is home to colonial-era monuments as well as the oldest city centre HDB housing around.

Here are some stories The Straits Times has written about the area.

Keep the old in Lavender, create space for the new

In today's Straits Times, writers Ying Zhou, Anna Gasco and Edda Ostertag argue that the area should be preserved and a strategy of "densification" and "reuse" will help preserve the older buildings in the neighbourhood as well as inject a livelier atmosphere into the ageing space.

The writers, researchers at the Future Cities Laboratory of the Singapore-ETH Centre, note that Singapore's urban policy can draw from the example of Hong Kong, where small businesses survive in high-rent neighbourhoods, enhancing their cultural richness and social vibrancy.

Read their opinion here.

Some stalls from Lavender Food Square to move elsewhere, others remain undecided

This story was first published on Sept 7, 2014

The hawker food institution at the corner of Lavender Street and Jalan Besar closed down earlier this year as the building and neighbouring Eminent Plaza is making way for a new 16-storey freehold development called ARC 380.

Many of the hawkers, who have been operating out of the centre for decades, are dispersing to new locations but fans of the centre lament its passing.

Read more here.

Hardware zone in Jalan Besar now backpackers' abode

This story was first published on Sept 5, 2014

This article, part of the Street View series that explores different neighbourhoods around Singapore, looks at how the older hardware shops that used tp dominate the area have now closed down.

In their place are flashpacker hotels and hipster cafes, which have driven up rents in the old shophouses but brought a new vibrancy to the once sleepy neighbourhood.

Read the story here.

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