Serangoon Gardens at dusk

Serangoon Gardens Estate is a residential estate in Singapore. The estate is well known for its food centres, tuition centers, presence of trend setters, and the food and beverage outlets.

[edit] History

Serangoon Gardens is one of the oldest estates in the island, and was built in the 1950s. The estate was originally built to house the British soldiers based in Singapore. The roads in the area are named after British road names. In the 1970s, when the British military left Singapore in 1971, Serangoon Gardens was known as an estate for the middle class.

The estate was upgraded in 2001 as part of the Singapore Government's plan to spruce up the older private housing estates in Singapore. Open roadside drains were covered up and the central area was spruced up. It has new streetlights and road signs, and the estate's parks were also upgraded.

Serangoon Garden Circus was used as one of the locations for the country-wide millennium celebrations.

[edit] Electoral Boundaries

Until 1988, Serangoon Gardens was a single seat constituency. When the Group Representative Constituency was introduced, Serangoon Gardens became part of the GRC. Since then, it is part of the Marine Parade GRC. In the 2006 Electoral Boundaries, it transferred to Aljunied GRC. This was purportedly done to split up the famously Opposition-voting estate.

[edit] Attractions

The estate's central area is where the food and beverage outlets and tuition centres are located. At the centre of the estate is a circus known as Serangoon Garden Circus. In the vicinity, there are cafés, restaurants, coffee shops, fast food restaurants, a market, two hawker centres, a post office, a police post, 8 tuition centers and some shops. All the roads radiate around the circus, and the houses are located within walking distance. The estate has a tennis and squash centre at Burghley Drive. At Kensington Park Road, there is a country club known as Serangoon Gardens Country Club which has the very popular Jumbo seafood restaurant.

[edit] Food and Beverage

There are two hawker centres and a wet market. One which is, Serangoon Gardens Market and Food Centre and another which is Chomp Chomp Food Centre. The Serangoon Gardens food centre sells food like nasi lemak, Nonya kueh, Char Kway Teow, noodles and also houses a number of stores from the now defunct Taman Serasi food centre. Another food centre, which is known as "Chomp Chomp" is 200 m from the former. Chomp Chomp was simply known as Serangoon Gardens food centre when it opened in 1972. The hawkers nicknamed the place "Chomp Chomp", and since then it is known as Chomp Chomp Food Centre. The food centre is well known for its carrot cake (chai tow kway), Hokkien mee, ice kachang, satay, seafood and satay beehoon.

Since the 1990s, restaurants and cafés serve food such as Japanese food, desserts, Russian cuisine and Western cuisine have opened. Ice-cream parlours have opened and bistros recently sprung up. The Paramount Building that used to house Cafe Cartel, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Friends have since been torn down to be rebuilt into a new mall.

Some other notable eateries are Pow Sing Hainanese Chicken Rice and Nonya Food Restaurant, Cafe Cartel, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Country Manna Restaurant and Bosch Steakhouse.

[edit] Amenities

The rows of shophouses along Kensington Park Road, Serangoon Garden Way and Maju Avenue host a variety of corner coffeeshops, a McDonalds, convenience stores, bank branches, pet shops, hair saloons, clinics, karaoke lounges, cafes and bars to name a few. There is even a Chinese medical hall specialising in traditional Chinese medicine. Situated behind Maju Avenue is Paramount Building which was developed as Serangoon Garden Village in 2001. It hosts a supermarket on the ground floor and a tuition centre on the second floor. In Nov 2007, Cold Storage also opened a Specialty store in the area, catering to the increasing number of expatriates now living in the area. On the 2nd Oct 09, NTUC Fairprice opened to accommodate for the residents in Serangoon Garden.

[edit] Tuition Haven

Serangoon gardens is also fast becoming a tuition agency haven for students. With 8 tuition centres operating in that small area e.g Ace Scorers Learning Centre, Extra Edge, Clear mind, Kipmcgrath, Novel, Hans Language and so on, parents and students are spoilt for choice.

[edit] Public Transport

The estate is served by public bus services. In addition, on weekday mornings from 7.30am to 9am, licensed private bus operators operate an express service plying between Serangoon Gardens and the city centre. The nearest MRT station is Serangoon MRT Station on the North East and Circle lines at Upper Serangoon Road.

[edit] Private Transport

There is only 1 main road leading into the estate. Several upgrades to the road planning have been made to ensure smooth traffic flow in and out of the area. For example, the market carpark only goes 1-way instead of both ways previously (Drivers exit the carpark at the back). The popularity of the food in Serangoon Gardens has drawn both large lunch and dinner crowds. This makes parking space very difficult to find during lunch and dinner times as well as makes the road congested. It is said that the residents are so used to the crowds that only non-residents would honk their car horns in frustration of the slow traffic.

[edit] Parking Summons

The estate used to be free from traffic congestion problems, until recently, people have been parking illegally along Kensington Park Road. Since then, Traffic Wardens has been issuing fines on a regular basis.

People who visited this town could easily find a parking lot at the Serangoon Garden Market, prior to the 2002 upgrading.

After the upgrading, Traffic Wardens have been frequenting the estate more often. Visitors have opted to park their vehicles at smaller roads surrounding the residences due to the free parking. Residences from neighboring public housing estates have also taken advangate of Serangoon Garden's smaller roads's free parking.

In response to the complaints from people living in the estate, more Traffic Wardens have arrived since then. The Serangoon Gardens Neighbourhood Police is also capable of issuing summons for traffic related violations.

[edit] Security

The area's popularity has also made it a popular location for counter-terrorism activities, with regular armed patrols by the Singapore Police Force's Police Tactical Unit. On 15 January 2006, a public emergency drill, the Serangoon Emergency and Preparedness Day 2006, was conducted in the estate near the Chomp Chomp Food Centre. The exercise involved a simulated vehicular explosion and casualties, the closure of roads and diversion of traffic, and casualty treatment and evacuation.^[1]

[edit] See also

• Lorong Chuan

[edit] References

1. ^ Wong Siew Ying (15 January 2006). "Emergency exercises held at Serangoon Garden, Bedok North". Channel NewsAsia. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/188339/1/.html. 

[edit] Bus Routes

Service 317 plies the Serangoon Garden Estate internally. The rest ply Serangoon Garden Circus