Boat Quay - The Belly of the Carp

Photo: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Singapore: Marina Bay to Chinatown, a free self-guided tour.

This curved row of low shophouses was once the busiest wharf in Singapore. In the 1860s, Boat Quay is said to have handled about three-quarters of the colony's shipping business. Big ships anchored offshore, and small lighters called bumboats ferried rubber, spices and porcelain up the river to warehouses here, carried in on the backs of laborers.

The Chinese merchants who built here prized the spot because the riverbank bulges like the belly of a carp, a shape believed to bring wealth. By the 1970s the river was badly polluted, and the government launched a long cleanup. In 1983 the last lighters were moved to a new quay near Pasir Panjang and Boat Quay fell silent.

It was protected as a conservation area in 1989, and the restored shophouses now hold restaurants and bars. Notice the contrast: two-story trading houses in front, glass towers of banks just behind.

Getting here: Walk back across Cavenagh Bridge and turn right onto the riverside promenade; Boat Quay's restaurants line the bank ahead.

Did you know?: Boat Quay stood empty for six years after the lighters left in 1983, until it was gazetted as a conservation area on 7 July 1989.

Photo op: At dusk, stand by the river railing near the middle of the quay and frame the lit shophouses with the financial towers glowing above them.

More on Wikipedia: Boat Quay · Singapore River · Bumboat

Boat Quay - The Belly of the Carp

Stops on this tour