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Most people walking along Telok Ayer Street today would not realise they are standing where Singapore’s shoreline once was.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But to former urban planner Ho Yong Min, better known as The Urbanist, clues to the area\u2019s history are everywhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n A temple\u2019s orientation. A street name. Inscriptions on a stone tablet.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n “If you look around, you don’t see any remnants of the sea at all,” he told CNA while on a walk through the area.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n “But there are clues in our city that tell you that this temple used to face the sea.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Telok Ayer, Ho explained, used to be a bay that once greeted immigrants arriving by boat. Many would stop at Thian Hock Keng Temple, built in 1842, to pray and give thanks for a safe voyage before embarking on new lives in Singapore.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The district’s name, which means “bay water” in Malay, also hints at its past as a point of entry for new arrivals.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n That maritime past is also etched into the temple itself: A stone tablet mounted on its wall bears repeated inscriptions of the Chinese character for \u201cboat\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n “Back in the day, when you’re on a voyage from China to Singapore, just being able to land in Singapore is already a blessing because you may have been shipwrecked or gotten ill along the way,” Ho said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n “That’s why temples were pretty much established along the shoreline. If you look at the places of worship along Telok Ayer, you notice there are quite a number of them, and they all tell the same story of the safe arrival of immigrants in the past.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Finding hidden stories in familiar places is at the heart of Ho’s work as founder of The Urbanist Singapore, a content platform dedicated to heritage storytelling and urban design.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Through social media videos, guided walks and school programmes, the 42-year-old Singaporean has built a growing audience, including more than 62,000 followers on Instagram, by uncovering the tales behind Singapore’s streets, buildings and public spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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