There is no better way to describe Joo Chiat than as an estate of contrasts, where the old coexists with the new.

The area, named after plantation owner and wealthy philantrophist Chew Joo Chiat who owned the land in the early 1900s, is steeped in Peranakan and Eurasian culture.

But Singapore's first Heritage Town - christened in 2011 - is undergoing a wave of gentrification that has led to a spurt of new businesses in the predominantly upper middle class area.