The Singapore River gives you plenty to look at. Then again, it can be easy to walk past the details.
What could you have been missing or would have missed? For one, there are shophouses along Boat Quay that are now restaurants and bars.
While the old warehouses at Clarke Quay have found a new purpose that’s been getting a favourable reputation.
So, here’s a curated walk through for you. A way to stretch slowly and for you start to see how much work used to happen along these banks.
Nostalgia at a glance
Was there ever a time in your life where you’ve never been somewhere, but it still feels familiar? In Singapore, Boat Quay delivers that particular feeling. The rows of narrow shophouses sit close together along the river. Their backs turned towards the water and their entrances facing the street.
It made sense when the Boat Quay was one of the city’s main commercial routes. An important trading area in the nineteenth century. Merchants established offices and godowns along the river, while boats carried goods between the larger ships offshore and the warehouses on the banks.
The river was busy with different kinds of boats. Cargo had to move from the harbour into the smaller waterways, and the buildings along Boat Quay were part of that process.
You can still see the close relationship between the buildings and the river today. The difference is that you are more likely to stop for a drink or dinner than watch cargo being unloaded.
Have a stroll towards Clarke Quay
The walk upstream does not take you far, but the buildings begin to change.
Clarke Quay developed as another important part of the river’s trading activity. Merchants established shops and godowns there as Singapore’s port expanded, and the area became associated with the storage and movement of goods.
The godowns are the details worth noticing.
Many of the buildings were larger and more practical than the narrow shophouses at Boat Quay. They needed space for goods to be stored before they moved on, so the architecture reflected a different part of the river’s working life.
Clarke Quay was also known locally as cha chun tau, or “jetty for firewood boats”. Tongkangs carrying firewood from Indonesia used a nearby pier, adding another small piece to the story of what moved along this part of the river.
The area looks even more interesting now, but somehow different. The warehouses have been restored, and Clarke Quay has become known for dining and nightlife.
The old buildings are still doing a different job. They have simply found a new one.
Turn towards Carpenter Street
From Clarke Quay, head inland towards Carpenter Street.
The river is still close, but the story changes once again. Instead of following the movement of cargo, you come across a building that was connected to the movement of money and letters.
In 1936, Chye Hua Seng Wee Kee operated here as a remittance house. Immigrants could send money to family members overseas, and letters also passed through the business. That gives the building a very different connection to Singapore’s past.
The people who used it were not simply moving goods through the city and maintaining ties with the world.
The building has since been restored and now houses 21 Carpenter. With 48-rooms, you may choose the best accommodations from the boutique hotel. The original four-storey structure forms the Heritage Wing, while the Urban Wing occupies the newer upper levels.
The two sections are treated differently. Reclaimed Chengal timber from the original building appears in the Heritage Wing, while the newer Urban Wing brings larger windows and a more contemporary feel.
You can see the change in the building without losing the connection between the two parts.
Look for the words in the walls
The most unusual detail is not something you would expect to find in a hotel.
The restoration team worked with the National Archives of Singapore and selected 24 inscriptions from historic remittance letters. Those inscriptions were incorporated into the hotel’s design.
Some appear on the perforated aluminium façade of the newer wing. Others continue inside the building, including the lifts, corridors and Urban Wing rooms.
The words came from letters connected to the building’s earlier use. You can read them as part of the architecture now. They are not simply printed on a plaque explaining what the building used to be.
That makes them easy to miss if you are only passing through the street. Once you know they are there, you start noticing the details around you.
The reclaimed Chengal timber tells part of the story too. So does the division between the original building and the newer extension.
The building has changed considerably since 1936. Some of its earlier material and history have come along with it.
Stop at a modern Asian restaurant before heading back to the river
The ground floor gives you somewhere to stop before continuing your walk.
KEE’s serves Modern Asian food during the day and moves into evening dining and drinks later on. Its name comes from Chye Hua Seng Wee Kee, the remittance house that occupied the building in the 1930s.
At 8am, breakfast starts serving. So, you can relish your early meal. If you prefer to arrive later for brunch and lunch, that’s fine.
The restaurant also has its unique design. It cues from the building’s 1930s Art Deco banking-hall character. The interior uses timber, stone and brass alongside artwork. All of these give the dining room its own character without separating it from the building around it.
This is a good place to pause because you have reached the point where several parts of the river’s history meet.
The Singapore River brought trade into the city. The quays handled different stages of that trade. Carpenter Street then became home to a business that helped people send money and letters back to their families.
Now you can sit down and have a meal in the same building.
Take one last look towards the river
You can finish the walk here, or turn back towards Clarke Quay and Boat Quay. The return journey looks familiar by now, but the buildings may not.
Once you know that the riverfront was shaped by trading offices, godowns, cargo boats and businesses serving immigrant communities, the old façades become easier to place. You start seeing individual buildings instead of one long row of conserved architecture.
Singapore has changed the way it uses this part of the river. The commercial work that once filled the quays has gone, and the buildings have moved into new roles.
The old structure has stayed useful.
That may be the simplest way to finish the walk. You began beside a working river and ended inside a building that once helped people send part of their lives home. The scenery has changed. Some of the stories have not.
