Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Dr Loh Kah Seng traces a history of seven calamitous fires in urban kampongs before the 1961 Bukit Ho Swee inferno. These paved the way for emergency housing the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) built for fire victims in the 1950s. Such semi-permanent housing – many being 1-room flats with shared kitchens and toilets – has mostly been forgotten. But it was to play a key role after the disaster at Bukit Ho Swee.

00:00 Introduction

00:34 Recap

02:40 Seven Forgotten Fires

06:13 The Fire Risk

14:06 Bukit Ho Swee 1934

15:04 Kampong Bugis 1951

17:27 Geylang Fires 1953

19:09 Emergency Housing as Slums

20:33 Tiong Bahru 1955

22:02 Kampong Koo Chye 1958

26:04 Tiong Bahru 1959

31:38 Further Research

34:39 Outro

My book, Squatters to Citizens:

https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/squatters-into-citizens

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. This is Dr Loh KS, the people’s historian, and I speak to people on their memories of Singapore before it became a global city.

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Write to lkshis@gmail.com if you have any of these stories:

• Old places or kampongs.

• Communities – their way of life & culture.

• Childhood & schools.

• Work or business.

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