The Lost Gem Of The North

Former site of Old Woodlands Bus Interchange

The Old Woodlands Town Centre was closed on 30 November 2017, after 37 years. 

The small town centre, with six blocks of low-rise flats, was situated only 500m away from the Causeway. Hence, for decades, the Old Woodlands Town Centre acted as the bustling transition town between Singapore and Malaysia, where its booming businesses such as the money exchangers, retail shops and eateries benefited from the large number of travellers and workers commuted daily between the two lands. 

The Woodlands Bus Interchange at Woodlands Town Centre was completed in 1981. Designed with 17 berths, it provided, at the start, five bus services in 169, 178, 181, 204 and 208. 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this area, the place is essentially a gem, considering how developed Singapore has become. 

Once hailed as the gem of the north, the Old Woodlands Town Centre boasted a bustling bus interchange, 24-hour eateries, a Shaw Brothers-owned cinema and a huge department store. However, one by one, they have all slowly disappeared over the years: the bus interchange relocated to Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange at Woodlands Square in 1996, while the cinema ceased operations in the mid-2000s. 

When Causeway Point opened in 1999, it precipitated a decline for the old town centre. 

Like many other estates in Singapore, Woodlands have gone through various rounds of redevelopment, with its latest being the new Brown line that connects us to Malaysia as well as the Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange. With all these new changes that are in place, it also sparks off certain sense of nostalgia in us as we see the estate transform to fit into the modern image of Singapore. 

In 2018, we bid goodbye to the Old Woodlands Town Centre and Old Woodlands Bus Interchange as it makes way for the Woodlands Checkpoint’s plans for extension and a spanking new regional centre.