Holland Village

Popularly called “Holland V”, many Westerners moving to Singapore are attracted to the village’s large supermarket and long rows of shophouses to dine, drink, and chill out in. Despite its conspicuous Dutch-style windmill and expatriate population, Holland Village in Singapore has no origins with the Holland region of the Netherlands. You won’t see anybody wearing wooden shoes and the only tulips are in the nearby Botanic Garden. Holland Village in fact got its name from Hugh Holland, an architect and early resident of Singapore.

Originally home to plantation estates surrounded by jungle, the area at the turn of the 20th century developed along with Orchard Road. The first expansion of its expatriate population was in the 1930s due to the British Army Barracks nearby, with the village catering to the retail and recreation needs of the British soldiers and their families. Today its reputation as an expatriate enclave lives on.