Beauty World MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit station on the Downtown Line in Bukit Timah, Singapore. Located along Upper Bukit Timah Road, this station took its name from the historic Beauty World, an amusement park and market that once stood in the vicinity. Beauty World station primarily serves the residential estates along Jalan Jurong Kechil and Toh Yi Drive, as well as Beauty World Centre, Beauty World Plaza and Bukit Timah Shopping Centre. It is also within walking distances to Ngee Ann Polytechnic. The section of tracks between this station and Hillview MRT station is the longest between any two MRT stations on the Downtown Line till 2025. There are basic structural provisions for a possible future station along this section of tracks near Hume Avenue. Hume MRT station is confirmed on 7 March 2019 and is to be operational by 2025.
History
The Land Transport Authority has awarded the contract for the construction of Beauty World station and associated tunnels to McConnell Dowell S.E.A. Pte Ltd on 25 March 2009, valued at S$339,879,555.00. Tunnelling works began on 8 June 2011. Two tunnel boring machines — which were named Athena and Artemis, after the Greek goddesses by students of the nearby Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School — tunnelled the 1 km stretch from Beauty World to King Albert Park. The section of track between Hillview and Beauty World is the longest on the Downtown Line. Part of the construction process was shown on an episode of that year's infotainment programme Behind Every Job 2 on Mediacorp Channel 8.
Etymology
The original name for "Beauty World" referred to an amusement park in the area. At that time, amusement parks were called "worlds": the others included Gay World, Great World, which Great World City now occupies and New World. The amusement park was subsequently converted to a market after the end of World War II, and called Beauty World Market. However, fire hazards led to the subsequent demolition of the park in the 1980s. The station name was also named after the Beauty World Centre. Other names such as Anak Bukit and Bukit Timah Market were considered before Beauty World was selected.
Art in Transit
"Asemic Lines" by Boedi Widjaja is an artwork that presents the multi-cultural mix of language and invites viewers' aesthetic intuition to 'hover' between reading and looking.
