Newton is a town that is located within the Central Area of the Central Region of Singapore. The planning area is bounded by the following planning areas -

Orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

and

Museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

to the south,

Tanglin Tanglin ( or ) is a planning area located within the Central Region of Singapore. Tanglin is located west of Newton, Orchard, River Valley and Singapore River, south of Novena, east of Bukit Timah, northeast of Queenstown and north of Bu ...

to the west,

Novena A novena (from , "nine") is an ancient tradition of devotional praying in Christianity, consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days or weeks. The nine days between the Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost, when the ...

to the north,

Kallang Kallang ( ) is a Planning Areas of Singapore, planning area and New towns of Singapore, residential zone located in the Central Region, Singapore, Central Region of Singapore. Development of the town is centered around the Kallang River, the l ...

to the northeast and

Rochor Rochor ( or ) is a Planning Areas of Singapore, planning area located within the Central Area, Singapore, Central Area of the Central Region, Singapore, Central Region of Singapore. Rochor shares boundaries with the following planning areas � ...

to the east. Occupying an area north of the renowned

Orchard Road Orchard Road, often known colloquially as simply Orchard, is a major -long road in the Central Area, Singapore, Central Area of Singapore. A famous tourist attraction, it is an upscale shopping area, with numerous internationally renowned de ...

shopping belt, the territory of Newton Planning Area includes the grounds of

The Istana The Istana (from the Malay word for "palace") is the official residence and office of the president of Singapore. The palace is open to the public during scheduled public holidays and is where the president receives and entertains state guests ...

, the official residence and office of the

President of Singapore The president of the Republic of Singapore, is the head of state of Singapore. The president represents the country in official diplomatic functions and possesses certain executive powers over the government of Singapore, including the contro ...

. It is split into six subzones; Cairnhill, Goodwood Park, Istana Negara, Monk's Hill, Newton Circus and Orange Grove. Newton's namesake, Newton Road, however, is located within Novena Planning Area, and starts at Newton Circus in the south and ends at the junction with Thomson Road in the north.

Etymology and history

Originally Syed Ali Road, Newton Road was renamed in 1914 after Alfred Howard Vincent Newton (died 1897), the Assistant

Municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

Engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

in late nineteenth century Singapore in order to avoid confusion with Syed Alwi Road. In 1933, Newton Circus, a wide circular

carriageway A carriageway (British English) or roadway (North American English) is a width of road on which a vehicle is not restricted by any physical barriers or separation to move laterally. A carriageway generally consists of a number of traffic lane ...

, was constructed for

gyratory A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...

traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

according to a

Singapore Improvement Trust The Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) is a former government organisation that was responsible for urban planning and urban renewal in Singapore. Formally established in 1927 under the Singapore Improvement Ordinance, it was modelled after sim ...

layout at the

focus Focus (: foci or focuses) may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in East Australia Film *Focus (2001 film), ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based on the Arthur Miller novel *Focus (2015 ...

of a number of converging roads, including Bukit Timah Road, Dunearn Road, Newton Road, Keng Lee Road, Kampong Java Road, Bukit Timah Road, Clemenceau Avenue and Scotts Road. As eight roads converge on the Circus, the

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

s used to call Newton ''ethumuchandi'', or "the eight junction place". Newton Circus has become the site of a major

hawker centre A hawker centre (), or cooked food centre (), is an often open-air complex commonly found in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. They are intended to provide a more sanitary alternative to mobile hawker carts and contain many stall ...

, Newton Food Centre.

References

*Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2003), ''Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names'', Eastern Universities Press, Places in Singapore Novena, Singapore {{Singapore-geo-stub

Etymology and history

See also

References