These old photos of Blk 9 (above) and Blk 7 (below) at Jalan Bukit Ho Swee were taken over 50 years ago by the Facebook friends and shared on this blog with thanks and gratitude.
What is the purpose of talking about the boring old days of Bukit Ho Swee? Several of my old friends asked me.
Like Alice in Wonderland, we have many things in life to learn, to experience, to grow at every stage of our life to improve ourselves to become a better different person.
Here then, are the reasons to blog on thought moments to those friends who are interested to know because they have never been born and grown up in Bukit Ho Swee.
Blk 9, Jalan Bukit Ho Swee
After the Bukit Ho Swee fire on 25 May, 1961, my family and I were allocated 2-room HDB rented flat at Margaret Drive temporarily while the 1-room “emergency flats” at Jalan Bukit Ho Swee for the fire victims were being built. It took the Jalan Bukit Ho Swee housing estate 9 months to construct and completed in 1962.
There were 5 blocks under Phase I of the public housing program by HDB at Jalan Bukit Ho Swee, Blk 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. The slab blocks of these buildings with simple, similar designs with nothing fanciful or ergonomic.
For the residents to live for the first time in their lives in HDB flats since they lived at the former Bukit Ho Swee kampong. The new homes had changed their lifestyles and the environment for everyone.
This is another photo of Blk 9, Jalan Bukit Ho Swee taken from Boon Tiong Road and there was a long and steep staircase to lead to Tiong Bahru Road. There was another shorter staircase from Blk 9 to Blk 7. Blk 9 was elevated and higher ground than the other blocks.
Blog with Quotes
As I grow older, I think I have become more like my late father’s character … a simple man with few words … talk less than whatever necessary, avoid noisy people with loud voices to harm my ears.
Maybe because I am getting too lazy to think and avoid too wordy blogs to post.
When asked about my childhood days experiences in Jalan Bukit Ho Swee, a few of the following meaningful favorite quotes learned from my thoughtmoments.
I mentioned that my heritage blogs for selective memories, mostly in the first person from personal experiences and there are many interesting, touching stories and collective memories by former residents of Bukit Ho Swee kampong shared in various medias and publications. Jalan Bukit Ho Swee today is vastly changed and different for those who lived there at various times over 50 years ago.
In 2013, I revisited Jalan Bukit Ho Swee and posted a blog here .
Last Days of the 1-Room “emergency flats” at Jalan Bukit Ho Swee
One of the first major tasks of the Housing Board in the early 1960s was building large numbers of flats quickly and at minimum cost to meet the urgent housing needs of Singaporeans then.
This gave rise to 19,400 one-room emergency units, built mainly to house the lower-income families and to ease the slum dwellers out of their deplorable housing environment.
As Singapore became more affluent and people’s expectations rose, most of these cubicles have outgrown the purpose for which they were built.
Today, residents of Singapore’s public housing estate are no longer concerned with basic shelter and essential services, but with the quality of building workmanship and estates’ services.
No longer are people waiting for their first home but for the opportunity to upgrade to better flats.
As residents upgrade themselves by moving into larger flats, the one-room emergency flats are being phased out.
Since 1979, the board has demolished 16,464 of the 80,500 one-room flats so that bigger and better flats could take their place. Seventy per cent of these were emergency units.
Those which were not “beyond redemption” were converted to bigger units. These included 3000 emergency flats.
The bulk of these one-room rental units are in “ageing” estates such as Alexandra Hill, Redhill, Bukit Ho Swee, Macpherson and Kampong Tiong Bahru.
Source: The Straits Times, 29 November, 1985
Related blogs about Bukit Ho Swee
The Making of Bukit Ho Swee here , What Bukit Ho Swee was like before the fire here , and Drama Box project in 2014 here .
In 2015, when founder Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew passed away, an article from The Straits Times was published here as a tribute to Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew with a villager in the kampong in 1959. (Photo credit: AsiaOne).
Thought Moments 
Hi James, thank you for bringing back the memories. My late maternal uncle used to stay in a similar block in Tiong Bahru Road. He was a barber in his younger days and a school watchman in his later years.
Thank you for sharing the collective memories of Jalan Bukit Ho Swee, Victor. I used to roam around Tiong Bahru areas during my childhood days too: )
Hi James,thank you for sharing those wonderful old pictures of Bukit Ho Swee. Excellent.
It is my pleasure, Alison. Thank you for sharing memories of Bukit Ho Swee and Beo Crescent Food Centre at the Drama Box events to the participants. Much appreciated.
I used to live in havelock road block 29…I remember opposite that block, there were old building I think 3-4 storeys high with shops such as charcoal wholesaler. .anyone have pictures of those buildings ?