CHIC SUBURBAN LIVING

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Extremely popular with both locals and expatriates, Holland Village offers you a good selection of shopping and dining.

A 10-minute leisure drive from Orchard Road will get you there – ample car-parking lots are available at different spots within this self-contained village.

There are also public buses available all over the island that can easily get you here.

SHOPS GALORE!

Once here, you can't miss the grand old dame – the Holland Village Shopping Centre.

Never mind her plain exterior walls.

Once inside, you can spend a good hour or two exploring the little shops.

You have your choice of shops carrying popular Balinese teak and new-asian style furniture pieces, decorative items ranging from candles, lamps, tableware to spruce up the home, furniture upholstery, ladies' and kids' fashion, a pet shop, hair-dressing salons, a nail bar, the selection never ends!

To enjoy a guilt-free shopping trip, you have a choice of a 2nd-hand bookstore and an other shop carrying used designer brands merchandise, CDs (each a steal at an unbelievable S$5!) and other interesting knick-knacks.

Coming down to the ground level is a supermarket that opens till 10pm daily for your grocery needs.

Still bursting with energy?
We recommend that you take the time to explore the back and side lanes all around to uncover more shops.

HAVEN FOR YOUR SENSES

Tired with all the walking or strapped with cash but nothing to buy?
Unwind and pamper your body with a visit to the spa and reflexology boutique establishments here.

Utter bliss and pleasure for your senses – we guarantee you'll walk out "floating".

FOOD LOVERS

You'll have to make several trips to finish sampling all the dining outlets here.

This place is so alive with fast-food restaurants, al fresco cafes, snack bars, bake shops, cake and ice-cream parlours, a local food court and resturants serving both local and international cuisines.

Perfect dining solutions for every special occasion.

NIGHT LIFE

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Enjoy your evening with close chums after a hearty dinner over a nice cool drink.

Take your pick from the wide selection of pubs and water (yes, water!) bars available.

If you must have alcohol, as a road-safety message, either get a friend to drive you or you can hop into a cab (easy available) home.

Sourced from http://www.landseer.com.sg/hollandvillage

Some pictures at http://www.contentinteractive.com/landseer/hollandimages/

An aerial view of Holland Village

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Some more photos

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I wonder how the name Holland Village came about

It sure is a good place to chill out with friends though! A nice alternative to the city, especially for those living at Bukit Timah or western Singapore :)

I guess the place was at Holland Road and it was like a small "village" with locals and expats. Thus, Holland Village?

It would be more happening when the Holland station is completed, probably in 2010.

Holland V (what its commonly called) is a good place to take people pictures :yes:

Alfresco dining and people watching? :D

YAH :happy:

There seems to be a lot of choices to pick from.

Anyway that windmill there was a recent addition

Very unique ambience...
There's a unique kampong-ish mosque there...

Sigh...used to go there since its so near to my school. I suppose I wont have to soon. :D

i still go there every week :) but i never ever explore the place because no one go with me.

what do you go there every week for?

Holland Drive to get 40-storey blocks


22 Apr 05

Area to be redeveloped, but residents left out complain to MP

By Tan Hui Yee

http://www.straitstimes.com/mnt/media/image/launched/2005-04-22/SERS.pdf

THREE 40-storey blocks are set to rise in Holland Drive as part of a redevelopment plan involving some 800 households near Holland Village.

But home owners in two nearby blocks left out of the redevelopment have complained to their Member of Parliament Lim Swee Say. They are worried that the value of their flats will go down when the new blocks come up and want to be included in the programme.

The redevelopment, announced yesterday by the Housing Board, involves three-, four- and five-room flats as well as shops in blocks 14 to 17, 22 and 23 there. The blocks are about 31 years old.

People living in these blocks will be relocated to the four spanking new high-rise blocks just across Holland Drive, three of which will be 40 storeys high. The project should be complete by 2010.

But residents from blocks 20 and 21 in Holland Drive, just next to where the new 40-storey blocks will be sited, were upset yesterday when they learnt they were being excluded.

More than 100 residents packed an activity room in Buona Vista Community Club last night to ask Mr Lim if he could persuade the Housing Board to reconsider its plans.

Mr Lim later told The Straits Times that he would do his best to convey their concerns and request to the HDB.

One resident, Ms Jacinta Tan, 50, described the moment she was told her block had been excluded: 'It felt like they had dropped a bomb on us.'

The news to redevelop the Holland Drive precinct comes just one month after the HDB announced its plan for a massive redevelopment of the Clementi town centre, which will get a 40-storey complex with a shopping mall, library, town council office and air-conditioned bus interchange linked to the MRT station.

Under the Selective En-Bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers), old flats are demolished to make way for new ones nearby, in order to maximise land use. The Holland Drive precinct is the 56th that has been identified for redevelopment since the scheme began 10 years ago.

As part of the Holland Drive plan, the current Buona Vista Community Club will be relocated to the site currently occupied by Block 36, where a HDB branch office is located now. The new club will be housed in an integrated complex comprising HDB shops.

