Editor’s Note: Sungei Road Flea Market’s new location is at Woodlands Recreation Centre, 200 Woodland Industrial Park E7, Singapore 757177. You will find the new Sungei Road Heritage Flea market by Market Gaia Guni located behind Sheng Siong Supermarket.

The familiar sight of the bustling makeshift stores along Sungei road entered the pages of history with the last day of operations on July 10, 2017. Eight decades of history at Sungei Road flea market came to an end. The flea market made for future residential developments.

Home & Decor Singapore understands that roads in the area could be re-aligned as well.

Sungei Road Flea Market, also known as Thieves Market

A statement issued by the National Environment Agency (NEA), Ministry of National Development, Ministry of Social and Family Development, Workforce Singapore, National Heritage Board (NHB) and Singapore Police Force noted that the 31 rag-and-bone men from the Sungei Road site were not included in the Government’s street hawker resettlement programme to purpose-built markets and hawker centres back in the 1970s and 1980s “because of their chosen trade”.

Rag and Bone men not part of Street Hawker Resettlement

They were given permits and allowed to continue at Sungei Road. Only 11 permit holders were still operating as of 2017.

In 2011, the Sungei Road site was reduced to half its size in order to make way for the construction of the new Sungei Road MRT station.

The NEA will be offering these remaining permit holders the option of operating at lock-up stalls at selected hawker centres at subsidised rental rates following the closure of the flea market.

Need to register with police under Secondhand Goods Act

Meanwhile, vendors who are registered with the police under the Secondhand Goods Dealers Act will need to provide a new business address if they wish to continue to ply their secondhand goods trade elsewhere.

The authorities said that Social Service Offices will facilitate financial assistance and Workforce Singapore will provide employment services under existing schemes to eligible vendors who may require such help.

Sungei Road Flea Market: 80 years of history

They added that while the site has had a long history, and holds special memories for many Singaporeans, “over time, the nature of the site has changed, as reflected in both the profile of vendors and buyers, and type of goods sold”.

Sungei Road Flea Market (Image: Roots Gov SG)
Image: Roots Gov SG

Also known as Jalan Besar Market

Previous articles have reported that “opportunistic traders” are attracted to the site, also known as Jalan Besar market, because of its rent-free and city location. The authorities have had to conduct checks on the sale of prohibited goods regularly.

Residents have also complained about the market located at the junction of Jalan Besar and Rochor Canal Road. One grouse is about traders who store goods in their void decks.

Clutter Problem: Secondhand dealers stored items at void decks

The Government said that such street trades should be allowed only to continue in designated venues such as trade fairs and flea markets, rather than on a permanent basis.

It noted that the NHB has conducted research and documentation efforts on the market and its vendors to preserve memories of the site.

Sungei Road Flea Market in the 1980s. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
Sungei Road Flea Market in the 1980s. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Association for the Recycling of Second Hand Goods

Mr Koh Ah Koon, then 76 years old, the president of the Association for the Recycling of Second Hand Goods representing about 70 of about 200 stalls at the market, said he is disappointed by the news.

He said that the closure of the site could push some peddlers back to the ways of the past when they squatted illegally. He added that his association had proposed four alternative sites but these had been rejected by the authorities.

Elderly depended on stalls for income

He said: “At least 80 per cent of us are elderly folk in our 60s, 70s and 80s who depend on our stalls for income. We hope we will be able to keep this traditional trade and way of displaying our wares alive.”

Singapore Heritage Society president Chua Ai Lin said that it is a pity that alternative solutions were not found. She said the market is a good example of a functioning community and economic system and a facet of Singapore’s rich and diverse urban life.

Street scene of Sungei Road Flea Market in the early 1980s. Courtesy of Mr Quek Tiong Swee.
Street scene of Sungei Road Flea Market in the early 1980s. Courtesy of Mr Quek Tiong Swee.

Singapore’s only free hawking zone

Dr Chua said: “This is the only free hawking zone in Singapore. We will be losing the sense of an organically formed flea market. A whole community will be dispersed and can no longer congregate as second-hand sellers.

“The Sungei Road flea market is an important part of our landscape that makes Singapore more than just shopping malls.”

Sungei Road Flea Market: Began along the river in 1930s

The flea market began as a small trading spot that sprouted along the river during the mid 1930s.

In 2011, the Sungei Road site was reduced to half its size in order to make way for the construction of the new Sungei Road MRT station.

The space allotted for each peddler is limited to a metre-by-metre and offered on a first-come-first-serve basis. Vendors are permitted to sell only second-hand or used merchandise.

The market used to be open from 1pm to 7pm daily and was popular with tourists, foreign workers and locals who flocked there on weekends to buy bits and bobs such as old coins, stamps, cassettes, jewellery, clothes and electronic gear.

Petty Trades and Rickshaws at Sungei Road in the 1950s. Philip B Growler Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
Petty Trades and Rickshaws at Sungei Road in the 1950s. Philip B Growler Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Sungei Road Flea Market Closure: Resident says “Good Riddance!”

A resident of the Sungei road estate, Ang Zyn Yee explains why it shouldn’t be considered a loss of heritage.

Her letter to the press is presented below:

As a resident of the Housing Board flats beside the Sungei Road flea market, I have felt only relief after it was announced that the market would be shut down for good.

Many of the people whose views I have read oppose the closure. They present a vision of the market as a charming area of Singapore that must be protected from the modernisation that has gripped the other parts of our nation.

However, having lived with the market my entire life, I cannot help but disagree with the heavily romanticised narrative presented.

Marketplace along Rochor Canal and Sungei Road. Collection of National Museum of Singapore
Marketplace along Rochor Canal and Sungei Road. Collection of National Museum of Singapore

Stall owners leave goods all around estate

The Sungei Road flea market has been a nuisance to me for years – not because of its actual operation but how it has encroached into residential space. Many stall-holders leave their “goods” all around the estate and hawk their paraphernalia in residential pavilions. These “goods” are usually placed in trolleys taken from the nearby supermarket and are parked everywhere, from the void decks of HDB flats to bushes and the hawker centre.

To put it simply, it is impossible to walk a hundred metres within the area and not spot an article left behind by a flea market stall-holder.

The Thieves Market has ruined the aesthetics of the estate by making the area look messy, dodgy and filthy.

Stall owners sleep under HDB block

In addition, several of these stall-holders have made the residential atrium their home, sleeping on the stone benches and washing themselves at the tap under the HDB block. It is not uncommon to spot their clothes hanging from trees near the atrium.

It may be unfair of me to base my judgment of the flea market on the actions of these people, who might constitute just the minority. But I appeal to the public to try and appreciate the situation from a resident’s perspective.

Grimy old men hawking frayed yellow-stained books and broken toys in the pavilion have become the gate keepers to my home. Every day before I enter the lift lobby, I am careful to keep my eyes straight ahead, in fear of seeing a man relieve himself.

The Sungei Road Flea Market may hold precious memories to some, but it has been nothing but a nightmare for me. I am overjoyed that it will soon be gone. – From Ang Zyn Yee (Ms) in 2017

This article first appeared in The Straits Times in 2017.