Everton Park History: Cafe shophouses were built by wealthy Straits Chinese families in the 1900s!
Through its evolutions from a bustling coastline trading port to its current blend of heritage and hip cafes, Home & Decor delves into the fascinating evolution of Everton Park - a Singapore street that has organically cultivated its unique appeal.
By Isabel Lim YN -
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In a city that rarely sits still, Everton Park slows things down. It’s not a showpiece neighbourhood, nor one of the usual and overt suspects for heritage nostalgia or brunch culture. But it might be one of Singapore’s most quietly revealing streets — because it doesn’t just preserve history; it stacks it.
Here, pre-war shophouses sit within walking distance of 1980s HDBs, both still lived in and layered with stories. Walk a few minutes and you’ll find a studio-gallery hybrid in one unit, a provision shop in another, and a café roasting beans where a tailor might once have worked. It’s not intentionally curated either — it’s just evolved.
To understand why Everton Park feels so layered, you have to start at sea level — quite literally. This used to be the coastline, and that shaped everything that followed.
Everton Park Block 2.
Everton Park Origins: From coastline to corridor
Before Everton Park became a sleepy enclave of slab blocks and specialty coffee, it faced the sea.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, this part of Singapore was coastal. Everton Road, Blair Road, and the surrounding lanes were part of a port-facing town near the original shoreline — long before land reclamation pushed the coast outward.
(You can still find visual evidence of this on the mural behind Thian Hock Keng Temple on Telok Ayer Street, which shows the old coastline!)
The area fell within the historic Tanjong Pagar district, close to the old dockyards and godowns (warehouses) that once lined Keppel Harbour. That made it a natural place for traders, dockworkers, and maritime families to settle.
Everton Shophouses
Shophouses emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century — many of them built by wealthy Straits Chinese families, evident in the architectural details: coloured tiles, shuttered windows, air wells designed for tropical ventilation.
Shophouses at Spottiswoode Park Road Number 1 to 9 (at the junction of Spottiswoode Park Road and Everton Road), taken in 1986.
URA Blair Plain Conservation Area
Today, these fall under the Blair Plain Conservation Area, gazetted in 1991 by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). It’s one of the few remaining pockets in Singapore where entire streets of shophouses have been protected from redevelopment.
The roads we now know — Everton Road, Spottiswoode Park Road, Blair Road — formed a kind of soft corridor between the bustle of the port and the growing residential settlements inland. What’s compelling is how this layered spatial logic has stuck: walk the area today and you still feel the blend of domestic scale, street-level activity, and the faint echo of trade routes nearby.
Everton Park showcases a diverse housing landscape, where shophouses, HDB flats, and condominiums can all be found along the same street.
Everton Park Freehold Shophouses
Many of the shophouse units in the area date back to the early 20th century and are now freehold — a rarity in Singapore’s land-scarce, leasehold-heavy market. Today, most have changed hands. Some have been converted into private residences, others into design studios, galleries, or — increasingly — cafés. A few still retain original timber floorboards or Peranakan tiles, not always out of reverence, but sometimes simply because they were too solid to rip out.
I found listings for shophouses in the Everton and Spottiswoode area hovering around S$6 million (or at about S$3,500 per square foot), with the most expensive shophouse hitting S$9 million for a five-bedroom conservation unit. They’re all a conveniently short walk from Cantonment MRT, though I imagine if you’re spending that much, the train might not be your primary mode of transport.
There's a recurring motive of arches throughout the architecture at Everton Park, leading to a visually appealing and one-of-a-kind style of HDBs that show character and heart.
Everton Park HDB
Just behind them are the Everton Park HDB blocks built in the early 1980s. These 99-year leasehold HDB flats are now past their halfway mark, with about 55 to 60 years left on the lease. Their layout is simple yet thoughtful — the slab blocks are arranged around a central courtyard, creating a natural communal space.
A 3-room flat here now goes for about S$550,000, while the rare 5-room units can reach close to S$1 million. It’s a steep price by HDB standards, but reasonable for a home so close to the Downtown Core and at a short 500m walk to Outram MRT.
Private condos in the area fill the mid-range. Freehold one-bedroom units start at just over S$1 million, while 99-year leasehold 3 bedroom apartments (with around 45 years left) go for a little less, averaging S$1,000 psf compared to S$2,500 psf for freehold units.
This quiet layering — from conservation homes to government flats, from freehold to leasehold — reflects not just shifts in value, but in how the area has been allowed to evolve. The landscape is rich in variety and living history, and still relevant and trendy in the modern day.
You can find out even more about Everton Road’s shophouses in this article — complete with a fully photographed walkthrough of the area.
The motive of curves also extend to the edges of lift shafts, and when paired with the bright pastel colours, give the HDBs a soft, calming aura.
The colour palette here reminds me of candy — definitely a treat for the eyes.
Everton Park Architecture
Form Follows Community
One of my favourite things about Everton Park’s design is how communal it feels. The HDB blocks form a square, framing an open courtyard in the centre that acts as the heart of community life. The blend of horizontal connectivity (via shared corridors) and vertical layering (shophouse typology) gives the estate a unique architectural narrative. It was built for interaction.
In the middle of the HDBs rests a courtyard with a quaint coffeeshop and a few traditional Mama Stores. I enjoyed an ice cream and a cool drink here.
Everton Park Cafe Culture: When Did That Happen?
I tried to pinpoint when exactly Everton Park went from sleepy to Instagrammable. The turning point seems to have been around 2012 to 2015, when cafes like Nylon Coffee Roasters, Ji Xiang Ang Ku Kueh, and The Better Half started drawing weekend crowds.
It’s not surprising. Everton Park had everything hipsters love: pre-war buildings, quaint vibes, and the slow charm of an older neighbourhood.
Here are 10 must-try cafes in Everton Park for the cafe-hopping enthusiasts reading!
Looking Forward: What’s in the URA Master Plan for Everton Park?
In the 2019 URA Master Plan, Everton Park is part of the Outram Planning Area. While the shophouses are protected under conservation guidelines, the surrounding zones are seeing a gradual rejuvenation. The nearby former Police Barracks at Pearl’s Hill have been earmarked for adaptive reuse. There’s also greater pedestrian connectivity planned via the Rail Corridor and expanded green spaces nearby like the upcoming Cantonment Park.
A construction site across Everton park. Despite the humongous mass being assembled behind it, the remnants of a church stand fragile but proud up front — a testimony to the careful preservation efforts being made.
From all this, I think it’s safe to say that Everton Park isn’t going anywhere, it’s going forward, but carefully. Its appeal isn’t just preserved; it’s being thoughtfully evolved.
Not only is Everton Park charming, it’s also layered. It’s a manifestation of the collaboration between Singapore’s past and future. I think that’s what makes it magical: the feeling that you’re part of something still unfolding, something that remembers where it came from even as it invites new stories in.