How Special is Queenstown?
Named after Queen Elizabeth II to mark her coronation, Queenstown was Singapore's first satellite town for public housing.
Our Roots
It's development was started in 1952 by the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT), when the nation was still a British colony, and subsequently completed by SIT's successor, the Housing and Development Board (HDB), which took over in 1960.
Coming from villages and slums, its first occupants were awed by the modern conveniences of electricity, piped water and flushing toilets.
What Queenstown replaced was a large swampy valley made up of burial grounds and farmland with a village called “Boh Beh Kang” or “No Tail River” in Hokkien – so-named because there was a small river nearby whose source the villagers could not determine. While that river could have led to the Singapore River, the latter starts at Alexandra Canal today.
Queenstown estates
Princess Estate
DUCHESS ESTATE
TANGLIN HALT
CommonWealth
Queens Close
CRESCENT
Two Newly Added Neighbourhoods
Mei Ling
BUONA VISTA
Did You Know
Many of the road names – including Strathmore, Forfar, Dundee and Stirling - came from locations in Scotland, to which the Queen has ancestral ties and in which she spent much of her childhood. As for Dawson, it is a very old name of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning “son of David”, which spread to the Celtic countries of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
As part of ambitious plans for self-sufficiency, Queenstown was designed with amenities including markets, hawker centres, shops, schools, cinemas, factories, health and sports facilities and places of worship.
A Pioneer in many ways
Singapore's first "Heartland"
Queenstown is home to the first few blocks of flats completed by the HDB in October 1960 - at 45, 48 and 49 Stirling Road.
SINGAPORE’S FIRST POLYCLINIC
- Officially opened at 51 Margaret Drive in 1963.
- Queenstown polyclinic moved to its current location at 580 Stirling Road in December 2007
- Now occupied by New Hope Community Services’ Transit Point @ Margaret Drive, an interim shelter for rough sleepers.
SINGAPORE’S FIRST NEIGHBOURHOOD SPORTS CENTRE
- To provide recreational facilities for Queenstown residents, the Queenstown Sports Centre opened in 1970.
- Comprises stadium and swimming complex
- Training ground of Singapore’s famous water polo team in the 1970s and 1980s
- Oldest surviving public pool in Singapore.
Feeding the mind (School development)
Opens Singapore’s first technical school -
Queenstown Secondary Technical School at 1 Strathmore Road
Opens Singapore’s first tertiary school
Dedicated to manual and applied arts opened along Queensway. The former Baharuddin Vocational Institute nurtured skilled designers and craftsmen in advertising, fashion and printing
The institute relocated to Stirling Road, with the premises taken over by the Management Development Institute of Singapore in 2004
Queenstown Library officially opened as Singapore’s first branch library.
Queenstown Secondary Technical School renamed Queenstown Secondary School
To meet the urgent need for technical skills as Singapore embarked on its industrialisation drive, when both academic and technical education were offered
Renamed Queenstown Community Library
Gazetted for Conservation
It is the oldest public library still standing in Singapore - right across from SkyResidence@Dawson
1957
Opens Singapore’s first technical school -
Queenstown Secondary Technical School at 1 Strathmore Road
1965
Opens Singapore’s first tertiary school
Dedicated to manual and applied arts opened along Queensway. The former Baharuddin Vocational Institute nurtured skilled designers and craftsmen in advertising, fashion and printing
1969
The institute relocated to Stirling Road, with the premises taken over by the Management Development Institute of Singapore in 2004
1970
Queenstown Library officially opened as Singapore’s first branch library.
1993
Queenstown Secondary Technical School renamed Queenstown Secondary School
To meet the urgent need for technical skills as Singapore embarked on its industrialisation drive, when both academic and technical education were offered
1995
Renamed Queenstown Community Library
2014
Gazetted for Conservation
It is the oldest public library still standing in Singapore - right across from SkyResidence@Dawson
Bustling town centre
Queenstown in its heyday, had three cinemas and a bowling alley in its lively town centre, to which Singaporeans flocked from all over the island. Tah Chung Emporium was a favourite shopping haunt, while diners headed to Golden Crown for its popular dim sum and to attend wedding banquets. In the evening, crowds thronged the night markets.
