Tanjong Rhu (, ta, தஞ்சோங் ரூ) is a subzone within the planning area of

Kallang Kallang is a planning area and residential town located in the Central Region of Singapore. Development of the town is centered around the Kallang River, the longest river in Singapore. Kallang Planning Area is bounded by Toa Payoh in the ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, as defined by the

Urban Redevelopment Authority The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is the national urban planning authority of Singapore, and a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development of the Government of Singapore. Mission The authority was established on 1 April ...

(URA). The perimeter of Tanjong Rhu is made up of

Nicoll Highway Nicoll Highway (; ms, Lebuhraya Nicoll; ta, நிகோல் நெடுஞ்சாலை) is a major arterial road in Singapore which links the junctions of Guillemard Road, Sims Way and Mountbatten Road in Kallang to the junctions of Esp ...

in the north; Mountbatten Road and Fort Road in the east;

East Coast Parkway The East Coast Parkway (Abbreviation: ECP) is an expressway that runs along the southeastern coast of Singapore. The expressway is approximately in length, and connects Singapore Changi Airport in the east to the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, in ...

(ECP) in the south; as well as Marina Channel and Kallang Basin in the west. Tanjong Rhu is the largest in terms of physical area among the nine subzones that make up Kallang. Consisting of residential, commercial and recreational developments, Tanjong Rhu is famous for being the location of the Singapore Sports Hub, which includes the Kallang Wave Mall, new National Stadium and the

Singapore Indoor Stadium The Singapore Indoor Stadium, known exonymously as the Indoor Stadium, is an indoor arena located in Kallang, Singapore. It is within walking distance of the Singapore National Stadium, and collectively form a part of the wider Singapore Spor ...

. Previously, the old National Stadium which hosted a total of 18 National Day Parades sat on the land now occupied by the new National Stadium. The former

Kallang Airport Kallang Airport (also known as the Kallang Aerodrome, Kallang Airfield and RAF Kallang) was the first purpose-built civil international airport in Singapore, opened officially on 12 June 1937 and ceased operations in 1955, when it was reloca ...

once extended into this area, with part of its old runway being the modern-day Stadium Boulevard. Other sports facilities in Tanjong Rhu include the Kallang Tennis Centre,

Kallang Field Kallang Field is a sports field located in Kallang, Singapore. It is part of the Kallang Sports Complex, near where the Singapore Indoor Stadium and the Singapore Sports Hub are. History Kallang Field and the adjacent Tennis Centre are part of the ...

Kallang Ground The Kallang Ground is a cricket ground in Kallang, Singapore. The ground played host to nine One-Day Internationals in 1999 and 2000, and is a regular home ground for the Singapore national cricket team. It also hosted matches in the 1999 Youth As ...

, Kallang Track, Kallang Netball Centre, Kallang Squash Centre and PAssion WaVe @ Marina Bay. Notable places include Kallang Theatre, Leisure Park Kallang, Mountbatten Fire Post, Katong Community Centre, Singapore Swimming Club, the Benjamin Sheares Bridge and

Dunman High School Dunman High School (DHS) is a co-educational government autonomous secondary school located in Kallang, Singapore, offering the Integrated Programme and the Special Assistance Plan (SAP). It was originally located in West Kallang. Since adopt ...

, one of Singapore's leading educational institutions. Tanjong Rhu is currently served by two Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations on the Circle line:

Stadium MRT station Stadium MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the Circle Line (CCL). Located in the area of Kallang, Central Region, Singapore, the station serves the Singapore Sports Hub and its facilities including the Nationa ...

and

Mountbatten MRT station Mountbatten MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the Circle line, located on the boundary of Kallang and Geylang, Singapore. Serving the Mountbatten subzone, the area and the station is named after British Admir ...

. In 2023, two more stations along the Thomson–East Coast line will open: Tanjong Rhu MRT station and Katong Park MRT station. Tanjong Rhu is an affluent residential neighbourhood, made up of mostly condominiums and private housing along Tanjong Rhu Road. A few blocks of public housing built by the

Housing and Development Board The Housing & Development Board (HDB) (; ms, Lembaga Perumahan dan Pembangunan; ta, வீடமைப்பு வளர்ச்சிக் கழகம்) or often referred to as the Housing Board, is a statutory board under the M ...

