The end of the road nears for the 39-year-old Rochor Centre, which is making way for the upcoming North-South Expressway.
By September, the complex with its four iconic blocks – painted green, yellow, blue and red – will be consigned to the pages of history.
The signs of abandonment can already be seen. The stench of urine at some lift landings and deserted corners hangs heavy in the air. The shutters are down and there is hardly a soul around.
More than half of the shops and offices that used to occupy the first three floors of the four blocks have relocated.
Some people have even made the nearly vacant third floor of the centre their temporary sleeping area.
The residents who live on the fifth floor and above are waiting for the keys to their new flats at Kallang Trivista, also a Housing Board project.
They have already discarded television sets, cupboards, stoves, mattresses and other bulky household items and these have started to accumulate at the void decks.
The Straits Times, HDB
10 facts about the building
ALL-WHITE BLOCKS: Built by the Housing Board in 1977, the four blocks that make up Rochor Centre used to be all-white until they were repainted to their current four colours during the Interim Upgrading Programme in 1994.
PODIUM-AND-TOWER STYLE: Like other estates built in the same period, Rochor Centre was designed in the “podium-and-tower” style. It has three floors of retail space, a playground on the fourth floor, and residential units from the fifth to the 16th floor.
BOTTOMS UP: The unit numbers of flats in Rochor Centre are placed underneath staircases linking the levels, instead of on the walls like in most HDB estates.
NIGHT SOIL POINT: In the 1970s and 1980s, it was often associated with the odour of faeces, as there was a night soil deposit point located opposite it, where Albert Complex stands today.
TRANSVESTITES AND TOURISTS: When the old Bugis Street closed in 1985, transvestites frequented the area near Rochor Centre to pose for pictures with tourists.
HOME FOR THE AGED: Rochor Centre housed the first old folks’ home located at a void deck, on the fourth floor. Called the Rochore Kongsi Home for the Aged, it was opened in 1977 by Dr Toh Chin Chye, then Deputy Prime Minister and Member of Parliament of the area.
LITTLE JOHOR: In the 1980s, Rochor Centre was called “Little Johor” as it was popular with Malaysians, who found shopping there cheaper than in their home country.
CABS TO MALAYSIA: The nearby Ban San Street Taxi Kiosk is the only place in Singapore where people can get a Malaysia-registered taxi to ferry them to any location in Malaysia.
‘ROCHORE’: For years, Rochor was spelled with an “e”. The last known use of the name “Rochore” was in the 2000 Budget debate.
ERP TECH FOR CARPARK: In 2003, Rochor Centre’s carpark was one of the first public carparks – along with one in Toa Payoh Central – to implement an automated charging system using Electronic Road Pricing technology as well as per-minute charging.
This article was first published on March 31, 2016.
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