Fast Fading Memories

One of the few places in present day Singapore that I am able to find myself at home in is the former Kampong Wak Hassan (now Sembawang Park) area along the northern coast. 

It is an area which has in the last two and a half decades, as with much (if not all) of Singapore, undergone a huge transformation and also one that is still being transformed. 

Despite the transformation; Kampong Wak Hassan now plays host to a new public housing estate, it is still a place in which Singapore we have forgotten about can still be found - at least for the time being. 

Image: National Archives Of Singapore; 1975

Image: National Archives Of Singapore; 1975

Kampong Wak Hassan is one of the last places left in which much of the past remains to be discovered. A past which perhaps with the planned future developments in the area, some for which preparations are already being made, is one which may soon be well forgotten. 

Kampong Wak Hassan and perhaps the coastline east of it is where some of the old world does seems to have been left behind including what may be one of the last stretches of natural beaches in Singapore, the old jetty and a seawall.

Kampong Wak Hassan is today, a world in which the charm of a forgotten old world missing from most of the redeveloped spaces on the island, can still be found. It is a world which has thus far, managed to remain free from the crowds and clutter which now seems to dominate almost all of the urban we now find around us. The area is one which had for a long while boasted of welcome pockets of greenery and un-manicured beauty. 

But all that I fear, is soon going to change. Kampong Wak Hassan for one is already in the midst of a 'renewal' which I feel will see it lose the character and charm which attracted me there since the days of my childhood as it becomes just another well manicured park cluttered with paraphernalia which Singapore really has to many of.