Tiong Bahru Market to close for 3 months from mid-April for upgrading
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Tiong Bahru Market will be closed from April 14 to July 13.
ST PHOTO: TARYN NG
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SINGAPORE – The popular Tiong Bahru Market will be closed for three months for repair and redecoration works.
From April 14 to July 13, the ground-floor wet market and usually bustling hawker centre upstairs will be off-limits for the works, according to a National Environment Agency (NEA) notice to stallholders dated Jan 17.
Eight years after the last major renovation at the site in 2017, this next round will include a fresh coat of paint, new tables, stools, floor tiles and skid-preventing, waterproof materials at the carpark, said NEA.
Horticulture in the courtyard will also get an “enhancement”, the agency added.
Construction firm LHW Construction will carry out the works.
In a media reply on Feb 21, an NEA spokesperson said toilets, lighting and ventilation will also be improved during the “periodic refreshing” of the market – typically carried out every six to eight years to keep hawker centres in “good physical condition, and ensure a pleasant dining environment”.
The spokesperson added that hawker representatives were consulted before the three-month period of closure and scope of work were decided.
Rent for the 342 cooked food and market stallholders will be waived during the closure, and will not be raised because of the works, NEA said. Stallholders can also approach the agency for a temporary stall at other hawker centres and markets during this period.
Soya bean milk hawker Loh Teck Seng said he would treat the closure as a break.
Though NEA allows hawkers to move to another hawker centre in the interim, it would be “very troublesome” to move there and back again, said Mr Loh, owner of Teck Seng Soya Bean Milk.
The 70-year-old, who is also the chairman of Tiong Bahru Market Hawkers’ Association, said: “The repair and redecoration ultimately help businesses in the long run, and we’re not paying for it, so it’s not such a bad thing.”
The Loh family at their stall, Teck Seng Soya Bean Milk, at Tiong Bahru Market.
ST PHOTO: TARYN NG
Soon Lee Fish Soup stall owner Sam Tan, 43, said that though he did not see a real need to fix up the place, “perhaps the change of tiles and rearrangement of the tables might be a good thing”.
But for second-generation hawker Nita Ali, the measures are slim consolation. The 50-year-old proprietor of ayam penyet stall Ali Corner said she expects to “struggle financially”.
The hawker of 15 years added that she was also “a bit confused” about the need for repairs, saying: “They just did some works recently and everything looks good to me.”
Ms Raya Abdullah and her daughter Nita Ali at their stall Ali Corner at Tiong Bahru Market.
ST PHOTO: TARYN NG
Wet market stallholder Calvin Kwan also felt “there’s nothing to fix”. The 60-year-old said he would change jobs if he finds “something better” in the three months his stall is closed.
In 2017, the Tiong Bahru market got newly tiled floors, a fresh paint job and new fixtures. High-volume, low-speed fans, LCD screens and energy-efficient lights were installed at the hawker centre.
The building it now occupies was erected in the mid-2000s, more than half a century after the market first opened in 1951 as a simple wooden structure with a zinc roof.
