Kreta Ayer Road, Singapore

Kreta Ayer Road, Singapore (29 July 2017)


Kreta Ayer Road is a minor road in the Chinatown neighbourhood of Outram, Singapore. It runs in a single direction from Neil Road to New Bridge Road/Eu Tong Sen Street, and is intersected by Keong Saik Road.

The name Kreta Ayer means "water cart" in Malay. It refers to bullock carts used to carry water. In our present age, where we tend to take piped water into every homes for granted, it is necessary to understand that in the past, before there was piped water, fresh water has to be delivered to homes by bullock carts. Kreta Ayer Road is where the bullock carts carrying water containers passed through on its way into the city. In this respect, Kreta Ayer Road played a similar rôle as Burmah Road in Penang.

For that reason, Kreta Ayer Road became known in Hokkien as 牛車水 (Taiji Romanisation: Goo3 Chia3 Cui4 , Church Romanisation: gû-chhia-chúi, Taiwanese Romanisation: gû-tshia-tsúi) meaning "water oxcart (road)".

In today's modern society we often forget how life was like in the early 19th century, when Kreta Ayer Road was laid out. At that time, there was no electricity or piped water. Battalions of bullock carts were used to bring fresh water to the houses in the Singapore township. Of course, much of the residential houses were thatched, with brick shophouses appearing only later on.

Kreta Ayer Road was a working class neighbourhood. From the late 19th century until the early part of the 20th century, it was the destination for earthy pleasures, as brothels and opium dens were the main commercial establishments at that time.

Map of Kreta Ayer Road, Singapore

Kreta Ayer Road road sign (29 July 2017)

Kreta Ayer Road Singapore on Google Street View

Kreta Ayer Road, Singapore (Mar 2022)

References

List of the Streets in Singapore; Discover Singapore

 Sights in Singapore

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

Streets of Singapore and Map of Singapore Streets

Singapore MRT and Map of Singapore MRT

Postal Districts of Singapore and Map of Singapore Postal Districts

Planning Areas of Singapore and Map of Singapore Planning Areas

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.