The Singapore Sports Council, meanwhile, is looking into a suitable replacement for the Buona Vista Swimming Complex, which will be phased out after 2010.

Eligible home owners affected by the redevelopment plans will be guaranteed new flats nearby at a discount.

The HDB will also compensate home owners and shop owners according to the prevailing market value for their properties.

Homeowner C.S Yee, a 40-year-old manager, welcomed the plan as it would give him a new flat nearby without much of a hassle.

He said: 'I don't want the inconvenience for the two years when my flat is upgraded.'

lessons :)

HOLLAND VILLAGE - ENG WAH OPEN AIR CINEMA
1 Jun 1986

I never knew this cinema existed!
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Is that the box office up front? Haha. How endearing.

probably... I think this one is gone. There's another old cinema which now houses sheng song market at Kallang area. Can't remember the exact name.


I kind of missed such old pictures which redstone usually posts... not sure he would be back or not...

I found it. It's at Mackenzie Rd
REX THEATRE AT MACKENZIE ROAD
18 Jul 1948

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fuck holand its shittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

-.-'''

Hi Sunny. Please note that profanities are not allowed in this forum.

Harlow harlow
Recently, I visited Holland Village and noticed that there is a huge redevelopment of the market behind the rows of shops. Wonder how the new market look like?

I am thinking that why not follow Convent Garden in some ways where you can see many mime performers. Many people throng Convent Garden for the sake of soaking themselves in the fiesta atmosphere.

Propose that the closed-off road between the old market and the rows of shops (like StarBuck, NYSN, 7-11, and all those cages) can be used as a breeding ground for creative performance since that place is very shady with a lot of huge trees there. At least, people eating at outdoor alfresco dining area could enjoy watching the mime performance and even the performers can pull off trick on unknown passer-by including ang-mo expatriates.

:runaway:

I agree that they may as well pedestrianise that area in future...

but heard from my friends that parking is a problem there

How @$#@%$# UGLY......

I imagined something idyllic and typical Dutch. Like the Dutch colonial architecture as in Jakarta, or something like the Netherlands itself...
http://racer.kb.nl/gvn-mod/resolver.pl?urn=KITLV01%3AKITLV01_2737%3AKITLV01_2737_U

or here the Japanese copied Dutch architecture at Huis ten Bosch amusement park nagasaki; much better.....
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nooo its nothing like that. it's called holland village cos its along holland road. i dont know why its called holland road.

Holland Village was never meant to be some Dutch-themed park...it has always been a popular locale for hanging out, nightlife and expatriates though.

That tacky windmill is a fairly recent addition...and rather silly if you ask me!

Found this information how "Holland Village" come about.

source: http://www.getforme.com/previous200701_HollandVillage_more.htm

Holland Village was established between the late 1930s and 1945 as a military village, defined as a village in which at least a third of the businesses are dependent on military personnel.

In Holland Village, the early retail outlets were established for the sole purpose of servicing the retail, social and recreational needs of British soldiers and their families domiciled in and around Pasir Panjang Base. This military base, the largest in the 1940s, was located along a 'corridor' between Pasir Panjang and Holland Road.

In 1971, two major events took place:

1. withdrawal of the British Armed Forces from Singapore which saw the repatriation of thousands of soldiers between 1971 and 1976.

2. establishment of the Holland Road Shopping Centre.

Credits:
(1) Page 144 - 146 Portraits Of Places - History, Community and Identity In Singapore Edited by Brenda S.A. YEOH and Lily KONG - Chapter 7 "The Éxpatriatisation Of Holland Village" by CHANG Tou Chuang, Senior Tutor, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore (NUS) (ISBN 981 204 604 6)

Recently walked by Holland Village.

The Circle Line construction is well underway!

Judging by the number of dining places and cafes...its must be very lively in the evening.

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I like the first picture.....looks like it's going to rain anytime....:yes:

Thanks...the thing about such skies is that you know you have a limited time to snap pics before the rain comes ^^

More scenes from Holland Village

Cobbler
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Magazine store
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Holland V-turn?

20 Apr 07

Businesses there face parking woes as well as ongoing road and MRT construction. FRANKIE CHEE finds out if customers have got used to these and returned in droves

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If the time spent looking for a carpark lot is a good indication of the popularity of the area, then Holland Village is still a hot leisure magnet.
Take flight stewardess Veron Chua, 26, and marketing executive Geraldine Baey, 27, who spent 20 to 30 minutes finding parking on a Saturday night.

They are not alone in braving the disruptions posed by MRT construction works (since 2004) and parking restrictions (since 2002) to come here to patronise the estimated 30 entertainment and food outlets.

But that is not to say that the place has been immune to the pain of adjusting to the new situation.

The area has Holland Avenue cutting through it, with Lorong Mambong and Lorong Liput on one side and Jalan Merah Saga on the other.

Tenants in the area, whose reputation as a hang-out dates back to the mid-1990s, admit that takings took a 20 per cent dive when carpark lots were removed in 2002 and 2004.

