Tanjong Rhu

SG neighbourhood
englishname=Tanjong Rhu
chinesename=丹戎禺
poj=
pengim=
pinyin=Dānróng Yú
malayname=Tanjong Rhu
tamilname=

Tanjong Rhu is a residential neighbourhood in Kallang in the south-eastern part of Singapore.

Etymology

"Tanjong Rhu" is an old place name in Singapore that appeared in de Erédia's 1604 "Map of Singapore", referred as "Tanjon R".

This area was formerly known as Sandy Point. The Malay name comes from the casuarina trees, referred to in Malay as "pokok rhu", where "ru" is the "casuarina littoria", that grew along the beach. It is known as "sha tsui" in Cantonese, which means "sand spit".

History

Tanjong Rhu has been associated with ship building and repairing from the early days. Captain Flint, a harbour master, started a boat building and repair company here in 1822. A Mr Tivendale had his shipyard here in the 1860s.

As late as the 1980s and the early 1990s, the Tanjong Rhu area was an industrial area with shipyards. The water surrounding Tanjong Rhu was polluted with industrial and domestic waste, creating an extremely unpleasant environment. A massive relocation exercise was then undertaken by the Singapore Government to transform Tanjong Rhu into a high-end residential area. Reclamation of land along the Tanjong Rhu coast began as early as 1992. Private developers then started the new residential developments in Tanjong Rhu. Today, the shipyards have since been relocated elsewhere and condominiums have replaced them.

References

*Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2004), "Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names", Eastern University Press, ISBN 981-210-364-3

External links

* [http://www.ura.gov.sg/skyline/skyline02/skyline02-04/text/changingfaces1.html The Changing Faces of Singapore - Tanjong Rhu]