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Trip down memory lane

I've lamented many times before that things in Singapore change so fast, so much so that many of us have lost our childhood places due to re-development. With that thought, I had the sudden urge to visit the premises of my old secondary school, Swiss Cottage, along Dunearn Road. I was quite disappointed that the security guard wouldn't let me in, nor would he even allow me to take photographs from the outside. Government property, so cannot, he said.

Thus, I could only manage some shots (without permission, of course) from the outside, from a distance. Then, I decided to do the next best thing - capture images of places we used to haunt. These may not be technically nor artistically the best shots I've taken, but they are amongst the most meaningful to me, and hopefully to the ex-Swiss students of the Dunearn campus era.

I hope they bring back a flood of memories for you as they have for me.

Click on individual images for further captions/write-ups. Please leave a comment, especially if you're an ex-Swiss. And as for the rest of you, take as many pics of your surroundings as you can. You never know what you're going to miss next time. :)
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I think besides Luck Plaza, this was the only other place I can recall that had glass elevators when I was a kid. On the bottom left of the pic was where the Strawberry Shortcake shop used to be.
Bt. Timah Plaza

I think besides Luck Plaza, this was the only other place I can recall that had glass elevators when I was a kid. On the bottom left of the pic was where the Strawberry Shortcake shop used to be.

 That tall fountain with the copper animals, of course! Wishbone Restaurant is still there (best gula melaka ANYWHERE), but Waffletown USA shifted out quite some years ago.
Bt. Timah Plaza - What's missing?

That tall fountain with the copper animals, of course! Wishbone Restaurant is still there (best gula melaka ANYWHERE), but Waffletown USA shifted out quite some years ago.

 Gallen Sports has been around for a long time. That was one of my fave shops. There was also Yaohan, and does anybody remember People's Emporium on the top floor?
Bt. Timah Plaza

Gallen Sports has been around for a long time. That was one of my fave shops. There was also Yaohan, and does anybody remember People's Emporium on the top floor?
Where it used to be anyway. I remember it to be some small colonial-style building, raised above the ground (due to floods, I guess).
Bt. Timah Police Station

Where it used to be anyway. I remember it to be some small colonial-style building, raised above the ground (due to floods, I guess).

 And of course, it's not there anymore. This is near the junction of Upper Bt. Timah Road and Jalan Jurong Kechil.
Bt. Timah Post Office

And of course, it's not there anymore. This is near the junction of Upper Bt. Timah Road and Jalan Jurong Kechil.

 Or what the elder folk still refer to as 7th Mile (Chit-gor).
Upper Bt. Timah Road

Or what the elder folk still refer to as "7th Mile" (Chit-gor).
We'd often come here for the food centre on the top floor.
Beauty World Shopping Centre

We'd often come here for the food centre on the top floor.

 The inside hasn't changed much. It's as if time stood still here. Totally retro.
Beauty World Shopping Centre

The inside hasn't changed much. It's as if time stood still here. Totally retro.

 When you're near the top of the escalators, it gets considerable warmer all of a sudden. The non air-conditioned part of the shopping centre's up there.
Beauty World Shopping Centre

When you're near the top of the escalators, it gets considerable warmer all of a sudden. The non air-conditioned part of the shopping centre's up there.
The non-airconditioned shopping deck. This shop has been there since the place came into existence (1986, I think?)
Beauty World Shopping Centre

The non-airconditioned shopping deck. This shop has been there since the place came into existence (1986, I think?)

 Yeah, we were here pretty often...
Beauty World food centre

Yeah, we were here pretty often...

 This is Bt. Timah Shopping Centre. But some of my friends called it Ugly World, and not just because it was beside Beautyworld. It was really dingy even then. The URA had plans to develop the stretch in front of these two shopping centres into a second Holland Village of sorts, with street cafes, etc. But it never materialised and the whole place looks very run-down now.
"Ugly World"

This is Bt. Timah Shopping Centre. But some of my friends called it "Ugly World", and not just because it was beside Beautyworld. It was really dingy even then. The URA had plans to develop the stretch in front of these two shopping centres into a "second Holland Village" of sorts, with street cafes, etc. But it never materialised and the whole place looks very run-down now.
Cross over for great prata.
"Ugly World" - overhead bridge

Cross over for great prata.

