Pagoda Street

Pagoda Street is a pedestrian mall in the heart of Singapore's Chinatown, lined with traditional heritage shophouses. The name comes from the Sri Mariamman Temple nearby, whose main gate carries an elaborately carved structure called a gopuram. You browse souvenir shops, antique furniture and cultural items between them.

The street's past was rougher than its shopfronts suggest. In the early nineteenth century it held opium dens and served as a hub for the coolie trade. It was also known as Kwong Hup Yuen Kai, Cantonese for the street of Kwong Hup Yuen, after a well-known coolie firm. Over time the trade gave way to retail and services, and the street joined the Chinatown Historic District, conserved for its cultural significance.

The Chinatown Heritage Centre occupies restored pre-war shophouses on the street and reopened in 2016 with new galleries and multimedia guides. Its exhibits trace life in Chinatown during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Among the market stalls, traditional trades survive: watch repairing and fortune telling. Where the street ends, two national monuments stand: the Jamae Mosque and the Sri Mariamman Temple, both gazetted in the 1970s.