Beauty World Market

History

• 1800s: Bukit Timah Village was formed by the early Chinese Gambier and Pepper Planters and farmers. Another name of the village was “Beh Chia Loh Boey” which meant “terminal of the horse carriage way” in Hokkien. This was because, at that time, Bukit Timah Road ended at where the village was and beyond the village was the Bukit Timah Hill jungle.
• 1920s: An open-air market called Bukit Timah Market existed along Jalan Jurong Kechil. The market was mostly used by the rubber and pineapple plantation workers living in the village at that time.
• 1941: Japan invaded Singapore and the original site of the market was badly destroyed by bombing.
• 1942-1947: An amusement park called Tua Tong Ah was built by two Hokchia businessmen, Yuan and Yan at the destroyed site. It was a gambling center. The park was named after Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere propagated by Japanese invaders and hence, it was called “Tua Tong Ah” which means Greater East Asia in Hokkien. As initiated by Japanese, Tua Tong Ah was built as a gambling centre to reduce rapid inflation. The park had 20 gambling stalls, roughly a dozen coffee shops with "coffee girls", six general stores, a photo studio, a movie theatre, hawker centre, restaurant, dance hall and several wayang and getai stages.
• 1947: After the Japanese invasion, gambling was banned. Hence, the proprietor, Giam Kok Eng, converted the park to Beauty World Market in July.

• 1962: A new shopping area called Beauty World Town was built beside Beauty World Market.
• 1968: 140 hawkers at the Beauty World Market and Bukit Timah Village market registered to Hawkers Department of Ministry of the Environment to move to a new wet market&hawker centre called Bukit Timah Food Center with more hygienic environment. It was located beside the old Bukit Timah Market and it still exists now. Bukit Timah village has a population size of around 4,500 and had about 500 houses. The villagers were mostly Chinese shop owners and laborers.
• 1970s: Beauty World stalls kept catching fire due to complex electricity cables all tangled around the stores.
• End of the 1980s: Both Beauty World Market and Town closed down due to the frequent fire outbreaks. Many stalls were relocated to Bukit Timah Shopping Centre and Beauty World Centre located across Upper Bukit Timah Road.
• 1990s: Two car parks occupied part of the original site of Beauty World Market and Town.
• 2015: Beauty World MRT station opened and also occupied part of the original site of Beauty World Market and Town.

  Architectural Features of Stalls in Beauty World Market and Town

• Beauty World Market: Temporary stalls were made of zinc or attap shacks. There were stall canvases for the shops to provide shade and to prevent rain from getting onto the displayed items.
• Beauty World Town: Stalls in Beauty World Town also had zinc roof. From various old photos of Beauty World Town, it could be seen that many shops had doors made of metal wire or wood to keep the shop safe at night. Each shop had a name panel pasted at the top center too.