Smith Street, Singapore
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
1°16′57.6″N 103°50′36.8″E / 1.282667°N 103.843556°E
alfresco
food street.Smith Street (
High Commissioner in 1887 to 1893, who was a Chinese scholar and responsible for most of the work to combat the problems of secret societies
.
As is common for roads with English names, it has an informal Chinese name, hei yuen kai, meaning Theatre Street in reference to the
Kreta Ayer area.[1]
Its red-light reputation contributed character to the street, which was also known for hawker stalls crowding into the street during its heyday reputation as the main "Food Street". There are attempts to recreate the ambiance today by closing parts of the road and turning it into an outdoor eating area.
A local joke has it that the road got its English name when the British asked Chinese locals the name of the road, they given clueless answers "Si mi?" (
Hokkien
for What?) as they could not understand English. Thus they duly recorded the name as "Smith" instead.
References
- ISBN 978-981-210-205-8.
- Peter K G Dunlop (2000) Street Names of Singapore Who's Who Publishing ISBN 981-4062-11-1
  | This Singapore road article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |