Underrated Streets Worth the Walk
Twenty streets the tour buses skip. Bring water, curiosity and quiet shoes.
The Singapore that doesn't make the postcard: pastel shophouses, Art Deco flats, a village that time forgot and lanes where the best thing to do is look up. People live on most of these streets, so walk softly, keep off doorsteps and shoot facades, not faces.
0/20 · Fresh off the plane
1. Koon Seng Road Shophouses
Street · Joo Chiat · Free · MRT Marine Parade (TE26)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A row of 1920s houses in pink, mint and blue, with tiles and plasterwork to match. Peak Singapore pretty.
💡 People live here, so stay on the pavement and keep your voice down. Morning light is best.
2. Joo Chiat Road
Street · Joo Chiat · Free · MRT Marine Parade (TE26)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Old coffee shops, frame makers and new bakeries share one long shophouse spine. Less polished than Koon Seng, more alive.
💡 Start at the East Coast Road end and walk north. Stop at Kim Choo on East Coast Road for nyonya kueh before you set off.
3. Tiong Bahru's Art Deco blocks
Street · Tiong Bahru · Free · MRT Tiong Bahru (EW17)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Singapore's first public housing estate: low white blocks with rounded corners, porthole windows and spiral staircases at the back.
💡 Find the horseshoe-shaped block on Moh Guan Terrace, loop via Yong Siak Street, then eat upstairs at Tiong Bahru Market.
4. Keong Saik Road
Street · Chinatown · Free · MRT Outram Park (EW16/NE3/TE17)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Once the red-light lane, now a gentle curve of restored shophouses, with a Hindu temple and a Chinese temple a short stroll apart.
💡 Stand at the wedge-shaped corner building where the road forks for the classic shot. Stop at the Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple.
5. Bukit Pasoh Road
Street · Chinatown · Free · MRT Outram Park (EW16/NE3/TE17)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A quiet slope lined with clan associations and old social clubs, their names in gold characters above the doors. History, still in session.
💡 Read the signboards as you climb: each clan house served migrants from one county. Stop under the trees at Duxton Plain Park.
6. Ann Siang Hill
Street · Chinatown · Free · MRT Maxwell (TE18)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A short, steep loop of shuttered shophouses that feels oddly Mediterranean at golden hour, five minutes from the office towers.
💡 Look for the old well and spiral stairs, then take the boardwalk through Ann Siang Hill Park down to Amoy Street.
7. Amoy Street
Street · Telok Ayer · Free · MRT Telok Ayer (DT18)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A one-way lane of old shophouses with glass towers looming right behind. The best old-meets-new frame in the business district.
💡 Find the little Siang Cho Keng Temple mid-street, then join the lunch queue at Amoy Street Food Centre before 12 or after 1.30.
8. Duxton Hill
Street · Tanjong Pagar · Free · MRT Tanjong Pagar (EW15)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A leafy pedestrian cul-de-sac of shuttered shophouses on a former nutmeg plantation. Feels like a village square that lost its village.
💡 Walk up from Duxton Road and note the five-foot-way tiles. Then ride up to the Pinnacle@Duxton skybridge for the view back down.
9. Everton Road
Street · Everton Park · Free · MRT Outram Park (EW16/NE3/TE17)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Life-size murals of an old provision shop, a barber and an amah at work, painted on the side walls of a sleepy row of terrace houses.
💡 The murals sit on side walls along the street; view them from the pavement. Coffee waits under the Everton Park flats next door.
10. Blair Road
Street · Blair Plain · Free · MRT Outram Park (EW16/NE3/TE17)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A hushed residential row where every facade shows off: French shutters, Chinese panels, Malay fretwork and Peranakan tiles together.
💡 Compare the tile panels under each window as you walk. Stop at NUS Baba House on Neil Road; visits are by booking, so plan ahead.
11. Emerald Hill Road
Street · Orchard · Free · MRT Somerset (NS23)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Step off the loudest shopping street in Asia and the noise just stops. Carved doors, pintu pagar gates and frangipani the whole way up.
💡 Look for the swinging half-doors and gilded carvings. Homes start past the bars at the foot of the hill, so keep voices low up top.
12. Armenian Street
Street · Civic District · Free · MRT City Hall (EW13/NS25)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A short street turned into a pedestrian garden of spice plants, lined with an old school, a church lane and handsome shophouses.
💡 Read the plant labels in the street garden, then stop at the Peranakan Museum in the old Tao Nan School. Its shop is free to enter.
13. Waterloo Street
Street · Bras Basah · Free · MRT Bencoolen (DT21)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A Chinese temple, a Hindu temple, a synagogue and a church share one street, plus flower sellers and fortune tellers under umbrellas.
💡 Watch worshippers offer joss sticks at both the Chinese and Hindu temples, side by side. Stop at Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple.
14. Kandahar Street
Street · Kampong Gelam · Free · MRT Bugis (EW12/DT14)
Hours unknown, check before you go
One street behind the Haji Lane crowds: restored shophouses in soft colours, old nasi padang kitchens and a view of the golden dome.
💡 Look back down the street for the Sultan Mosque dome over the rooftops. Stop for nasi padang at lunchtime, when trays are fullest.
15. Jalan Besar
Street · Jalan Besar · Free · MRT Farrer Park (NE8)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Machine-parts dealers next to speciality coffee, under early-1900s shophouses with bright tiles. The city's best unplanned mix.
💡 Walk south and look up at the plasterwork above the shop signs. Stop at Berseh Food Centre near the Jalan Besar MRT end.
16. Petain Road
Street · Jalan Besar · Free · MRT Farrer Park (NE8)
Hours unknown, check before you go
One terrace wrapped almost entirely in glazed tiles of peonies and birds, with columns to match. Maximalism, 1930s edition.
💡 View the tiled row from the far pavement; people live and work inside. Then coffee at Chye Seng Huat Hardware on Tyrwhitt Road.
17. Balestier Road
Street · Balestier · Free · MRT Novena (NS20)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A long, workaday road hiding wildly decorated shophouses with plaster dragons and cherubs, between lamp shops and supper spots.
💡 Look for the ornate corner shophouses at Kim Keat Road and the Art Deco row nearby. Stop at Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.
18. Jalan Merah Saga (Chip Bee Gardens)
Street · Holland Village · Free · MRT Holland Village (CC21)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Low terraces built for British military families, now a shady strip of bakeries, galleries and delis with homes right behind.
💡 Stroll the shopfront row, then cross to Holland Village Market and Food Centre for a cheap, very good local lunch.
19. Wessex Estate
Street · Portsdown · Free · MRT one-north (CC23)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Walk-up blocks and bungalows from the British army days, each named after an English town, now home to artists and big old trees.
💡 Spot the block names as you wander the loop. Stop at Colbar, a 1950s canteen frozen in time (closed Mondays).
20. Kampong Lorong Buangkok
Street · Buangkok · Free · MRT Buangkok (NE15)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Zinc roofs, dirt paths, chickens and fruit trees, ringed by tower blocks. A couple of dozen families still live the 1950s way here.
💡 This is a living village on private land: stay on the main path, greet residents, ask before any photo. Daylight only; take a taxi.
Unofficial · not affiliated with TOKEN2049. Hours and prices change; check before you go.