Singapore River

Before arrival of Stamford Raffles, Singapore is just a vague fishing village. 1819 marked the start of Singapore change when Stamford Raffles stepped his foot at Raffles Place and set up trading hub for the British East India Company. This is the time Singapore started to replace Melacca and Pulau Pinang as a trading port between Western and Eastern.

According to Raffles Town Plan of 1822, the south bank river was allocated for the commercial hub and finance sector, while Government sector located on the north bank river where most of the colonial buildings were built at that time.Due to the lack of manpowers, British East India Company has brought in a lot of contract workers called coolies from China and India.

The major ethnics of Chineses, Malays and Indians were allocated to their own enclaves. Chinese were settled at Chinatown area, the Malays and Arabs in Kampong Glam area and Indians in Chinatown area in initial stage and then move to Little India due to overcrowding condition in Chinatown.

Boat Quay was commercial and trading activities hub along the river during colonial period. Trading was carried on alongside of river at that time because cargo was only ship by bumboat and boat. There is no land transport and air transport during the period. This can show how prosper it is along the riverside during the period.

Boat Quay becomes overcrowded as the trading growing up and more migrants move in. Because lacking of land space, new warehouses were then built further up the river to Clarke Quay to support the growing trading activities. However, in the early 1970, container berths at Tanjong Pagar were opened by Singapore government to better allocate the resource and city planning. This has greatly affected the trading volume along the riverside. Trading activities gradually shifted to Tanjong Pagar.

Today Boat Quay and Clarke Quay are vibrant and hip places with the old shop houses that being used as warehouses and trading offices in the past converted into pubs and restaurants. When coming to night, Singaporean and foreigner flock to Boat Quay and Clarke Quay to celebrate their night there to socialize with friends, families and colleagues. Here is where local youngster and foreign professionals distress after long hours of working and spend their night.