Kampong Lorong Buangkok

Zinc roofs, four-digit street signs and chickens with names, a bus ride from Serangoon.

Go if you want to see what Singapore looked like before the flats, and go knowing the one rule that matters: this is private land and people's homes, not an attraction. Look from the public lane, or book a guided visit with a guide the residents know if you want to go further. Treat it as a quiet look rather than a day out, and you'll get far more from it.

Turn off Yio Chu Kang Road, past a small signboard, and the tower blocks fall away behind a line of trees. In their place: wooden houses painted in bright colours, zinc roofs, exposed electrical cables, chickens wandering about and old four-digit street signs. The odd thing is how ordinary it all is to the people who live here; it only looks like a museum from the outside.

It is still here because of a landlord. In 1956 Sng Teow Koon, a seller of traditional Chinese medicine, bought the plot and let it out to families; at its height around 40 households lived here. After he died in 1997 his four children inherited it, and his youngest daughter, Sng Mui Hong, became the landlord and still lives in the village. The land covers 12,248 square metres, and the rent has barely moved: monthly rents are in the tens of dollars, which Madam Sng has kept low to hold the community together.

The kampong is about half its original size, with part of the land returned to the state for the flats around it. Plans for roads and schools through the site were put on hold after conservation was floated in 2015, and roughly 25 to 30 families remain, a mix of Malay and Chinese households. The area used to flood badly enough that residents waded home through the water; a canal now runs alongside.

The real exhibit is the neighbourliness. Gates stand open, children play in the lane, and the chickens are pets with names rather than dinner. Some houses keep more than one dining table, because neighbours are so often invited to stay for a meal. It is gotong royong without the poster.

How to do it well: residents put up a No Trespassing sign after visitors photographed their houses during the pandemic, so ask before you photograph anything that is someone's home, which here is everything. Looking from the public lane is fine; going further means joining a tour with a guide the residents know, several of whom earned that trust by helping with roof repairs and cleaning. To get there, take bus 70 or 103 from Serangoon MRT to the stop near the Church of St Vincent de Paul, then walk in via Buangkok Crescent or Gerald Drive.

If you want the history before you go, a Singapore Institute of Technology project is documenting the village for the record. Then keep your voice down, and leave the drone at home.

Good to know Lorong Buangkok is reached via Buangkok Crescent or Gerald Drive, off Yio Chu Kang Road; bus 70 or 103 from Serangoon MRT stops near the Church of St Vincent de Paul. It is private property: don't trespass or photograph homes, and book a guided visit if you want to go beyond the lane.

Kampong Lorong Buangkok | 7 Lorong Buangkok, Singapore 547557 | Nearest MRT: Serangoon (then bus)