In Pictures: Sungei Road through the years

The mere mention of Sungei Road market evokes a sense of fond nostalgia of Singapore's last free hawking zone near the Rochor Canal. It conjures up images of hard-nosed, craggy old vendors peddling cast-offs to low-income shoppers.
It is here that Singapore's Thieves' Market reportedly started in the 1930s, where people could buy back their belongings from thieves selling pilfered items at makeshift stalls.
This second-hand market became a fascinating place to shop for many people, including tourists. The market survived through World War II and attempts to close the area down in 1982 and 1994. It will close for good on July 10, 2017.
Pictures curated by Simon Ker & Doris Goh.
Photographs can be purchased from the Information Resource Centre, tel: 63195726, 63195508

Updated

Published

Jul 05, 2017, 07:30 AM

1951: The glory days of the Sungei Road flea market aka Thieves’ Market, aka Robinson Petang or Poor Man's Department Store were perhaps in the fifties and sixties. Shoppers and stall-holders haggle all day long over an array of items, including stolen belongings - from clothes to earthenware to hardware goods to army equipment. ST FILE PHOTO

1954: This bridge over the Rochor Canal, near the flea market in Sungei Road was already bustling with life from the colonial days.
ST FILE PHOTO: N J COTTERELL

1970: Second-hand goods and other bric-a-brac are sold at Larut Road parallel to Sungei Road.
ST FILE PHOTO: CLEMENT MESENAS

1971: Shopping at this poor-man's bazaar is like embarking on a treasure hunt.
ST FILE PHOTO: MAZLAN BADRON

1978: The area around the New Singapore Ice Works building and Rochor Canal which the Hokkiens and Teochews called “Gek Sng Kio” (“Frosted Bridge” in dialect) was an ideal meeting point for many people.
ST FILE PHOTO: HAIRIS

1980: Old world charm and uniquely Singaporean or just a chaos of both human and motor traffic among heaps of second-hand junk?
ST FILE PHOTO: ANTHONY WYE

1982: A Chinese medicine man pulling in the crowds as he espouses the medicinal value of snakes as a cure for various conditions.
ST FILE PHOTO: SIMON KER

1982: When half of the 161 hawkers at Sungei Road were told to clear out by the final weekend of July 1982, items ended up going for a song.
ST FILE PHOTO: SIMON KER

1982: Where once a staggering array of goods were displayed, there were just planks, boxes and debris. And where once bustling crowds haggled, the only noise was from a group of workers demolishing the stalls and sheds.
ST FILE PHOTO: ARTHUR LEE

1982: An aerial view of the Sungei Road Thieves Market and shophouses in the surrounding areas.
ST FILE PHOTO: SIMON KER

2016: Singapore’s oldest and largest flea market will go off the map to make way for the upcoming Sungei Road MRT station which is expected to open in 2017.
ST FILE PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

2000: A vendor known as Mr Ah Kim and his tricycle filled with salvaged items. The tricycle not only serves as a mode of transport but also doubles as a showcase.

BH FILE PHOTO: M.O. SALLEH

2001: The flea market is a popular hunting ground for vintage items where potential customers, and the curious, check out the eclectic mix of cheap buys.
ST FILE PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI

2001: Buy a slice of history with this framed family portrait of ex-Indonesian president Sukarno.

ST FILE PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI

2008: A different kind of IT Fair - Mr Michael Ong reportedly sells an average of 20 second-hand laptops each month. THE NEW PAPER: MOHD ISHAK

2008: Come rain, vendors pack up and vanish as fast as they appear. Those who fail to be quick risk losing their goods when flood water turn Sungei Road into a real sungei (river in Malay).
THE NEW PAPER: MOHD ISHAK

2011: In the past, odd things were used as “markers” for vendors to unofficially book their spot for spreading out their wares. The Sungei Road hawking zone was reduced to half its regular space on 25 July 2011 with 1m-by-1m spaces marked out in red paint by the authorities for stallholders to fit their goods. This was so that construction work on the Sungei Road MRT station could start. THE NEW PAPER: YAP NING

2009: Street drama at the Sungei Road Thieves' Market, including scuffles and arrests are not unusual.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

2012: Vendors make a meagre living selling anything from old chargers, remote controls and spectacles to used cellphones, cameras, game consoles and even an instant water heater. ST FILE PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

2014: Mr Lim Choong has been selling his wares at the Sungei Road flea market for years. For many like him, this was the only means of livelihood. THE NEW PAPER: CHOO CHWEE HUA

2017: Nothing is useless – not if you ask the vendor peddling these items – even if they seem destined to remain on the mat forever.
ST FILE PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG

2017: In a multi-agency statement on Feb 14, the Government announced that Singapore’s last and only free hawking zone has to make way for future residential developments. In response, Mr Koh Ah Koon, president of the Association for the Recycling of Second Hand Goods, rolled out a banner in Sungei Road to collect signatures up until July for support in appealing to the authorities for the site to be “conserved”.
ST FILE PHOTO: NIVASH JOYVIN

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SUNGEI ROAD