Chip Bee Gardens

The MRT, the bars and the noise are on one side of Holland Avenue. This is the other side.

Chip Bee Gardens is where to spend an hour with no plan: a coffee, a browse, a wander past old houses, then dinner across the road. It is the quiet side of Holland Village, across Holland Avenue from the bars and the MRT, and it feels more like a small town than a corner of the city. The compromise is that it is a residential estate first and a destination second. Tenants change, people live here and the café tables are a few steps from their front doors, so keep the volume down and don't come with a checklist.

Why it feels different

The estate was built as married quarters for British Armed Forces personnel and stayed a service enclave until the British withdrawal in the 1970s. After that, expatriate teachers from nearby international schools and colleges became the main residents. The low-rise blocks, terraces, walk-up apartments and old bungalows along Jalan Merah Saga are what survived.

The state still owns it. The Singapore Land Authority manages 409 terrace houses and walk-up apartments here; the homes are let to individuals on two-year leases, while the Jalan Merah Saga blocks are let to businesses. That mix is the whole character of the place: homes beside shopfronts, and an annual Halloween run by the residents themselves, which the SLA mentions in its own write-up of the estate. It is not often a land agency gets sentimental about trick-or-treating.

What to do

Browse. Tenants have included the Japanese coffee chain % Arabica, the vegetarian Mediterranean restaurant Original Sin, the homegrown leather and paper brand Bynd Artisan for personalised gifts, the handbag label Wuhaus World and a yoga studio, Om Shiva, set among the greenery on Jalan Rumia. The Daily Scoop was a long-time resident before moving into Raffles Holland V Mall. Treat any list as a starting point rather than a promise, and check a shop is still there before you make a trip for it.

Then walk down Jalan Kelabu Asap, where the old houses and the trees do most of the work. It is the best ten minutes of the visit and costs nothing.

How to do it well

Go in the morning before the heat builds, or in the late afternoon when the light softens. Arrive at Holland Village MRT on the Circle Line, cross the avenue and give yourself an hour. Coffee and browsing here, dinner and drinks on the busy side: that split is how Holland Village works best. The other side has had a harder few years, with long-running names such as Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao and Wala Wala closing in 2024 after 20 and 32 years, which makes this steadier, residential corner more useful than ever.

Good to know Chip Bee Gardens is a short walk from Holland Village MRT on the Circle Line. Shops and cafés keep their own hours and tenants change, so check individual businesses before you go, and remember this is a residential estate.

Chip Bee Gardens | Jalan Merah Saga, Singapore