Neil Road

Neil Road (Chinese: 尼路) is a one-way road in Chinatown and Tanjong Pagar in the planning areas of Outram and Bukit Merah in Singapore. The road starts at the junction of South Bridge Road, Maxwell Road and Tanjong Pagar Road and ends at Jalan Bukit Merah which then merges into the latter. At the end of the road, it is a conservation area of several shophouses and a three story Victorian style school building, which was the former site of Fairfield Methodist Girls' School. In the Tanjong Pagar area of the road, it is home to rows of conserved shophouses for various purposes.

Etymology and history

The road was formerly known as Salat Road (Silat or Selat), the Malay term for "straits". The former Salat Road was part of a nutmeg plantation that flourished on Duxton Hill till the late 1850s. The Malay road name was changed by the Municipal Commissioners in March 1858 in honour of the British heroes in the Indian Mutiny in 1857. House number 147 was the home of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's grandfather, Lee Hoon Leong, who bought the house in 1920 for $25,000. Lee lived in the house for a few years with his parents and grandfather.

In Hokkien, the road was known as goo chia chwee sia lo, which means "steep street of Kreta Ayer".

References

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

Coordinates: 1°16′40″N 103°50′34″E / 1.27778°N 103.84278°E / 1.27778; 103.84278