Bishan ( ), also known as Peck San, is a planning area and residential town located at the northernmost portion of the Central Region of Singapore. Statistically, the area is ranked the 38th biggest in terms of geographical size and the 22nd most populated planning area in the country. It is located at the most central point of Singapore, and it comprises three subzones of Bishan East, Marymount and Thomson. There are also many private residential properties in Bishan. Bishan is ranked 15th in terms of population density. Apart from its boundary with the Central Water Catchment in the west, Bishan borders three other planning areas: Ang Mo Kio to the north, Toa Payoh to the south, and Serangoon to the east.
What is now Bishan today was once land that belonged to Kwong Wai Siew Peck San Theng, a century old cemetery that mainly served the Cantonese and Hakka communities in Singapore. Following the establishment of the cemetery in 1870, the first human settlements began to appear in the area, forming what eventually became Kampong San Teng. During the Battle of Singapore in 1942, Peck San Theng was the site of a fierce firefight between the invading Japanese forces and the defending British. The subsequent fall of the island to the Japanese that same year eventually made Peck San Theng a place of refuge for most of the Singapore population. In 1973, Peck San Theng ceased accepting burials, and six years later, following a government lease, the land was acquired for development. Graves were then exhumed between 1982 and 1984, paving the way for the construction of Bishan New Town in 1983. Today, Peck San Theng remains in operation, although it has since been converted into a columbarium.
Bishan New Town became the first in Singapore to depart from the brutalist design seen in most previous Housing and Development Board (HDB) towns. Instead of slab-like residential blocks that were built in uniformed rows, apartment blocks in Bishan varied in height and were often dislocated. Flats within the town also featured pitched roofs which have since become closely associated with the skyline of Bishan. The town is also home to three of Singapore's most prestigious educational institutions: Catholic High School, Raffles Girls' School, and Raffles Institution.
Etymology Bishan derived its name from the Cantonese term for large burial ground, Peck San Theng (), which literally translates as "pavilions on the green".Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2003), Toponymics – A Study of Singapore Street Names, Eastern Universities Press, This term reflects the neighbourhood's origins as a burial ground that was established in 1870 by Cantonese and Hakka immigrants. This burial ground has been redeveloped since the 1980s and the original graves were relocated to the nearby Peck San Theng Temple.
Geography
Location The Bishan planning area, as demarcated by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), is situated in the Central Region of Singapore, bounded by planning areas of Ang Mo Kio to the north, Toa Payoh to the south and Serangoon to the east.
Bishan New Town sits within this planning area.
Subdivisions The Bishan planning area is further subdivided into three subzones, which are divided into three roughly vertical areas in the Bishan planning area as follows (from east to west): SubzoneLocationNotable PlacesBishan EastBordered by the Central Expressway (CTE)/Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 to the north and east, Bishan Road to the west and Braddell Road to the south.Bishan MRT stationJunction 8Bishan Community ClubMarymountBordered by Bishan Road to the east and Marymount Road to the west.Bishan–Ang Mo Kio Park (east section)Bishan Active ParkUpper ThomsonBordered by Marymount Road to the east and the Central Water Catchment to the west.Marymount MRT stationUpper Thomson MRT stationBishan–Ang Mo Kio Park (west section)Windsor Nature ParkThomson Plaza
Demographics
As of the General Household Survey from SingStat in 2015, Bishan's population consisted of 90,700 people, with 85.1% Chinese, 4.1% Malay, 7.7% Indian and 3.0% Others. The population density was 11,564 residents per square kilometre (29,652.1/mi2), ranking as the 15th planning area in Singapore by population density. Subzone Chinese Malays Indians Others Total Bishan East24,0201,4602,56079028,820 Marymount27,0901,2702,30088031,540 Upper Thomson26,1001,0402,1401,06030,340 Total77,2203,7607,0002,72090,700
Based on the 2023 population trends from SingStat, Bishan had a total of 31,600 households, with 63.5% being Housing and Development Board (HDB) housing, 26.2% being condominiums, and 9.8% being landed properties.
Subzone HDB Condo Landed Others Total Bishan East8,2901,5900509,930 Marymount6,8601,630760409,290 Upper Thomson4,9205,0602,3406012,380 Total20,0708,2803,10015031,600
History Peck San Theng cemetery was established in 1870 on the site of present-day Bishan by Cantonese and Hakka immigrants. People began to settle around the cemetery, and Kampong San Theng and Soon Hock Village, which lay within Kampong San Theng grounds, soon grew in size. Singapore Kwong Wai Siew Peck San Theng, a federation of 16 Cantonese clans in Singapore, managed and ran Kampong San Theng. This settlement grew over time to accommodate nearly 2000 inhabitants at the beginning of the 20th century.
During World War II, the Peck San Theng cemetery became a battle ground between British and Japanese forces. The 2nd Battalion of the Cambridgeshire Regiment had engaged the Japanese forces on 14 February 1942 over the nearby strategically important MacRitchie Reservoir. The Japanese also bombed Kampong San Teng, which resulted in significant civilian casualties. The battle ended the next day, 15 February, when the British surrendered to the Japanese. At that point, British troops were still holding out along Braddell Road. During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, this area became a refuge for people trying to evade the Japanese because the Japanese occupiers were afraid to enter the cemetery.