 This is where I bought my first pirated PC game CD-ROM. And the game was Crusader: No Remorse, and isometric-view shooter that kicked ass in 1995. Then there was the Gala cinema at the top floor, which I remember watching Commando (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in 1985. That was the first time in my life I heard the word fuck uttered on the big screen. I thought that was hilarious.
"Ugly World"

This is where I bought my first pirated PC game CD-ROM. And the game was "Crusader: No Remorse", and isometric-view shooter that kicked ass in 1995. Then there was the Gala cinema at the top floor, which I remember watching "Commando" (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in 1985. That was the first time in my life I heard the word "fuck" uttered on the big screen. I thought that was hilarious.

 View of the 7th-Mile area, with Bt. Timah Hill in the background.
Bt. Timah Hill

View of the 7th-Mile area, with Bt. Timah Hill in the background.
Jalan Jurong Kechil, with Bt. Batok in the background.
Bt. Batok

Jalan Jurong Kechil, with Bt. Batok in the background.
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Guest 15-Jan-2015 02:41
Thanks for posting these. I was at Swiss Cottage in 1978-79 when it was serving as a Pre U holding centre back in the days when there were not enough JCs. I loved it so much that I decided to stay there for my Pre U even though I could have gone to a JC after the "first three months".

We had a creepy incident when we had an overnight class camp; we went on a night walk to the primary school up the hill. We were 10 when we left for the walk. When the team leader counted heads before making our way back, he counted 11. He was smart enough though not to count out the number 11, so as not to alarm the rest but those of us there who realised it were very uncomfortable. When we got back down the slope to the secondary school, we counted heads again, and it was now 10.
David 12-Jan-2009 03:59
Ah!!! the memories!!! Water bombs during ECA camps, crazy prep for speech day performances, playing chatek before classes, basketball after classes, ECA room hangouts, playing RPG's in school & @ Serene Centre, super juicy Texas Fried Chicken, renting Sega/PC-engine/NeoGeo consoles at Serene/Crown/BktTimah Shopping Centre, nice Mr Johari, nice Mr Saifudin, scary but kind Mrs Eli Koh, body builder Mr. Theng, enjoying the company of the final cohort of Swiss Cottage pre-U students.. shiok lah.. class of 94.
Su Yi 18-Jun-2008 13:02
find it so cool that i actually recognise what you said. haha. i grew up in chit-gor since birth til 4 yrs old. n even after tt, i travelled thru bukit timah road almost on a wkly basis til 98. so i could remember all the things u mentioned. truly a trip down memory lane for me.

beauty world n "ugly world" were my playgrounds. there used to be a restaurant in "ugly world" called "the Ship". dunno when it shifted. but i think it's in lido now (as in not sure if it's the same "the Ship"). anyway, that was my 1st restaurant, memorable.

there was a KFC at bukit timah plaza, where we ate with paper plates n METAL knives n forks, high class xia. ha. n YES, strawberry shortcake!! oh manz..... the BIG pink hat. y dosen anyone wonder y human can pop out of cupcakes?? hahahahaha........
Damit 06-Dec-2006 14:51
I was an ex-student of SCPS from 1990 to 1993, and so many of your pictures are so familiar to me. I remember how much of a big thing it was when the 67 was introduced and it went past there, as well as my experiences in being late to school (:P) and going to Far East Plaza after lessons finished to hang out.

The gate from Whitley Road was, if I remember correctly, closed some time in 1992 or 1993, and in any case the field had become so waterlogged/muddy, especially when it rained, that no one really went that way any more.
Joanne 06-Aug-2006 13:10
Hi! I'm a current Swiss '06 here... I think this is so cool. I get to see the old premises of my secondary school with such a long history. Thanks for all these pictures you've taken. It's such a great insight into which was such, and would be, wonderful memory for all us Swiss-ians. Thanks again!
Huai Chien 31-Aug-2005 11:23
Ex-Swiss here 89-92. The original A&W was outside the old NUS/NIE/SMU campus straddling the canal and beside the nurseries before they widened it. Big deal eating there, fast food was an event then. There was this big robot mural on the wall beside the canteen. When Balestier Hill took over, they erased it!
Siau Yen 11-Aug-2005 09:04
WaffleTown has shifted to Balmoral Plaza... No more strawberry shortcakes...
Positive Image Photography30-Jul-2005 10:17
Texas Fried Chicken was there, but later closed down and A&W took over. And yes, there was Fitzpatrick's!
sandman 27-Jul-2005 15:42
hey man, dis d 1st time i checkin out ur site. wana tel u dat if i remember correctly, it was not A&W at crown centre. twas TEXAS FRIED CHICKEN.remember there was also Fitzpatricks on the top floor at bukit timah plaza? was just tellin me girl abt why we called bt timah shoppin centre, Ugly world. :0)
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