Siglap

The planning subzone area of Siglap, as defined by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), is confusingly and inaccurately referred to as the small strip of land between Victoria Junior College and Bedok South Avenue 1.

[1] Today the graves of Tok Lasam, his wife and his panglima (commander) can be found near Jalan Sempadan off Upper East Coast Road.

[1] There were also a small community of Japanese fishermen living in the area, although by the end of World War II (WWII) they had mostly vanished.

The area as well as along the wider East Coast Stretch saw machine gun pillbox being installed by the British in anticipation of a sea-bound attack by the Japanese that never materialise.

[3] At the end of the war many mass graves had been found in the area, one of such place was near the junction of Bedok South Avenue 1 and Upper East Coast Road.

Starting from the mid-1960s, the Government embarked on an ambitious land reclamation project that saw the coastline of the entire East Coast Region shift outwards.

[1] As a result, many villagers in the area could not depend on fishing as a form of livelihood and many eventually settled away or were relocated to the neighbouring estates.

The reclaimed land was then redeveloped with numerous high rise flats built and the East Coast Parkway was also constructed.

[1] The terrain of Siglap can be divided into two, the inland and the outer coastal areas, with the former considerably hilly while the latter because it had mostly been reclaimed generally flat.

The Wisma Mendaki Headquarters is another social facility located in the estate and serves the Malay community of the greater Geylang area too.

The historic site of Kubur Kassim (also known to contain Keramat Sheikh Ali), an old Malay Cemetery that is nestled in the heart of Siglap is the final resting place of many Muslims in the area in the past.

Several prominent people buried there include Dr Hafeezudin Sirajuddin Moonshi founder of the first Muslim Clinic in Singapore.

Siglap Districts Map
Comparison between Joo Chiat Constituency, which contains the Siglap Districts, and Siglap Constituency