Preservation vs Progress

With the omnipresent evidence of advancing infrastructure, thoughts turn to the short, squat properties of the past. The heritage buildings.

141 Neil Road is an unassuming building nestled in a row of terrace houses. From the footpath, the crumbling façade is hidden by a tall, slatted fence. If you take a step back and crane your neck, the second storey pokes out with defiantly shuttered windows and ornate plasters designs which are creaking and cracking.

Stepping through, you’re greeted by terracotta floor tiles, and plaster walls skirted in floral painted tiles. The original features and elaborate details are foggy with over a century of use and disuse. They’re waiting to be polished to a former glory - a raw diamond to be cut to show its’ brilliance.

The shophouses’ 1880’s time of birth is very rare for Singapore.

Barely 6.9 metres wide, it has a footprint of just 297 metres squared.

“It's a small building, it's not a grand building, only two and a half stories,” says Dr Nikhil Joshi. “It's [worth] nine million dollars.”

But to Dr Joshi,

this specific shophouse is worth much more than its land value for developers. It’s located in the Blair Plains Conservation area.

In 1986 the Urban Redevelopment Authority launched its Conservation Master Plan, earmarking six historical sites for conservation, including Little India and Chinatown. This marked a shift of government priorities, pushing preservation to the forefront, alongside redevelopment.