Katong and Joo Chiat - Joo Chiat, Telok Kurau, Siglap, Mountbaten and East Coast, intimately known to Singaporeans as Katong. It began in the 1820s when the British colonial government granted large plots of land to individual estate owners for development. Amongst the pioneer estate owners were wealthy European, Arab and Chinese merchants such as Thomas Dunman (Singapore's first Commissioner of Police).

19th-century Katong is often depicted as an idyllic sea-side retreat, where the rich and wealthy built grand villas and bungalows along the sandy beaches. Katong was also home to local communities living in humble attap-roofed kampungs, who depended on fishing and farming even up to the 1960s. After World War I, the growing prosperity of Malaya and Singapore attracted an influx of immigrants which led to the eastward expansion from the city centre.

Gradually, Katong was transformed into a permanent residential suburb for various communities, including the Eurasians and Peranakans. Built in the 1920s and 1930s, the distinctive shophouses along Joo Chiat Road remain a familiar and colourful icon today.

A major development was reclamation along the East Coast which started in 1966, where land was created for East Coast Park, the East Coast Parkway (ECP), etc. Today's Marine Parade Road marks where the shoreline used to be.

More information can also be found at Mr. Philip Chew blog.

Download the Peranakan Walk @ Katong walkabout guide here. The walk might be quite a distance for some, so if you cannot complete the walk, you can always come back again to complete it. Enjoy!