A few steps from the malls of Orchard Road, Emerald Hill keeps a street of ornate terrace houses that were home to Peranakan families by the 1930s.
A former nutmeg orchard, Emerald Hill was bought in 1900 by Seah Eng Kiat and Seah Boon Kang, who sold it in plots for terraces and shophouses. By the 1930s many of the houses were home to Peranakan families. The street was gazetted as a conservation area in 1989, and it is a stop on the National Heritage Board's Orchard Heritage Trail.
The façades are worth slowing down for. Neoclassical columns mix with glazed tiles, bird-and-flower panels and pintu pagar, the half-height swing doors that let air in and kept eyes out. These are private homes, so admire them from the street. Allow about 30 minutes, and walk up from Orchard Road.
