Waterloo Street

Waterloo Street (Chinese: 滑铁卢街) is a two-way street in downtown Singapore stretching from Rochor Road to Bras Basah Road. It passes through the planning areas of Rochor and Museum Planning Area.

The street was constructed in 1837 and was initially named Church Street after Thomas Church who became a resident councillor that same year. A survey of this street was done by J.T. Thomson, and it was very likely that he used Church's name for the street due to the close working relationship between the two of them. The street name was renamed to its present name by the Municipal Council in 1858 to commemorate the Duke of Wellington's victory over the French in 1815, which is the Battle of Waterloo. Formerly a one-way street, the street has been converted to two ways for a couple of years, and the northern end of the street has been converted into a pedestrian mall to ease the problem of traffic jams and the crowd at Kwan Im Thong Hood Co Temple in the past, especially during the weekends and public holidays. The street, which previously extended to Stamford Road, has been shortened after the construction of Singapore Management University's city campus and the MRT station.

Several well known landmarks include the well known Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, Maghain Aboth Synagogue, Sculpture Square and Sri Krishnan Temple. Maghain Aboth Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in Singapore and was built by the local Jewish community in 1878.

The Tamils call the street "krishmen kovil sadakku" or "Street of the Krishnan Temple", where the Sri Krishnan Temple is located next to the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple. The street is known as "mang ku lu chai tng koi" in Hokkien, which mean the street in Bencoolen where the vegetarian hall is. The Hokkiens and Teochews call it "si beh lo" that means "four horse carriages road" in English.

Landmarks

In order from Rochor Road to Bras Basah Road.

*OG Albert Complex
*The Bencoolen
*Fu Lu Shou Complex
*Albert Centre and Cheng Yan Court
*Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple
*Sri Krishnan Temple
*Fortune Centre
*Sculpture Square (Former Middle Road Church)
*Maghain Aboth Synagogue
*Singapore Art Museum
*Plaza by the Park

References

* Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2004), "Toponymics — A Study of Singapore's Street Names", Easter University Press.