Boat Quay

Boat Quay (pronounced key) is a funky hodgepodge of laid-back pubs and restaurants nestled alongside the Singapore River at the foot of the city-state’s tallest skyscrapers. A very different scene greeted the merchants who sailed up this same river 150 years ago. The many new Chinese immigrants who lived and worked here knew the quay as 不夜天 (bù yè tiān), or place of ceaseless activity.

In the 1860s, three quarters of the shipping business went through Boat Quay. The shape of the river at this bend resembled that of the belly of a carp fish – which in Chinese tradition is where good fortune resides. A chaotic orchestra emerged between the moored bumboats and the sun-tanned coolies who would carry over springy gangplanks gunny sacks filled with everything from rice, silk, opium, spices and coffee. Walking up the river you would have seen shipping offices, supply shops and warehouses housed in many of the same buildings you see today.

By 1983, the cargo passing through Singapore had moved to the new high-tech, highly-mechanized container terminal at Pasir Panjong. Boat Quay ceased being the heart of entrepot trade in the city-state and quieted down as the area faced pollution and squatters. The government embarked on a massive clean up project of quays along the river in the ’70s and ’80s and in 1989 the Urban Redevelopment Authority designated Boat Quay for conservation. The role of Boat Quay shifted from accommodating trade to accommodating tourism. Adaptive re-use of the shophouses brought restaurants, bars, and small shops in contrast the blandness of the Central Business District right next door. The road along the river has become a pedestrian mall and although not the site of hectic maritime commerce Boat Quay retains being one of the most expensive and economically important pieces of land in Singapore.