Jalan Kayu is a name of a street

Street

A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...

 situated within the Sengkang Planning Area in the North-East Region

North-East Region, Singapore

The North-East Region of Singapore is one of the five regions in the city-state. It includes seven urban planning areas. As its name implies, it is located in the north-eastern part of Singapore.The land area is about 13,810 hectares....

 of Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, under the urban planning scheme of the Urban Redevelopment Authority

Urban Redevelopment Authority

The Urban Redevelopment Authority is the national urban planning authority of Singapore, and a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development of the Singapore Government.-Mission:The authority was established on 1 April 1974, and is of especially critical importance to the city-state,...

. The area east of Jalan Kayu has been renamed as Fernvale

Fernvale

Fernvale is a neighbourhood of Sengkang New Town in Singapore. It is located between Punggol River and Jalan Kayu. The house numbers of the public apartment blocks in Fernvale begin with the number '4' . Fernvale is the newest neighbourhood in Sengkang New Town to be completed by the Housing and...

 to form the western part of Sengkang New Town

Sengkang New Town

Sengkang New Town is a relatively young satellite residential town in the city-state of Singapore. Originally a fishing village, the area is presently undergoing rapid development under the ambition of the Housing and Development Board to transform it into a "21st century township". The town now...

.

Etymology and history

Jalan Kayu was built in 1928 when the first Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 base outside the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 was established in Singapore, in the northern part of the island.

Jalan Kayu means "wooden road" in Malay

Malay language

Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

. One version for the road name's origin is that firewood

Firewood

Firewood is any wood-like material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form....

 used to be stacked on the roadside. Another version is that the muddy laterite

Laterite

Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...

 roads leading to the rubber

Rubber

Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...

 estates in the area were made passable due to logs of wood that used to cover the muddy roads, hence the term in Malay jalan kayu.

Highlights

The street itself is a relatively minor, one-lane road. However, it became prominent in Singapore for two reasons. Firstly, it was the main access route to the large British-built military compound in Seletar

Seletar

Seletar is an area of Singapore within its North-East Region. Seletar commonly refers to the areas south of Yishun and west of Sungei Punggol, covering Yio Chu Kang near Jalan Kayu , the Lower Seletar Reservoir and part of Upper Thomson .The Seletar Planning Area, an urban planning zone under the...

 as well as the neighbouring Seletar Airport

Seletar Airport

"RAF Seletar" & "Seletar Airbase/Airfield" redirects here.Seletar Airport is a civilian airport located at Seletar, in the northeastern region of Singapore, and is managed by the Changi Airport Group...

. Secondly, a range of road-side eateries selling roti prata

Roti prata

Roti prata is a fried flour-based pancake that is cooked over a flat grill. It is usually served with a vegetable or meat based curry and is sold all over Singapore in food centres. Prata is also commonly cooked with cheese, onion, banana, red bean, chocolate, mushroom or egg...

gradually earned a reputation among the people of Singapore as arguably amongst the best in Singapore, and the road name became a household name for good food in a laidback setting.

Getting there

Only services 86 and 103(merger of services 103 and 103M), and lately, bus 85 which diverted its route to call at the Jalan Kayu Shophouses.The rest of the buses serve as a transferring point to other areas. The Thanggam LRT Station

Thanggam LRT Station

Thanggam LRT station is an LRT station on the Sengkang LRT Line West Loop in Singapore. It was opened in January 2005 together with the Punggol LRT East Loop...

 of the Sengkang LRT Line

Sengkang LRT Line

The Sengkang LRT Line is a 10.7 km light rail line which partly opened on 18 January 2003. It is the second LRT system in Singapore and is fully automated and currently operated by SBS Transit. The line uses the Crystal Mover rolling stock supplied by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries...

 can also be connected to the shophouses via Lorong Samak, a small road off Jalan Kayu.

Service	Between	And	Notes
SBS Transit Trunk Services
39	Yishun Bus Interchange Yishun Bus Interchange Yishun Bus Interchange is located in northern Singapore, across Yishun Avenue 2 from Yishun MRT Station and it is operated by SMRT Corporation. This existing bus interchange will be demolished to make way for a new airconditioned bus interchange that is integrated with a new shopping mall and...	Tampines Bus Interchange Tampines Bus Interchange Tampines Bus Interchange is a bus station serving Tampines New Town in Singapore. It is an open-air building located in the town centre near the Tampines MRT Station, with the allocated block number of 512. The interchange is operated by SBS Transit...
85	Punggol Bus Interchange Punggol Bus Interchange Punggol Temporary Bus Interchange is a temporary bus interchange in Punggol New Town, located adjacent to the Punggol MRT/LRT Station. It was built to allow for easy dismantling when the site is redeveloped as part of a major commercial development when Punggol New Town is more developed.The...	Yishun Bus Interchange Yishun Bus Interchange Yishun Bus Interchange is located in northern Singapore, across Yishun Avenue 2 from Yishun MRT Station and it is operated by SMRT Corporation. This existing bus interchange will be demolished to make way for a new airconditioned bus interchange that is integrated with a new shopping mall and...
86	Sengkang Bus Interchange Sengkang Bus Interchange Sengkang Bus Interchange is a bus interchange located on the ground storey of Compass Heights condominium in the town centre of Sengkang New Town. Located next to Sengkang MRT/LRT Station...	Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange Ang Mo Kio Ave 8 Bus Interchange is located in Ang Mo Kio Town Centre, Singapore. The interchange is presently within AMK Hub, a newly-built shopping centre which is in turn linked to the Ang Mo Kio MRT Station via a pedestrian underpass below Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8.The interchange is the third to be...
103	Serangoon Bus Interchange Serangoon Bus Interchange Serangoon Bus Interchange is a bus station serving Serangoon New Town in Singapore, and is within walking distance from Serangoon MRT Station. Opened on 3 September 2011 and operated by SBS Transit, it is the smallest air-conditioned bus interchange in Singapore with 8 services and 17 bus bays...	West Camp Road  (loop)
163	Sengkang Bus Interchange Sengkang Bus Interchange Sengkang Bus Interchange is a bus interchange located on the ground storey of Compass Heights condominium in the town centre of Sengkang New Town. Located next to Sengkang MRT/LRT Station...	Toa Payoh Bus Interchange Toa Payoh Bus Interchange Toa Payoh Bus Interchange is located in Toa Payoh, Singapore. It is the first air-conditioned bus interchange in the country, which was completed in 2002 and officially opened by then Transport Minister, Yeo Cheow Tong, on 19 May 2002. The bus interchange has only services of SBS Transit and is...
168	Bedok Bus Interchange Bedok Bus Interchange Bedok Bus Interchange is a bus station serving Bedok New Town in Singapore. The bus interchange was completed in the 1980s, and is centrally located, just north of the Bedok MRT Station. The interchange, with the allocated block number of 207A, is located near a food center and a community...	Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange was completed and opened along with the Woodlands extension of the North South MRT Line in 1996. It is the first underground bus interchange, and one of the biggest in Singapore...
SMRT Buses Trunk Services
858	Changi Airport PTB 1, 2 & 3 Bus Terminal	Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange was completed and opened along with the Woodlands extension of the North South MRT Line in 1996. It is the first underground bus interchange, and one of the biggest in Singapore...