The Iron Market on Clyde Terrace

Who Designed Clyde Terrace Market

Up to 1875, the development of markets came under the purview of the Straits Settlements government, at which point their construction and maintenance were handled by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Works and Convicts and its successor, the Public Works Department helmed by the Colonial Engineer.^[5]

Famed colonial architect G.D. Coleman was the first Superintendent of Public Works and Convicts. In that capacity, he took on the task of designing and building the colony’s first market structure, the Telok Ayer Market in 1834.^[6] His successor, Captain Charles Faber too, was put in charge of building the following Ellenborough Market in 1843.

In the same vein, then-Straits Settlements’ Colonial Engineer, Colonel J.F.A McNair was listed as the new Clyde Terrace Market’s architect on its foundation stone.^[7] However, the elegant filigree iron structure was more likely to be the work of the Municipal Engineer, Thomas Cargill who was put in charge of engineering works in Singapore. He was under the purview of Colonial Engineer McNair, who had oversight of the Public Works Departments operating in Singapore, Penang, and Malacca.^[8]

Even though McNair was a competent civil engineer who had designed several public buildings such as government offices, as well as Singapore’s Government House and the General Hospital, his building designs were conformed to classical buildings typical of Royal Engineers’ works in colonies.^[9] Designing the iron structure of Clyde Terrace Market was atypical of McNair’s engineering repertoire.

Conversely, Thomas Cargill was adept in using iron throughout a long and illustrious career as Singapore’s Municipal Engineer in the 1870s and 1880s. Cargill was best known for his iron bridge designs spanning Crawford Road, Arab Street and Coleman Street. He subsequently wrote about these projects and sent drawings to The Engineer, promoting a colonial outpost then to the forefront of British civil engineering development.

Cargill’s involvement in designing Clyde Terrace Market is evident after examining the cross diagonals girders on the roof trusses of Clyde Terrace Market, which resembled the trusses of Arab Street Bridge completed a decade later in 1883. The bridge trusses had double diagonal members formed from cast iron flat plates and rivetted together to form a “completely solid bracing throughout the whole bridge.”^[10] A similar system of arched roof trusses was used to support Clyde Terrace Market’s pitched roof and to partition the enclosed interior into three aisles.

Page from The Engineer, 1883 showing drawings of Arab Street Bridge. Source: National Archives of Singapore.

Construction of the new Telok Ayer Market, c.1890. Courtesy of the National Museum of Singapore.

An elegant filigree iron structure

Clyde Terrace Market was most likely produced in Britain after Cargill designed the structure and sent plans back to British foundries to manufacture. Flat, finished components ranging from bolts to beams would then be stacked tightly in cargo holds to prevent the relatively brittle cast iron components from shattering from impacts during stormy weathers. Arriving at the destination, these components could then be easily assembled under the supervision of an engineer who was able to read the assembly plan prepared by foundries. This process is remarkably similar to the instruction manuals that came with flat-packed furniture these days.

Iron Market, Singapore, c.1860-1899. Courtesy of National Archives (Great Britain).

This meant Cargill designed the market structure to be modular, with every component replaceable and each section extendable. Hence, it was no surprise that the initial shed-like structure was enlarged thrice to add a vegetable, fish, and chicken section as demand for fresh produce increased in tandem with the area’s urban population growth. At its peak, the market occupied two separate single-storey buildings.^[11] The larger main building, containing two adjoining rectilinear sheds, accommodated 363 stalls uniformly arranged into meat, fish, vegetables, and edible sundry goods stalls. The poultry section, containing only 24 stalls, was in a smaller annex building located on Beach Road. The main building and annex were demolished in 1983 and 1970 respectively.

Beach Road Market and Police Station, 1963. Courtesy of the National Archives of Singapore.

Clyde Terrace Market appeared at a unique moment in Singapore’s architectural history, in which iron was increasingly associated not only with industrialisation, but with modernity itself. Beginning in the mid-19th century, iron became prominently featured in the construction of train stations, piers, bridges, warehouses, and other utilitarian structures. Engineers capitalised on iron’s superior tensile and compression properties to create long span, tall structures which could not be achieved with masonry and timber. These building types were not only essential for transporting people and goods across Britain and her colonies, but also supported the world’s insatiable demand for British manufactured products shipped worldwide.

Perception of iron in keeping markets clean

In Singapore, iron markets like Clyde Terrace Market were not only important municipal facilities but they also marked a key improvement in municipal governance, particularly in public health.

As a British colony, Singapore’s health policies followed those of British municipalities closely. In the absence of scientific understanding of how outbreaks occurred then, it was popularly believed that miasma, derived from the Greek word for “bad air” or “pollution,” was responsible for spreading diseases. This meant contiguous diseases back then, ranging from cholera to typhoid fever, were believed to be carried by invisible, vaporous substances thought to emanate from decaying matter and could linger on walls and other solid surfaces.^[12]

Markets were at the forefront of preventing epidemics. These places were not only among the busiest places in the city; they were also essential for the well-being and collective health of the colony’s administrators, military personnel, and migrants.

Several articles from The Lancet, a leading medical and public health journal in Britain, during this period advocated the use of iron for hospitals, markets, abattoirs, and other building types perceived to carry miasma.^[13] Iron’s strong compression, high tensile strength, and malleability create structural frames that enclosed large spaces and had the ability to create large openings on non-loadbearing walls. This introduced ample sunlight and promoted indoor ventilation which engineers believed was necessary to flush out miasma caused by decaying matter.^[14]

The filigree iron structure of Clyde Terrace Market had minimal surfaces on which miasma could linger and was open on all sides to allow for the free passage of air and the admission of sunlight. Such a design, despite its simplicity and utility, epitomised good sanitary considerations of that period and represented one of Singapore’s early attempts to incorporate architectural considerations and deploy engineering advancements to address public health concerns.

The success of iron in ensuring good sanitation promoted its subsequent adoption in redeveloping other municipal markets such as Telok Ayer and Ellenborough Markets, completed in 1894 and 1899 respectively.

Conclusion

Clyde Terrace Market was a building of its time.

Its intricate and prominent iron structure, which stretched across a city block along Beach Road, gave rise to colloquial names such as thit pa-sat hau in Cantonese, referring to Beach Road facing the iron market, and Pasar Besi in Malay referring to its ironworks.[15]

Yet by the 1980s, the century-old market structure had become inadequate to meet the demands of the urban population shifting out of the city centre into suburban new towns. Instead of building sprawling, single-storey market structures, the housing authorities opted for many smaller, multi-storey buildings combining the market with cooked food hawker centre and sundry stores, each located within walking distance for a large catchment of new town residents.

Beach Road too was also undergoing drastic changes. The market had become out-of-place on a street undergoing high-density, high-rise redevelopment. Neighbouring Alhambra and Marlborough Cinemas gave way to Shaw Tower in early 1970s, while another longstanding public institution, the Singapore Volunteer Corps Headquarters vacated their site in 1984 after approximately 90 years of use.

View of Beach Road from Shaw Towers, 1976. Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

It is perhaps befitting that the Gateway, itself an architectural marvel of its time, had taken over the market’s former site. The main structure for Clyde Terrace Market was demolished in the mid-1980s ushering the way for the twin trapezoid 37-storey towers with sharp converging angles completed in 1990.