In 2002, 32 lots in Lorong Mambong were removed by the Traffic Police for security reasons. They also closed the road from 6.30pm to 4am daily.

In 2004, the Land Transport Authority removed 116 lots to accommodate MRT construction works. The Holland Village Station is part of the Circle Line and will be linked to the Harbour Front Station on one end and Bishan Station on the other.

Today, the tenants, who pay rentals of around $8,000 to $12,000 for an average 1,700sq ft shop, feel that only 10 to 15 per cent of the lost business has returned.

'We lost 10 per cent of our customers but we were fortunate in managing to build up a new 10 per cent,' says Ms Carol Wah, marketing manager of bar and restaurant company Imaginings.

It owns Wala Wala, a popular cafe bar, and one of its strategies was to have a live band that plays more mainstream music.

Still, she says some of the old regulars have continued to stay away, unwilling to put up with the traffic and construction constraints.

But Mr Gary Neo, manager of Tango's restaurant and bar, notes that things have improved 'because the roads have been widened' as construction works progress.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority has added 157 parking lots since 2004 to ease the parking woes. Such help may have come too late for some businesses, like seafood restaurant Crustacean, which closed last year.

Still, the area's appeal and potential have been enduring enough to lure newbies like Eski Bar and Harry's Bar to set up shop in the last three years. Perhaps they have one eye on enjoying better prospects when MRT trains roll into the area in 2010.

Certainly, the businesses seem to have regained a surer footing as customers adapt to the situation.

A visit by Life! last Saturday bore this out. Lorong Mambong, especially, is where the thick of the action is, drawing dinner crowds from 6.30pm onwards, and the drinking ones till as late as 1am.

There are over 10 eateries along that street alone, offering everything from Lebanese and Mexican to Japanese and French cuisines, alongside pubs and humbler coffee shops and cafes.

'I think people keep coming to Holland Village because of its bohemian concept. There are expats, locals and a good mix of shops like coffee shops and fine-dining places,' says Ms Wah.

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Mr Andrew Koh, general manager of Harry's Bar in Holland Village, thinks the area is equipped to be a mini-Orchard Road, listing experienced vendors, no touting, a friendly setting and reasonable pricing as factors.

On Saturday night, when Life! visited, older heartlanders in T-shirts, shorts and slippers were nursing their Tiger beer and Guinness Stout in a coffee shop in Lorong Liput, cheering their favourite soccer team on TV, while younger customers in soccer jerseys and jeans gulped Erdinger and Hoegaarden beers at a more upmarket joint less than 100m away, catching the same soccer action.

Business operators say that although many Singaporeans frequent the place, expatriates still form the majority of their customers - as has been the case since the 1930s when British soldiers lived in the vicinity.

Mr Neo has noticed more and more younger customers turning up to party there over the past few years, attributing this to the presence of nearby tertiary institutions like the National University of Singapore and Singapore Polytechnic.

Weekdays are a little quieter, especially in the day. Wala Wala, for example, gets between 150 and 250 patrons on a weekday and between 300 and 400 each on Saturdays and Sundays.

While bugbears from parking and construction works remain, these have not caused rentals to drop.

Mr Danny Han, 48, a property agent who specialises in residential and business properties in the Holland area, says many tenants are paying around $11 per sq ft, and expects landlords to demand 20 to 30 per cent more as the completion date of the MRT draws near.

He also stresses that rentals differ within Holland Village, depending on the location.


He cites an example of a landlord who is asking for a monthly rental of $25,000 for 1,700sq ft of shop space in Lorong Liput, versus the $8,000 to $9,000 that some of his neighbouring tenants are paying now for a similar space.

'There are many interested parties who want to have a foothold in Holland Village and as long as the demand is there and with the new MRT station ready in a few years, rentals will continue to rise,' Mr Han notes.

Rentals for a second-storey, 1,300sq ft space in Lorong Mambong can go for more than $6,000 per month - and this is about half that for a ground-floor unit on the same road.

But despite the high rentals, the turnover of tenants in Holland Village is not high. Some, like Tango's, Michelangelo's Italian restaurant and Wala Wala, have been operating there for more than 10 years.

Industry sources say that while not all the businesses are doing well, they want to hang on because they expect a sharp spike in the number of customers once the MRT station opens.

Tenants can also expect more carpark lots after the construction works are over.

For now, they remain hopeful and optimistic.

As a spokesman for Foster's - An English Rose Cafe says: 'Holland Village is still all right now, especially on certain weekends and times of the year, but we all hope that by 2010, when the MRT station opens, things will be even better.'

this place is very lively at night! i used to work part-time there :D

developement at One north like fusionpolis etc etc will only add traffic to this place.

true...it would surely benefit Holland V and the area around it, and one-north will have its own 'centre' too, and both served by the new Circle Line...

What kind of crowds does Holland V usually attract?

Youngsters and foreignersss

Lunch time : People from MOE and Biopolis. They have shuttle buses for that.