Kreta Ayer Road is a one-way road

Road

A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...

 located in Chinatown

Chinatown, Singapore

Singapore's Chinatown is an ethnic neighbourhood featuring distinctly Chinese cultural elements and a historically concentrated ethnic Chinese population. Chinatown is located within the larger district of Outram....

 within the Outram Planning Area

Outram, Singapore

Outram is a district in Singapore, within the Central Area, relatively near the prominent city centre and financial districts, but is nearer the border of the Central Area, and outside the Downtown Core. Outram is served by extensive public transport, including SBS Transit and a Mass Rapid Transit ...

 in 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...

. The road links Neil Road

Neil Road

Neil Road is a one-way road in Chinatown and Tanjong Pagar in the planning areas of Outram and Bukit Merah in Singapore. The road starts at the junction of South Bridge Road, Maxwell Road and Tanjong Pagar Road and ends at Jalan Bukit Merah which then merges into the latter...

 to New Bridge Road

New Bridge Road

New Bridge Road is a one-way road located within the Central Area in Singapore.New Bridge Road starts at the Coleman Bridge to the south of the Singapore River and extends into Chinatown within the Outram Planning Area, before joining with Eu Tong Sen Street and Kampong Bahru Road within the Bukit...

 and Eu Tong Sen Street

Eu Tong Sen Street

Eu Tong Sen Street is a one-way road located in the central part of Singapore in the planning areas of Outram, Singapore River and Bukit Merah...

, and is intersected by Keong Saik Road

Keong Saik Road

Keong Saik Road is a one-way road located in Chinatown within the Outram Planning Area in Singapore. The road links New Bridge Road to Neil Road, and is intersected by Kreta Ayer Road.-Etymology and history:...

.

Etymology and history

In the olden days, water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

 drawn from a well

Water well

A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...

 near Ann Siang Hill

Ann Siang Hill

Ann Siang Hill is a small hill, and the name of a one-way road located in Chinatown within the Outram Planning Area in Singapore...

 was taken down in bullock cart

Bullock cart

A bullock cart or ox cart is a two-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen . It is a means of transportation used since ancient times in many parts of the world. They are still used today where modern vehicles are too expensive or the infrastructure does not favor them.Used especially for carrying goods,...

s, hence the name Kreta Ayer, which means "water cart 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...

. The Hokkien

Hoklo people

The Hoklo people are Han Chinese people whose traditional Ancestral homes are in southern Fujian of South China...

s refer to this area as gu chia chui, and the Cantonese

Cantonese people

The Cantonese people are Han people whose ancestral homes are in Guangdong, China. The term "Cantonese people" would then be synonymous with the Bun Dei sub-ethnic group, and is sometimes known as Gwong Fu Jan for this narrower definition...

 call it ngow chay shui also meaning "bullock water cart road". Kreta Ayer Road was officially conferred in 1922.

Kreta Ayer Road defines for the Chinese in Singapore

Chinese in Singapore

Chinese Singaporeans are people of Chinese ethnicity who hold Singaporean nationality. As of 2010, Chinese Singaporeans constitute 74.1% of Singapore's resident population, or approximately three out of four Singaporeans, making them the largest ethnic group in Singapore...

, the Chinatown area. For the Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

, the Chinatown area is referred also as tua poh or "greater town" district. In the 1880s, Kreta Ayer was the red light district

Red Light District

Red Light District may refer to:* Red-light district - a neighborhood where prostitution is common* The Red Light District - the title of the 2004 album by rapper Ludacris* Red Light District Video - a pornography studio based in Los Angeles, California...

 of Chinatown. The Chinese traveller, Li Zhongjue, observed in 1887 that the street was a place of restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

s, theatres and brothel

Brothel

Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

s and where "filth and dirt are hidden".

External links

• Uniquely Singapore website