(HDB) exist along Kampong Arang Road and Kampong Kayu Road. These residential estates are connected to the Singapore Sports Hub via Stadium Way, across the

Geylang River Geylang River ( ms, Sungai Geylang; Simplified Chinese: 芽茏河) is a canalised river flowing from Geylang to Kallang, in the Central Region of Singapore. With the formation of the Marina Reservoir after the completion of the Marina Barrage in 2 ...

Etymology

Map of Singapura by Godinho de Erédia 1604

''Tanjong Rhu'' is an old place name in Singapore that appeared in de Erédia's 1604 ''Map of Singapore'', written as "''Tanjon Rû''". This area was formerly known as Sandy Point. The Malay name comes from the

casuarina ''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the fa ...

trees, referred to in Malay as ''pokok rhu'' or ''ru'', which is the ''casuarina littoria'' species that grew along the beach between

and

Rochor Rochor is a planning area located within the Central Area of the Central Region of Singapore. Rochor shares boundaries with the following planning areas – Kallang to the north and east, Newton to the west, as well as Museum and the Downtow ...

. It was known as ''sha tsui'' in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

, which means "

sand spit A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift by longshore currents. The drift occurs due to ...

Condominiums

*Costa Rhu *Pebble Bay *Fort Gardens *Water Place *Sanctuary Green *Parkshore *Tanjong Ria *Camelot By The Water *Casuarina Cove *The Waterside *The Line @ Tanjong Rhu *Fulcrum *Crystal Rhu *La Ville

History

Tanjong Rhu has been associated with

ship building Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

and repairing from the early days. Captain William Flint, a

harbour master A harbourmaster (or harbormaster, see spelling differences) is an official responsible for enforcing the regulations of a particular harbour or port, in order to ensure the safety of navigation, the security of the harbour and the correct operat ...

, started a

boat building Boat building is the design and construction of boats and their systems. This includes at a minimum a hull, with propulsion, mechanical, navigation, safety and other systems as a craft requires. Construction materials and methods Wood Wo ...

and repair company here in 1822.

Thomas Tivendale Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the ...

had his (Wilkinson, Tivendale and Company) shipyard here in the 1860s. The shipyard would be acquired by John I. Thornycroft & Company in 1926 and close in 1986 by successor

Vosper Thornycroft VT Group is a privately held United States defense and services company, with its origins in a former British shipbuilding group, previously known as Vosper Thornycroft. The British part of VT Group was integrated into Babcock International in t ...

Pte Singapore. As late as the 1980s and the early 1990s, the Tanjong Rhu area was an

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

area with shipyards. The water surrounding Tanjong Rhu was

polluted Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

with industrial and domestic

waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...

, creating an extremely unpleasant environment. A massive relocation exercise was then undertaken by the

Singapore Government The Government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of Singapore to mean the executive branch of the state, which is made up of the president and the Cabinet. Although the president acts in their personal discretion in the exercise ...

to transform Tanjong Rhu into a high-end residential area.

Reclamation of land Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamat ...

along the Tanjong Rhu coast began as early as 1992. Private developers then started the new luxury residential developments in Tanjong Rhu. Today, the shipyards have since been relocated elsewhere and condominiums have replaced them. In September 1993, 12 men were arrested in an entrapment operation in Tanjong Rhu coined the "Fort Road Incident". They were charged with outrage of modesty. Six pleaded guilty. They were sentenced to three strokes of the cane each and imprisonment ranging from two to six months. The names, ages and occupations of all 12 men were published in all major Singaporean newspapers. Those were the last reported cases of such police entrapment. A short 19 minute 2009 film, "The Casuarina Cove" by Boo Junfeng told the story of one of those men.

References

*Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2004), ''Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names'', Eastern University Press,

External links

The Changing Faces of Singapore - Tanjong Rhu

TheLine@Tanjong Rhu
{{Places in Singapore Places in Singapore Central Region, Singapore Kallang