Is Spooner Road truly haunted? A visit to notorious HDB estate along the Rail Corridor

Of all the haunted houses in Singapore, Spooner Road is one of the most notoriously well known. It's ghost stories are made even creepier by the fact that the current and former residents there have extensively documented their supernatural encounters, with 'substantial' evidence of otherworldly entities.

Many videos and articles have been circulated online of both reports of paranormal phenomenons and Ghostbusters type exploration by adrenaline junkies. There are tales of women's sobs coming from empty rooms, and shadowy figures lurking even in the bright of day.

I'm not one to believe in ghosts, but I do get easily spooked, so I ventured down to Spooner Road one sweltering afternoon to discover the truth behind the estate.

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History of Spooner Road

How it came to be haunted

For ghost stories to have any weight, there must be a reason behind its alleged repute. I did a quick Google search of Spooner Road before going down, just in case I had to bring some salt or garlic, and here's what I found.

The HDB blocks at Spooner Road are among the oldest in Singapore, with a history dating back to the mid-1970s. There were more blocks built originally, but hence been since demolished. There are only two standing there today, built a little later in 1983.

Here is a map of the area around Spooner Road from the 1970s and today. There were eight buildings along Spooner Road indicated on the map in the past, but only three today.

The estate currently comprises two blocks of flats – Kemuning (Orang Jasmine) and Melati (Arabian Jasmine) built in 1983, which served as housing for Malaysian staff in the 1980s working at the nearby Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.

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Named after Charles Edwin Spooner

Spooner Road was named after Charles Edwin Spooner, the first general manager of the Federated Malay States Railways, the predecessor of the Malayan Railway Administration.

Spooner was an engineer, and is also known for the planning and construction of many buildings in Malaysia in a style of Indo-Saracenic architecture, such as the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station.

Previously owned by Malaysia

Speaking of Malaysia, did you know that they owned the land in Spooner Road up until recently? Malaysia only returned the Spooner Road parcel of land to Singapore in 2011 after the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station closed for good.

The area was then redeveloped to house HDB rental flats. The buildings, Kemuning and Melati, are now home to several low-income families and provide temporary housing before they are able to secure permanent options. 

Besides the HDB’s rental schemes, some flats in the two blocks are used as transitional shelters to house individuals under programmes run by the likes of Ang Mo Kio Family Service Centre.

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Ghosts haunting Spooner Road?

An abandoned railway project hardly felt like a horror-inducing origin story to me.

Apparently, after the station ceased operations, the flats remained vacant for years and were said to have attracted wandering spirits. Eventually, when they were used as rental apartments, the spirits weren't happy with their free real estate having an influx of new roommates, getting restless and haunting the intruders invading their home.

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Spooner Road now

I took the train to Outram MRT and walked over to the street. It did stand out to have such a large patch of land around the area mostly unused, especially so close to the city centre.

Around the estate were large fields of greenery, some cordoned off for construction, and some conserved as a part of the Rail Corridor Stretch.

Because Malaysia only returned the Spooner Road buildings in 2011, these blocks have not undergone the Housing and Development Board upgrading, and remain a snapshot of a past time.

With lifts with no windows and ground floor laundry racks, the HDB estate was a peculiarity compared to its developed surrounding neighbours.

I didn't see a single soul the whole time I was there, but I am pretty sure there were people at home. I heard water running, saw ceiling fans spin, and knowing there are a bunch of retired folks living there - it only made sense.

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Abandoned Bungalow Spooner Road

Hidden behind the block on the left (Kemuning) was an abandoned bungalow. I wanted to go in but there were half a dozen CCTV cameras in the remnants, and a giant 'NO TRESPASSING' sign that I was not so eager to disobey.

Arguably the spookiest part of the whole estate, the government could leverage off this and make it the new site for Halloween Horror Night.

Wandering around the ground floor of the HDBs, I found quite a few offices for social work around too. The area definitely seemed older and rougher than most HDB estates, but it wasn't filthy - just signs of age and years bygone.

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Vintage HDB Mailbox

There were some cool vintage mailboxes too at these buildings along Spooner Road - albeit mostly empty.

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Spooner Road Redevelopment

Sadly, all old things have to be renewed sooner or later - we don't have much space to allocate them after all. And being in such a prime area, it's not unexpected to have the two blocks be torn down.

Spooner Road residents to be related by October 2024

HDB plans to relocate all residents by October 2024, and on July 2023, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for National Development Indranee Rajah said in a Facebook post that she had visited affected residents the week before to assure them that the HDB would facilitate their relocation to new homes.

There's still a few more months to visit and explore this heritage filled site, a preservation of recent history among the rapid developments around Singapore. In a couple of months, it may only exist in the archives of the internet, in its place a shiny new development.

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Image Credit: @rowwaannn.c via Instagram