Neil 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...

 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....

 and Tanjong Pagar

Tanjong Pagar

Tanjong Pagar is a historic district located within the Central Business District in Singapore, straddling the Outram Planning Area and the Downtown Core under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's urban planning zones....

 in the planning areas

Urban planning areas in Singapore

Singapore is currently divided into 55 urban planning areas by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, organised into five regions. A Development Guide Plan is then drawn up for each planning area, providing for detailed planning guidelines for every individual plot of land throughout the country.The...

 of Outram

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 ...

 and Bukit Merah

Bukit Merah

Bukit Merah is a hill in Singapore. Previously, it was a much larger hill that was situated at the present site of Henderson housing estate, which lies opposite the Delta Sports Complex. There was a Chinese cemetery on the reverse side of the hill. The present Bukit Merah Secondary School and...

 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 starts at the junction of South Bridge Road

South Bridge Road

South Bridge Road is a road south of Singapore River in Chinatown, Singapore which starts from Elgin Bridge and ends at the junction of Neil Road, Tanjong Pagar Road and Maxwell Road....

, Maxwell Road and Tanjong Pagar Road and ends at Jalan Bukit Merah

Jalan Bukit Merah, Singapore

Jalan Bukit Merah is a road in Singapore, and it links Kampong Bahru Road to the Portsdown Road. It has junctions along the Lower Delta Road and Alexandra Road, and including the Central Expressway. The bus lane starts at the Lower Delta Road instead of Kampong Bahru Road.-References:*...

 which then merges into the latter. At the end of the road, it is a conservation area

Conservation areas in Singapore

Conservation areas of Singapore are built-up areas in Singapore accorded protection from unauthorised destruction or alterations by law. There are presently 71 such areas, involving about 6,500 buildings across the city.-List of conservation areas:...

 of several shophouse

Shophouse

A shophouse is a vernacular architectural building type that is commonly seen in areas such as urban Southeast Asia. This hybrid building form characterises the historical centres of most towns and cities in the region.- Design and features :...

s and a three story Victorian

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 style school

School

A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...

 building, which was the former site of Fairfield Methodist Girls' School. In the Tanjong Pagar

Tanjong Pagar

Tanjong Pagar is a historic district located within the Central Business District in Singapore, straddling the Outram Planning Area and the Downtown Core under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's urban planning zones....

 area of the road, it is home to rows of conserved shophouses for various purposes.

Etymology and history

The road was formerly known as Salat Road (Silat or Selat), the Malay

Malay language

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

 term for "straits". The former Salat Road was part of a nutmeg

Nutmeg

The nutmeg tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of Indonesia...

 plantation that flourished on Duxton Hill

Duxton Hill

Duxton Hill is a small hill, as well as the name of a road, located in Tanjong Pagar within the Outram Planning Area of Singapore....

 till the late 1850s. The Malay road name was changed by the Municipal Commissioners in March 1858 in honour of the British

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 heroes in the Indian Mutiny in 1857. House number 147 was the home of Minister Mentor

Minister Mentor

Minister Mentor is a Singapore cabinet position created in 2004 as part of a leadership transition.The newly appointed Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong , announced Lee Kuan Yew's new title together with the naming of his Cabinet on August 12, 2004...

 Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades...

's grandfather, Lee Hoon Leong, who bought the house in 1920 for $25,000. Lee lived in the house for a few years with his parents and grandfather.

In Hokkien

Min Nan

The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....

, the road was known as goo chia chwee sia lo, which means "steep street of Kreta Ayer".