Moving again...

As both of our job locations have changed in the last year, when it came to moving again we were able to move to a more convenient location. Living on the East Coast as we have for the past seven years has been great, but the traveling for me to work and back in Woodlands in the very North of the Island was getting tiresome.

We've lived the typical resort style life here so far, but as we are planning to be leaving Singapore by the end of this year, we felt it would be good to finish up our posting living somewhere that had a bit of character and history.

Singapore is constantly regenerating itself so it is sometimes difficult to find something you can genuinely call "old". You will hear people refer to "this old condo", which is actually a prehistoric fifteen years old. En-bloc sales are all the rage at the moment as the Singapore economy booms and there is a scramble for the limited land which is available. En-bloc simply means everyone in a given complex sells their property to a developer.... the developer flattens the place, then builds.... yes, you've guessed it, another complex, which looks very similar to the old one, and charges double the price for the new property compared to the old one. There have been En-bloc sales recently of properties which were less than ten years old !

Ok, you want old? you got old..... welcome to Townerville.  Colonial Conservation Houses built in 1924.

(All pictures are available in Ye Olde Antique, or if you want to go forward 80+ years... full colour by mousing over any picture)

Townerville History

The estate was built by the colonial British administration for customs civil servants to live in.

The administration of the colony was carried out by the governor and top-level officials of the Malayan Civil Service, posts that could be held only by "natural-born British subjects of pure European descent on both sides."

Area History

Townerville is on Towner Road, which is near....

Lavender Street :

The name Lavender, suggested by residents of the street, was quite a misnomer as this was one of the foulest smelling streets of Singapore in the 19th and early 20th centuries. (It has improved since then!)

Balastier Road :

Joseph Balestier was the first Consul to Singapore for the United States of America serving between 1837-1852. In 1831, Joseph Balestier was one of the first men to own a 1,000-acre sugar-cane plantation known as the Balestier Plantation located on the Balestier Plain. Balestier Road runs alongside what used to be his sugar estate. Balestier's home on this plantation had five immense rooms. Balestier was one of two entrepreneurs (the other being William Montgomerie) to have tried manufacturing sugar. Using a steam-engine, Balestier's plant transformed sugar-cane into sugar and rum. Unfortunately, Singapore's sugar produce were not given import privileges to the home market and competition from Province Wellesley saw the decline of this industry. Failure of the Balestier sugar plantation enterprise forced the Balestiers to sell the entire property in April 1848. The sailors hospital and accommodation were built on the site. Tan Tock Seng Hospital was on the site from 1860 to 1909 then the grounds became sports playing fields.

McNair Road :

McNair Road is a short stretch of road that lies adjacent to Towner Road, and is accessible via Balestier Road and Serangoon Road. It was named after Major J.F.A. McNair who served as Colonial Engineer and Comptroller of Convicts in the Straits Settlement during the period 1857 - 77. He was responsible for designing the Istana, the oldest part of the Empress Place building, St. Andrews Cathedral and Tao Nan School.

Interior

Downstairs there are two large rooms in the main house, with kitchen and utility rooms off to the back.

The stairs and the floors are all made from lovely old wood.....

Upstairs there are two bedrooms, the front looks out onto the street and has the essential balcony, for reclining after a hard day at the plantation.

To the back there is an enclosed courtyard, which allows the cats to safely "roam" around unsupervised for the first time. As there is no grass area, we had to improvise and plant some of our own for the cats to chew on. Amazingly the garden centre sold "Cat Grass", ideal for the purpose.

So this is our home for the next few months. Our new contact details are here

Click here to meet our new houseguests