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'Under' our Bedok kampong house

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What sat beneath a kampong house? For many of us who grew up in these raised wooden ‑ planked homes, that shaded under ‑ floor space became our own version of an attic - a cool, half ‑ lit world where old furniture, tools and forgotten belongings quietly settled over the years. In this 1961 photograph of the back of our former Bedok kampong house (614 ‑ 3, later 10J Bedok Road), you can see how the timber structure rested on a concrete platform, creating a natural storage space beneath it. Within that low ‑ slung area, a narrow passageway allowed the adults to duck ‑ walk their way to whatever they needed - but for us little boys, it became a perfect looping tricycle track. We pedalled round and round under the beams until the day we finally grew too tall to fit. By around 1967, our uncle - ever the skilled carpenter - enclosed a small section facing the front. That tiny nook became our toddler cousin’s playroom, and for us older boys, a cherished corner to play ‘house’ long before...
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A Magical Walk at Bedok Beach, 1963

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Sometimes an ordinary evening walk along Bedok beach in 1963 could turn quietly magical. That was how Ann Froud - out with her little dog - found herself greeted by children from the nearby kampong, their faces bright with curiosity as they reached out to meet their new four-legged friend. Behind them stood the familiar silhouettes of the government holiday bungalows, tall and reassuring. Ann had arrived in Singapore earlier that year with her RAF husband, settling into her home tucked between the Bedok Rest House and the three storey sa-chan-lau, reached by a small side lane leading down from Bedok Corner. She would spend more than three years there, gathering a treasury of memories. She often recalled how “the people from the local shops and the kampong were all so kind and friendly towards me.” Even now, decades later, she remembers the comforting soundtrack of that place: the rhythmic click clack of mahjong tiles drifting from a neighbour’s home, and the gentle call to prayer r...
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The Buddhist temple along Upper East Coast Road

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In the early months of 1968, the Munros took a leisurely stroll down Upper East Coast Road from their home at Bedok Corner, the familiar Sa‑chan‑lau three‑storey building. Vic Munro, armed with his new camera, captured the sights of the day - moments Jackie would later recall with fond clarity. It was the same day they met up with their wedding best man, who had flown in from the UK as part of the RAF’s Vulcan aircraft support team. The Vulcan was, of course, the very aircraft on which Vic had been working when the couple first met. Among the photographs taken on that walk was this striking image of the Yuan Meng Shih Buddhist Temple (Yuan Ming Si / 圓明寺 ) at 631 Upper East Coast Road. A check with the temple authorities revealed that it was built around 1964, when the sea still lapped directly across the road - long before land reclamation reshaped the coastline. They also shared that the temple has undergone two major renovations over the decades, meaning its original façade has ch...
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Bedok Girls' School - and their distinctive pinafore uniforms

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Here is our cousin in 1960, ten years old and in Primary 4, standing with her classmates just outside their classroom at Bedok Girls’ School. The scene feels unmistakably festive - each girl holding a small Singapore flag -  yet we wonder what the exact occasion was. It could not have been National Day as we know it today; that celebration did not yet exist. And it was only the year before, on 3 December 1959, that Singapore officially adopted its state flag, coat of arms, and national anthem Majulah Singapura , along with our first Yang di-Pertuan Negara, Yusof Ishak, who would later become our first President. What makes this photograph especially distinctive, preserved here in its original black‑and‑white, are the girls’ pinafore uniforms. Guided by recollections by our cousin and Saadiah Ahmad, who also provided the light blue gingham swatch for this background template, we now know how memorable and iconic those uniforms were to the students who wore them.
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35M Jalan Greja - the home of Mdm Salmah and her family

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Our Bedok kampong was more than just the clusters of homes near the coastal front of Bedok Laut and the surrounding areas. It also stretched further along Bedok Road, encompassing the kampong homes whose addresses bore the name Jalan Greja. From Jalan Greja to Bedok Laut, and even across the river to Pandang Terbakar (later renamed Siak Kuan Road) and beyond, the homes were linked by a network of back-lane pathways, making it easy to move fluidly from one house to another. One such home was that of Mdm Salmah and her family at 35M Jalan Greja. Some may remember them from an earlier post featuring a photograph by Mrs Jackie Munro. In a heartwarming way, both families were recently reunited - after nearly 60 years apart. Those connections were no accident. They were made possible through the tireless and generous spirit of Mdm Salmah. As an amah working in neighbouring homes - including that of the Munros - she built friendships that stood the test of time. Yet, even with the weight ...
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Crossing by ferry to Penang Island

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Our father sometimes took a break from his work as a radio technician at Radio Malaya (pre Radio Television Singapore but at Caldecott Hill still) to travel north to the Malayan peninsula for holidays with friends and relatives. In 1955, 1957, and again in 1973 - when he brought the whole family along - the journey to Penang by ferry was especially magical. On a recent trip to Penang last month, I found myself aboard a similar ferry. As we left Butterworth and approached George Town, I imagined our late father making that crossing decades ago - the wind in his face, taking in the moment, the anticipation of arrival. Wanting to capture that feeling, here is a short clip with photographs from those years to share – and thinking about Dad still.
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Bedok Beach coastline - a view from 1960

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We recently uncovered this rare 1960 photograph from our family archives, now gently enhanced with AI. It captures a stretch of Bedok Beach, further up from the Bedok Rest House and just beyond the Sultan of Pahang’s former holiday home - a short walk from our Bedok kampong house. Taken at low tide, the image shows washed‑up flotsam along the right edge of the frame. A fenced compound visible here once housed the police quarters. Continuing in the direction of Sungei Bedok (Bedok River, now a canal), we see a row of standalone colonial‑era government bungalows. A recent chat with our former neighbour, Mr Ronald Ho, revealed that there were six of these bungalows in total. Each featured a kitchen on the ground floor, with stairs leading up to the living room and bedroom. Painted in the classic black and white, these wooden structures sat on cement floors.  Beyond them, a lush fringe of coconut palms lined the shoreline, many of their crowns leaning seaward.
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