[[File:Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Singapore (2025) – img 01.jpg|thumb|right|Bukit Timah Shopping Centre in 2025.]]
[[File:Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Singapore (2025) – img 01.jpg|thumb|right|Bukit Timah Shopping Centre in 2025.]]
”’Bukit Timah Shopping Centre”’ is a mixed-use development at the junction of Upper Bukit Timah Road and Jalan Anak Bukit in [[Bukit Timah|Bukit Timah, Singapore]]. Completed in the late 1970s, …
”’Bukit Timah Shopping Centre”’ is a mixed-use development at the junction of Upper Bukit Timah Road and Jalan Anak Bukit in [[Bukit Timah|Bukit Timah, Singapore]]. Completed in the late 1970s, …
==History==
==History==
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Bukit Timah Shopping Centre is a mixed-use development at the junction of Upper Bukit Timah Road and Jalan Anak Bukit in Bukit Timah, Singapore. Completed in the late 1970s, it comprised an eight-storey retail podium below a 14-storey tower block which was to house both apartments and offices. …
Planning and construction
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Loong & Wing Holdings, or simply L & W Holdings, announced in April 1975 that they planned to build a housing and shopping complex on the 0.8 hectare site at the junction of Upper Bukit Timah Road and Jalan Anak Bukit. At 22-storeys, the complex was to be the “first high-rise building in the area.”[1] The following month, the company announced that the Ministry of National Development had given them the go-ahead to start work on the project. Work on the complex started the same month the project was approved. It was then estimated that it would cost over $30 million and the complex was expected to be ready by 1978.[2] Construction took place in two phases,[2] with work on the retail podium starting before work on the tower.[3] In July 1978, the residential tower was scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.[4] By May 1979, the completion date had been shifted to the end of that year instead.[3]
The complex was one of three upcoming major housing and shopping complexes in the area announced in that period, alongside Bukit Timah Plaza and Beauty Park, the latter of which was a $40 million project by the developers of People’s Park Complex. The area, which had around 700,000 residents, was then served by the Beauty World Market and Beauty World Town, though both of these were to be torn down soon.[5] Despite the competition with each other, all three malls were expected to “enjoy the unchallengeable advantage of offering suburban shopping unhampered by travelling restrictions.” They were also described in the New Nation as “pioneers of intensive property development outside the main commercial districts”, which predicted that they would be “closely watched” as they had the potential to “herald a new era of genuine decentralisation in more ways than one” for the country.[6] However, shortly after this, the Beauty Park project was cancelled as it stood in the way of the still-under-construction Pan Island Expressway.[7] L & W Holdings claimed in that year that they did not believe that there would be direct competition between the complex and Bukit Timah Plaza as there was a large enough demand for two shopping complexes in the area.[4]
Designed by Chee Soon Wah Chartered Architects,[1] who had previously worked on the Textile Centre,[4] the complex was to comprise a tower resting atop an retail podium and a multi-storey carpark.[2] Due to the shape of the lot, the complex was planned in a “spearhead” form, though it was of an otherwise typical design for such a complex in the country in that period.[3] The design “incorporated the concept of ‘staggering the void’ to create an impression of an abundance of space.”[4] The eight-storey retail podium, which was to have two basement floors, was to have 400 retail units on its upper seven floors, while the bottom three floors would be occupied entirely by an emporium save for two banks on the first storey. The fourth storey was to have a 850-seat cinema. The podium was to be fully air-conditioned, serviced 12 escalators, three lifts and several staircases,[2] and it was also to be connected to the other side of Upper Bukit Timah Road to what was then Beauty World Town via a covered pedestrian overhead bridge. It was to feature projecting windows running along its façade.[2][3] Due to the complex’s shape, the podium had several less attractive “tucked-away” units.[3]
The 14-storey tower was initially to house 50 units, which were to be occupied by offices and luxury apartments.[2]
The retail podium was ready for occupation by April 1978, and was officially opened with 320 retail units around October and November,[4] though by May of the following year there were still some “finishing touches” left for the podium. The three-storey emporium, an outlet of Emporium Holdings, was the largest tenant of the complex. It was the 22th outlet for the emporium, which was then the largest chain of department stores in the country.[3] The OCBC Bank‘s 18th full-service branch opened on the ground floor on 29 April,[8] with the other bank on that floor being a branch of the Overseas Union Bank. The 868-seat Gala Theatre cinema, a joint venture between L & W Holdings and the cinema operator Cathay Organisation, occupied the third to fifth floors, while a 50-stall hawker centre was located in the basement. There was also a Cold Storage in the podium.[4] The fourth floor had a restaurant and a cafeteria. Also completed was the carpark, which had a capacity for 400 vehicles. By May 1979, most of the podium’s units had been rented out, with the remaining units being those that were out of the way.[3]
The residential tower had 44 units, each roughly 140 sq m, which could be used as apartments or offices or both.[4]
Decline and MRT station
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By April 2002, the retail podium was reportedly “dead” outside of the lunch rush. Businesses such as maid agencies, dentists, clinics and beauty salons had begun to pop up at the complex, as well as in surrounding shopping centres such as the neighbouring Beauty World Plaza and Beauty World Centre. This was partially attributed to the complex’s age, as well as the rerouting of nearby bus routes. The URA announced that it planned to rejuvenate the area.[9] The authority claimed that it sought to make the district, known as Anak Bukit, “the next mini-Orchard Road or Holland Village.” However, it was announced in March 2004 that the URA had scrapped the plan.[10] In August 2011, Melissa Kok of The Business Times reported that there had a “Korea Town” had sprung up in the area, including at the complex, as a result of several South Koreans moving into the area, as well as the Singapore Korean International School moving into the neighbourhood.[11]
In December 2015, the Beauty World MRT station opened in front of Beauty World Centre and Beauty World Plaza, which were next to the complex.[12] It was initially expected that the station would “breathe new life” into the mall,[13] However, the station’s opening did not ultimately have a lasting, significant effect on the mall.[12]
Ong Sor Fern of The Straits Times reported in February 2022 that the mall was “cluttered with tuition centres and maid agencies.”[12]
