A few weeks ago we heard that Tanjong Pagar Railway station was to be open to the public for an event; a Thai themed market so we went along to have a look. This old and now disused railway station was closed to railway business in 2011 after nearly 80 years of service. Up until the rail line between Singapore and Malaysia stopped operating, passengers could jump aboard at Tanjong Pagar and travel to Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.
The building is built in mainly in Art Deco style, with four marble statues by the Italian sculpture Angelo Vannetti, representing the four pillars of the Malayan economy; Agriculture, Industry, Commerce and Transport.
Inside the huge public hall has a barrel vaulted roof with painted scenes depicting economic activities that were ( and in some places still are) significant in Malaya
including shipping
rice cultivation
rubber production
tin mining
and this is apparently copra production ( copra is the dried kernel of the coconut that is used to extract coconut oil)
The Auxillary Police booth
Outside the platforms and part of the railway line are still present and the old hydraulic buffers
but when I walked to the end of the platform the railway tracks disappeared. The route they used to run through can still be seen and has the nickname "The Green Corridor", which is open to joggers, walkers, cyclists and dog walkers. Luckily for us our condo is situated quite close to the green corridor so we often walk or cycle along here, enjoying the greenery and occasional siting of monitor lizards, hornbills and even the odd spitting cobra snake!
Back on the platform the Thai themed market was in full swing, with demonstrations of how to intricately carve different fruits into amazing designs.
and how to create floral decorations
Strangely a barber shop had been set up and had quite a queue of customers waiting
Below are ice cream makers. They pour the runny ice cream mixture onto a frozen metal plate and using tools that look a little like decorators knives, scrape, spread and chop up the rapidly freezing mixture until its properly frozen and then scrape rolls of it into a waiting cone or cup
It has recently been announced that Tanjong Pagar Railway station is due to close completely at the end of 2016 and will not be re opened until 2025, during this time a new MRT station and extension to the Circle MRT line will be constructed beneath the platform area. It's highly unlikely that we will still be living in Singapore by 2025 so I'm very glad we took the opportunity to see this historic building whilst there was a chance
