Eu Tong Sen Street

Eu Tong Sen Street (Chinese: 余东璇街) is a one-way road located in the central part of Singapore in the planning areas of Outram, Singapore River and Bukit Merah. The road starts at the junction of Hospital Drive, Kampong Bahru Road and New Bridge Road, and ends at the junction of Hill Street, North Boat Quay and New Bridge Road after crossing the Coleman Bridge.

It is named after a wealthy Chinese tycoon Eu Tong Sen and it starts at the junction of Neil Road and Jalan Bukit Merah. It is one of the major roads in Chinatown with a number of modern Chinatown landmarks such as the Eu Tong Sen Street Police Station, People's Park Complex, The Majestic and Pearl's Centre located on this street. During Chinese New Year and Mid Autumn Festival, the street is the major area for the lightup and the Chinese New Year countdown party, lighting up ceremonies for the festivals are always held on this road.

Etymology and history

Eu Tong Sen Street is named after the tycoon, Eu Tong Sen who was a miner, rubber estate and a property owner. He was one of the richest men in Malaya and Singapore, and was born in Penang, Malaya in 1877. He set up a bank known as Lee Wah Bank which catered to the Cantonese, but was merged with the United Overseas Bank due to financial issues.

The road was formerly part of the expunged Wayang Street, and it received its present name in 1919 as he rebuilt the street and acquired two Chinese opera theatres, known as "Heng Seng Peng" and "Heng Wai Sun". These theatres now stand on the site of People's Park Complex. Eu also built another opera theatre in 1927 known as "Tian Yien Moi Toi" on this street. This opera theatre was later converted into a cinema and known as Queens' Theatre, and later became Majestic Theatre, which was converted into a shopping mall in 2003 known as The Majestic. Other places named after Eu, is a now demolished villa at Mount Sophia as well as Eu Court at the corner of Stamford Road and Hill Street, which is now on the Stamford Court site.

References

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