Shopping centres were rare in the 1960s and one of the few departmental stores available was CK Tang. Set up in 1932 by China immigrant Tang Choon Keng, or CK Tang for short, Tangs has uniquely outshined others as an Asian heritage with an international appeal.
Tang started out as a peddler selling Swatow (his home town) lace and embroidery door-to-door. Ten years later, he set up his first departmental store in River Valley Road. In 1958, Tang bought a piece of land at the corner of Orchard and Scotts Road in order to expand his business and set up the C.K. Tang Department Store. Although the site faced the Tai San Ting Cemetery, Tang felt that it had commercial value as many British housewives in the Tanglin area passed it by on their way to the city. The green-tiled roof and building's appearance was modeled after the Imperial Palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
While Tangs Department Store has since been demolished and rebuilt, Tangs still stands today as a Singaporean icon. |
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Clifford Pier was a popular embarkation and disembarkation pier on Collyer Quay. Named after Sir Hugh Charles Clifford, Governor of the Straits Settlements (1927 - 1929), Clifford Pier has been a busy landing and departure point since its opening on June 3, 1933, serving passengers commuting between ships anchored out at sea and the Singapore mainland. Pre-world war, bumboats were also available for ferrying people to and fro the various off-shore islands.
In the 1960s, Clifford Pier was the ‘in' place to hang out, especially among the young people. In the day, the entrance of the pier would be flooded with vehicles of visitors due to its huge capacity for car parks. At night, the car park was transformed into a hawker centre and was popular with musicians and night birds who stayed up late.
Sadly, the car park was demolished in the early 1970s and Clifford Pier became a ‘red-light' district due to the proliferation of prostitutes, who made the area their hunting ground until they were all driven away.
Clifford Pier is no longer in operation but has been conserved and re-developed as part of Downdown @ Marina. |
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National Theatre, the public theatre for performances, concerts and conferences, was located at the corner of Clemenceau Avenue and River Valley Road. Built to commemorate Singapore's self-government in 1959 and completed in 1963, National Theatre was the first and largest theatre in Singapore, with a capacity of 3,420 seats.
The structure's most memorable perspective was its five-pointed facade which represented the five stars of the Singapore flag, and the fountain in front of the building, representing the crescent moon.
National Theatre was the venue for various international performances in the 1960s and 70s and some of the famous performances were by popular names such as the Bee Gees, Hollies, Walker Brothers, the Yardbirds, and the Louis Armstrong Jazz Band. It was also the venue for the annual National Day rallies.
On January 15, 1984, the building held its swan song performance as it was declared structurally unsafe. Demolition works took place between June to August 1986, marking an end to an eventful era for local theatre. |
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Bugis Streets in the 60s was famously known for nightly parade of flamboyantly dressed transsexuals and this attracted many Caucasians who flocked to the region to witness these Asian queens. Other than this, the Western tourists also came for the food, the booze and the pasar malam (night market) shopping. Business boomed and Bugis Street became really lively and bustling.
The ‘girls' would sashay up and down the streets looking to hook up half-drunk sailors and American tourists for some naughty businesses. Not only would they get the thrill of sex with these exotic orientals, it also was an eye-opening experience of transgressing gender boundaries.
Still, the Westerners could easily tell who the transvestites were and who the real females were – the transvestites were extremely gorgeous while the rest simply looked normal. The place was so crazy that some Westerners termed it “Boogie Street”.
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In fact, one of the truly unique Singaporean attractions in the 60s is the now-defunct Haw Par Villa or ‘Tiger Balm Gardens' as it was originally known as. Constructed in 1937 by "Tiger Balm King" Aw Boon Haw as a grand residence for his younger brother, Aw Boon Par, the park was named after the brothers' concoction of the pain-relieving ointment, popularly known as the Tiger Balm.
Boon Haw sought to create a park which told traditional Chinese stories but displayed it in a modern, Western way, thus the park's colorful collection of over 1,000 statues and 150 giant tableaux centered around Chinese folklore, legends, history, and Confucian ideology.
Morality tales included classic battles between good and evil and tributes to Chinese cultural heroes such as the famous pugilist Wu Song, who tamed a ferocious tiger with his bare hands. As such, Tiger Balm Gardens became a very family-oriented attraction as parents liked bringing their children there to recount Chinese tales and stories. After all, what better way to inculcate Chinese values than to let the children experience it themselves?
One of its most famous attractions was the Ten Courts of Hell, which was a depiction of a gruesome underworld of tortures and torments set in the mouth of a 60-meter-long dragon. One have to sit in a boat and enter into the dark tunnel where you witness people having their tongues cut off (for liars), or having them hands chopped off (for thieves) etc. The boat ride was accompanied by sounds of people screaming as you passed each ‘attraction'. Parents especially enjoyed using this time to teach their children not to steal or lie, or else (in their words) ‘you'll end up like these people when you die'.
Other attractions included a scowling 7,000-kg gorilla, a monstrous sumo wrestler , the Statue of Liberty, water gardens and live fishes , Thai dancers, and live animals like p andas , ostriches , koala bears.
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Like today, the Orchard Road of the 1960s was just as bustling. However, many popular hangouts have been replaced by the current buildings that we see. Before Centrepoint Shopping Complex, there was The Cold Storage Milk Bar, which was a popular hangout in the 1960s offering ice-cream, cake and other refreshments.
There was also the popular Orchard Market where Cuppage Plaza now sits, which provided fresh produce for residents, mainly foreigners, until the mid-1960s. In addition, the opening of C.K. Tang Ltd in 1958 boosted Orchard Road's popularity, offering young people a place to shop for the latest fashion wears. Following that, three cinemas also sprouted along the street, namely the Pavilion, the original Lido, and Orchard Theatre, which carried Jackie's Bowl Orchard, Singapore's first public bowling centre, on its ground floor. All these attractions transformed Orchard into a popular dating spot among youngsters.
Magnolia Snack Bar, Capitol Building (right):
Popular cafe serving set lunches and milk shakes, which was a hit with couples.
The food fare was just as good. Not to be missed, the Orchard Road Car Park hawker stalls , or popularly known then as "Gluttons Square", were also famous for the street hawkers who used to gather there and provide a great variety of good local food including oyster omelette, fried kway teow and fried hokkien prawn noodles. This area was a big hit with tourists and locals alike.
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 The corner of Orchard Road and Scotts Road where TANGS Department Store is located.
Source - www.singas.co.uk
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Chinese Swimming Club
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Source - 
Hooking up the Westerners. 
Hooking up the Westerners. 
Tranvestites looking at their best.
The 7,000-kg gorilla 
Famous pugilist Wu Song killing the tiger 
Chinese Swimming Club 
New Bridge Road