After the war, the graves of Peck San Theng became a known gangster hideout, and gang-related crimes became rife in the area. In 1973, the government ordered the cemetery to be closed and mandated that no fresh burials were allowed to be done within the cemetery. The government later acquired this cemetery land from the Kwong Wai Siew Peck San Theng foundation for SGD$$4.95 million in 1979. As compensation, the government gave 3 hectares of the land back to the foundation for the foundation to build a columbarium. The foundation subsequently built a multi-story columbarium complex on this land.
In the early 1970s, the Housing Development Board (HDB) built the first housing estate which was located at Sin Ming Road along with clusters of industrial sectors. The first blocks of residential flats were numbered Block 22–26, now known as Sin Ming Ville. In late 2021, it was announced that Block 26 Sin Ming Industrial Estate will be demolished to make way for redevelopment.
Sin Ming industrial estate is also known to be a popular destination for matters relating to automotive needs as the estate houses mainly vehicle workshops and establishments specialising in vehicle sales, maintenance, registration as well as inspection. To date, many of the low rise workshops have since been demolished and relocated to the nearby Sin Ming Autocare and Sin Ming Autocity high rise complexes. Plans are underway for the vacated lands to be redeveloped for residential use.
In addition to Sin Ming Ville, the development of Lakeview Estate was simultaneously completed somewhere in mid 1977. Lakeview Estate was segregated into two segments with fourteen low rise blocks numbered Blocks 1-14 and three high rise flats numbered Blocks 97A, 97B and 97C. The low rise blocks consisted of shophouses and a wet market with food centre located at Block 9 whereas the high rise flats consist of HUDC apartment units. Later in the late 1990s, the low rise segment of Lakeview Estate was demolished and it remains vacant to date.
By the 1980s, HDB had already begun expanding the area into a satellite housing estate to meet the rising demand for housing from Singapore's then-growing population. The residents in Kampong San Teng were resettled and a mass exhumation of the 170,000 graves were carried out in 1980. Redevelopment of the area officially started in 1982. On this land, HDB planned to construct 24,600 residential units distributed across 4 distinct neighbourhoods: Bishan East, Bishan North, Bishan West (subsequently renamed Sin Ming Garden Estate in 1988) and Shunfu Estate, of which Bishan East will be the largest. In 2011, after plans to construct the North–South Corridor (NSC) expressway was announced to ease congestion along Marymount Road and the Central Expressway (CTE), Marymount Terrace was acquired by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and later demolished. In 2018, Shunfu Ville HUDC flats were demolished to make way for the Jadescape Condominium project.
The first five blocks of housing units were completed by 1985. There were initial fears of a poor demand for houses in Bishan due to prevailing local superstitions about bad fengshui since they were built on a former cemetery. However, the first batch of houses were all snapped up during their launch to buyers who were attracted by the central location of Bishan.
Sports
Bishan Sports Centre, formerly known as Bishan Sports and Recreation Centre, houses sporting facilities such as a sports hall, a stadium, a dance studio and a swimming complex. Managed by Sport Singapore, these sporting facilities cater to both the general public and professional athletes.
Several major national and international level sporting events has been held at the Bishan Sports Centre, including the 2009 Asian Youth Games and the 2010 Youth Olympic Games. Bishan Sports Hall, which serves as the primary venue for gymnastics competitions in Singapore, has hosted gymnastic competitions as part of the 2009 Asian Youth Games, 2010 Youth Olympic Games and the 2015 SEA Games. It is also the venue for national-level gymnastics competition in Singapore. Similarly, the 4,200-seat Bishan Stadium has hosted the athletics and football competitions at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games and the 2015 SEA Games respectively.
Bishan Stadium is the home of the Lion City Sailors, a professional football club that plays in Singapore Premier League.
Opened in 2008, the Bishan Active park also offers sporting facilities to the residents of Bishan. This 24,000 square metres park houses facilities such as a roller blading track, basketball courts and a beach volleyball court, augmenting the facilities found at the Bishan Sports Centre.
Infrastructure
Transport
Bishan is connected by road to the rest of Singapore via the Central Expressway (CTE), a major expressway connecting Northern parts of Singapore with its city centre. In addition it has its own Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station, the Bishan MRT station, which is an interchange station on both the North–South Line (NSL) and Circle Line (CCL). Bishan also has a bus interchange that provides bus services to other parts of Singapore (such as Changi and Punggol). There are also feeder bus services that operate within the neighbourhood.
The Kallang Park Connector, which begins in Bishan, provides a cycling route between Bishan and the Central Business District along the Kallang River. This route was the first park connector that was constructed in Singapore.
Marymount MRT station is a station on the CCL that serves residents living in Shunfu, Thomson, Sin Ming and Jalan Pemimpin.
Both Bright Hill station and Upper Thomson station are MRT stations on the Thomson–East Coast Line (TEL) that provide connection between the Sin Ming and Thomson area of Bishan with the northern parts and Central Business District of Singapore. The upcoming Cross Island Line will also have connections with the TEL at Bright Hill station.