Enggor Street



Singapore Infopedia

Background

Enggor Street is a one-way street in Tanjong Pagar, within the Central Business District.1 Bound by Tanjong Pagar Road and Anson Road, the road joins up to Hoe Chiang Road.2 It was named after a town in Malaya during the late 19th century.

History
Enggor Street was named in 1898 after a Malayan town situated along the Perak River in Perak’s Kuala Kangsar district.3 The nearby Bernam Street, Tras Street and Raub Street (expunged) were also named after places in Malaya in the same year.4


Developments
During the early 1900s, several well-known companies were located on Enggor Street, including Straits Aerated Water Works and Ford Motor Company of Malaya, which set up its first assembly plant in a garage on the street when it was established in 1926.5

Enggor Street was also home to Tan Kheam Hock, a merchant who lived at 30 Enggor Street in the 1910s and provided contract labour to the Tanjong Pagar Docks.6

Founded in January 1920 in Tanjong Pagar holding evening language classes for working adults, the Chinese Industrial and Commercial Continuation School moved to 30 Enggor Street two months later and started providing primary education.7 The school moved to Outram Road in 1929, then to Tampines in 1985 and was subsequently renamed Gongshang Primary School, which remains to this day.8

The Sindhi Merchants Association was another notable institution on the street, having purchased 30 Enggor Street initially as a boarding house in 1938 for visiting Sindhis but sold the building in 1951 when it moved to Mountbatten Road.9

In 1951, Gan Eng Seng School was relocated from Telok Ayer to the junction of Anson Road and Enggor Street.10 Although plans for a new school building had already been in place in 1940, construction was delayed as a result of World War II.11 In 1986, the school moved from Enggor Street to Spottiswoode Park Road near the former Keppel Road Railway Station.12

Completed in 1973, the Tunas Building was located at the junction of Enggor Street and Anson Road. Owned by Tunas (Private) Limited, an Indonesian conglomerate, the 28-storey building was shaped like a ship with an exterior featuring stone carvings of the Ramayana.13 Recladding work in 1987 transformed the building, and it was renamed Apex Tower.14 The building is now known as Hub Synergy Point.15

Today, besides Hub Synergy Point, Realty Centre can also be found along Enggor Street, while Amara Shopping Centre has one end facing it.16 Realty Centre was built in 1974 by Hong Leong Holdings,17 while Amara Shopping Centre was developed by the Teo Teck Huat Group and opened in 1986.18

Variant names
Enggor Street was also referred to as chin seng sua khau in Hokkien and chan seng shan hau in Cantonese, both of which mean “mouth of Chin Seng Hill”. Chop Chin Seng was a business owned by merchant Tan Kim Ching (Tan Kim Cheng).19 Often referred to as Bukit Kim Cheng, Chin Seng Hill (振成山; zhen cheng shan in Mandarin) is near Cantonment Road, behind the building of the Lim See Tai Chong Soo Kiu Leong Tong Family Self-Management Association.20



Author

Bonny Tan



References
1. Mighty Minds Street Directory (Singapore: Angel Publishing, 2015), map 132D. (Call no. RSING q912.5957 MMSD-[DIR])
2. “Map of Singapore Town,” in Guide to Singapore Town Island Map: With a Directory to the Finest Scenic Motor Routes, 194-, map. (Call no. RRARE 915.957 THO; microfilm NL28409]; Mighty Minds Street Directory, map 132D.
3. Victor R. Savage and Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2013), 117 (Call no. RSING 915.9570014 SAV-[TRA]); Abdur-Razzaq Lubis and Khoo Salma Nasution, Raja Bilah and the Mandailings in Perak: 1875–1911 (Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2003), 66–67. (Call no. RSEA q959.5104 LUB)
4. Savage and Yeoh, Singapore Street Names, 117, 322.
5. “Untitled,” Straits Times, 2 November 1911, 6; “Ford Company in Malaya is 30 Years Old,” Straits Times, 9 November 1956, 14. (From NewspaperSG)
6. “Social and Personal,” Straits Times, 13 January 1916, 8; “Local and General,” Malaya Tribune, 20 June 1919, 4. (From NewspaperSG); Song Ong Siang, One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore (London: John Murray, 1923), 258. (From BookSG)
7. Leong Weng Kam, “The Chinese School with an Unusual History...,” Straits Times, 25 August 1978, 32; “Page 5 Advertisements Column 2: The Chinese Industrial and Commercial Continuation School,” Straits Times, 17 February 1921, 5. (From NewspaperSG)
8. Roy Ferroa, “The Bell Tolls a Welcome,” Singapore Free Press, 21 May 1949, 4; Sandra Davie, “In Daddy’s Footsteps,” New Paper, 10 July 1996, 15. (From NewspaperSG); “Our History,” Gongshang Primary School, accessed 18 April 2017.
9. “A. R. P. Posts,” Malaya Tribune, 7 January 1942, 8; “Merchants to Buy Buildings,” Straits Times, 18 June 1951, 7 (From NewspaperSG); Sindhi Merchants Association, Singapore, Trade and Telephone Directory 1988 (Singapore: Sindhi Merchants Association, 1988), 9. (Call no. RCLOS 380.10255957 SIN)
10. “Work on New School Begins,” Sunday Tribune (Singapore), 5 March 1950, 2; “Education for Every Child – Gimson,” Singapore Standard, 16 May 1951, 2. (From NewspaperSG)
11. “Work on New School Begins.”
12. “New Venue for School,” Straits Times, 22 June 1986, 11. (From NewspaperSG)
13. “Letjen Dr. H. Ibnu Sutowo to Officiate at Function,” Straits Times, 20 October 1973, 6; “Tunas Building: A New and Imposing Landmark in the Heart of the City,” Straits Times, 20 October 1973, 6. (From NewspaperSG)
14. Lee Han Shih, “Tunas Building Buyer in for $20M Windfall,” Business Times, 4 August 1988, 1; “Building Overhauls Last Year a Record,” Straits Times, 22 August 1988, 18. (From NewspaperSG)
15. Kalpana Rashiwala, “Anson Rd Office Block Now under Single Ownership,” Business Times, 17 January 2015, 15. (From NewspaperSG)
16. Lee Han Shih, “Amara Shopping Centre for Sale,” Business Times, 24 August 1988, 3; “Quiet Opening for Amara Hotel,” Business Times, 28 May 1986, 2 (From NewspaperSG); OneMap, Enggor Street, n.d. map.
17. “Bangunan Ini Projek Terbesar Pernah Diselenggarakan,” Berita Harian, 21 February 1977, 6. (From NewspaperSG)
18. Lee, “Amara Shopping Centre for Sale”; “Quiet Opening for Amara Hotel.”
19. “Page 8 Advertisements Column 4: Chop Chin Seng,” Straits Times, 17 December 1850, 8. (From NewspaperSG)
20. H. W. Firmstone, “Chinese Names of Streets and Places in Singapore and the Malay Peninsula,” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 42 (February 1905): 67, 86–87 (Call no. RQUIK 959.5 JMBRAS); “Ji tiao you shanghao de ming de jiedao” 几条由商号得名的街道 [Several streets named after the business], Lianhe Wanbao 联合晚报, 27 January 1984, 2 (From NewspaperSG); “Lim See Tai Chong Soo Kiu Leong Ton Family Self-Management Association,” Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations, accessed 18 April 2017.



The information in this article is valid as of 2010 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.







Rights Statement

The information on this page and any images that appear here may be used for private research and study purposes only. They may not be copied, altered or amended in any way without first gaining the permission of the copyright holder.