Smith Street, Singapore
1°16′57.6″N 103°50′36.8″E / 1.282667°N 103.843556°E / 1.282667; 103.843556
Smith Street (Chinese: 史密斯街 shǐ mì sī jiē) is a small street running through the heart of the Chinatown district in Singapore. The only road in the area to be named after a European, it commemorates the hugely popular Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, then Governor of the Straits Settlements and High Commissioner in 1887 to 1893, who was a Chinese scholar and responsible for most of the work to combat the problems of secret societies.
As is common for roads with English names, it has an informal Chinese name, hei yuen kai, meaning Theatre Street in reference to the Lai Chun Yuen Theatre then located at unit 36 and the centre of entertainment in the Kreta Ayer area.[1]
Its red-light reputation contributed character to the street, which was also known for hawker stalls crowding into the street during its heyday reputation as the main "Food Street". There are attempts to recreate the ambiance today by closing parts of the road and turning it into an outdoor eating area.
A local joke has it that the road got its English name when the British asked Chinese locals the name of the road, they given clueless answers "Si mi?" (Hokkien for What?) as they could not understand English. Thus they duly recorded the name as "Smith" instead.
References
- ^ Savage, Victor R.; Yeoh, Brenda S. A. (2003). Toponymics: a study of Singapore street names. Geography & environment research. London: Eastern Universities Press. ISBN 978-981-210-205-8.
- Peter K G Dunlop (2000) Street Names of Singapore Who's Who Publishing ISBN 981-4062-11-1
- v
- t
- e
- Amoy Street
- Ann Siang Hill
- Ann Siang Road
- Banda Street
- Boon Tat Street
- Club Street
- Cross Street
- Dickenson Hill Road
- Erskine Road
- Eu Tong Sen Street
- Jiak Chuan Road
- Kadayanallur Street
- Keong Saik Road
- Kreta Ayer Road
- McCallum Street
- Mosque Street
- Neil Road
- New Bridge Road
- Pagoda Street
- Sago Lane
- Sago Street
- Smith Street
- South Bridge Road
- Spring Street
- Stanley Street
- Teck Lim Road
- Telok Ayer Street
- Temple Street
- Trengganu Street
- Upper Cross Street
This Singapore road article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e