Smith Street

Next Stop Smith Street!

Smith Street is one of the adjoining streets in today's Chinatown that had quite a reputation during the colonial times. It had three and four-storey brothels which along with prostitution, also promoted opium smoking, drinking and gambling. It was a place where most chinese male migrants who are alone and does not have families spent most of their evenings.

Currently the street has transformed into eateries and cafes where people come during the evenings to enjoy the delicacies here. However the buildings that were used during the colonial times were built and conserved to show the significance of this street during those days,

 As we walked through the streets it can be seen that the buildings were conserved and even rebuilt due to the destruction of the building during the Japanese Occupation, to educate the public what this street used to be,

This buildings shows how the early immigrants of Singapore lived through colonial times. It also shows sentiments of people at that point of time. This street also has an opera theater that rich chinese merchants came to watch and spent most evening drinking and enjoy the entertainment it offers. It is called Lai Chui Yuen. We went to the original building of Lai Chui Yuen as shown in the short vidoe clip below.

As we walked all the way to the end of the street, we head on towards the Kreta Ayer Complex where it used to be a shelter during the japanese occupation.