Victoria Street Wholesale Centre

[hyacinthus]

Text Source:http://www.victoriawholesale.com.sg

Victoria Street Wholesale Centre (VSWC)
Victoria Street Wholesale Centre (VSWC) houses 41 units with tenants engaged mainly in the sale of groceries and dried provisions. A few tenants also deal in party and catering supplies, disposable plastic products, fabric, hardware, household items and wooden handicraft. It was developed by the Housing Development Board (HDB) with a temporary occupation license in 1997 to house the Ellenborough Market tenants affected by the Relocation Programme.

History
The history of VSWC dates back to 1891 when vendors of dried seafood products gathered together in a marketplace in Tew Chew Street by the Singapore River (now the site of Merchant Court Swissotel) to do their business.


Image source: NHB

Tew Chew Street then came to be known as a marketplace with the widest variety of reasonably priced dried groceries. However a fire broke out in 1968 and burnt down the market. In 1978, a modern three-storey wholesale centre was built at the same location to house the original tenants. This became the Ellenborough Market. When plans for the construction of the MRT Northeast Line were announced, the wholesale centre was affected and had to relocate to its current premises at Victoria Street on a temporary lease agreement, ending 2003. This year, HDB has agreed to extend the lease of Victoria Street Wholesale Centre for another three years until December 2006.

[hyacinthus]

Some interesting dried food and items that were found in this wholesale centre...

Dried Ikan Bilis - Used for making Nasi Lemak, soup for Yong Tau Foo etc


Gingko Nuts - Used for desserts mainly


Dried Flat Fish - Used as an enhancer in frying Chinese dishes as well as in making sotong meat balls etc


Dried Chrysanthemum - Used to make a "cooling" tea

[hyacinthus]

Dried Shrimps - Used in many dishes


Not too sure about this though... :p


Jellyfish - Used by my mum to make salad


Chestnut - Used in soups, dumpling, desserts etc. I love chestnuts!

[hyacinthus]

The stores selling many different kinds of dried food and spices






Dried Chilli

[hyacinthus]

Going back to the old days...

Remember carrying a lantern like this? Using candles then. Not battery-operated lanterns.


Remember bowls then were always painted with a cock picture. Wonder why?


Remember these biscuits that were distributed at PAP kindergarten then (when you were 5 or 6)?

[RafflesCity]

Thanks for thpse tasty nuggets of information!

It sure looks like a nice place to check out...feels very nostalgic indeed....

the dried squid looks tasty too

[Maverick713]

I wonder what would happen when their temporary leases expire again in December 2006? They were supposed to move out in 2003 but did not....

[hyacinthus]

It should be extended for another 3 years. Don't think HDB has plans to build 40-storey HDB flats on that plot of land yet.

[RafflesCity]

The Tourism Board may wanna feature it in its brochures of Singapore...some tourists may like looking at such 'Asian' things and immerse themselves in something 'exotic'

[redstone]

Ah... the buscuit tins sure brings back memories.


The market looks strange smack right in the city.
Sadly the shophouses near Ellenbrough were also demolished. Should be at least rebuilt as facades into the new developement

[babystan03]

I wonder if they would develop the area?? The interchange (to johor) and wholesale centre looks old.....

[Maverick713]

Originally Posted by babystan03

I wonder if they would develop the area?? The interchange (to johor) and wholesale centre looks old.....

I think the empty land above the Bugis MRT next to the wholesale centre (listed by URA as the future sale site at Victoria Street) has already been earmarked as a possible landmark site. I guess its a matter of time this prime area would be redeveloped along with the "landmark site".

Sometimes I wish they work faster at redeveloping such areas

[redstone]

Is the wholesale centre temporary?

[Maverick713]

Originally Posted by redstone

Is the wholesale centre temporary?

Their lease is supposed to run out very soon, in December 2006. Nothing on their website hint at what's happening next.....

Hope they still stay around Victoria Street but get a permanent building somewhere along the road.

[RafflesCity]

As long as there are vacant land parcels lying around Bugis, the wholesale centre should be allowed to stay on IMHO.

Future developments should also start from the Bugis MRT outwards.

[Maverick713]

Originally Posted by RafflesCity

As long as there are vacant land parcels lying around Bugis, the wholesale centre should be allowed to stay on IMHO.

Yep.... as long as the land parcel where the wholesale centre is now sited do not revert back to its shameful history not too many years ago.

[RafflesCity]

what activities occured on the site previously?

[redstone]

I think it was shophouses... The area around Rochor Centre, huge shophouse area.

[Maverick713]

Originally Posted by RafflesCity

what activities occured on the site previously?

Ahem.... transvestites (men who had gone under the knife) operating brothels in the backlanes of rows of shophouses along Johore Road. Lots of curious tourists on trishaws took pictures of these transvestites and the crowds there until a fire broke out in the late 90s. The govt took opportunity of the fire damage to demolish entire rows of crumbly shophouses and erased that infamous road and their sinful past.

quote: http://www.answers.com/topic/transge...e-in-singapore

Johore Road - Formerly located between and parallel to Queen Street and Victoria Street, and bisected by Ophir Road, it was the less well-known cousin of its glamourous counterpart, Bugis Street, just a stone's throw away. It was the seedy haunt of transgender prostitutes who solicited sex from locals, away from the glare of Western tourists. No photographs or media attention were focussed on this street of ill-repute; only a no-frills approach to an economic exchange. It was one of the few roads to be completely erased from the map of Singapore after a fire in the late 90s, to be replaced by an unnamed park next to the Bugis MRT station and the Victoria Street Wholesale Centre.

[RafflesCity]

also I think the construction of the Bugis MRT sealed the fate on the activities.....one of the lost secrets of Singapore