This is a company envelope of the Katong & Company Bakery and Confectionery. It was also known as the Red House Bakery due to the red exterior of its shophouse at East Coast Road. A Jewish man, Jim Baker, first set up the bakery shop in 1925. Tan Siang Fuan (the donor’s father), a Hainanese seaman, paid a token amount of S$600 and took over the business in 1931. The bakery is located in a shophouse, which was declared a wakaf property in 1957, put in trust to the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore by Sherrifa Zain Alsharoff Mohamed Alsogoff. Business ended in 2003 when shophouses in the vicinity were found to be structurally unsafe. The Red House Bakery was popular for pastries such as curry puffs, Swiss rolls and barbecued pork buns. It was also a gathering place for local bands during the 1960s, as well as dating couples and matchmaking sessions. The bakery practised a payment system based on trust, the norm among old establishments. Customers would choose and eat the pastries and cakes that they fancied, and then proceed to make payment.
