East of the city the skyline softens, and in Joo Chiat the Peranakan shophouse reaches full volume: pastel façades, carved timber and glazed tiles.
Joo Chiat takes its name from Chew Joo Chiat (1857–1926), a migrant from China who bought so much land here that he was known as the “King of Katong”. Peranakan families settled in the early 1900s and built many of the shophouses that survive today. URA gazetted 518 Joo Chiat buildings for conservation in 1991, and in 2011 Joo Chiat became Singapore’s first Heritage Town.
Koon Seng Road, its two- and three-storey terraces built mostly in the 1920s and 1930s, is the most photographed street in the east; Everitt Road and Joo Chiat Place are worth a look too. Then eat: East Coast Road is known for coconut-rich laksa, Peranakan restaurants and old bakeries such as Chin Mee Chin, famed for its kaya toast.
