The original New Bridge Road was laid in 1842, two years after the new Coleman Bridge was erected across the Singapore River. The bridge linked the road, which was on the south side of the river, with Hill Street in the north. The area around New Bridge Road and nearby Wayang Street was where many Teochew (a Chinese dialect group) fruit and vegetable sellers conducted their business. Teochew businessmen were known for specialising in the entrepot trade with their compatriots in Thailand and Indonesia.In the 1970s, the New Bridge Road area was redeveloped as part of the government’s urban renewal scheme for the old city centre. One of the new structures built as part of the scheme was the HDB housing complex (left) erected on the site where the Ellenborough market once stood before it was destroyed by a fire. Towering in the distance was the 31-storey High Street Centre (right) residential, office and shopping complex, which was erected in 1974 along Hill Street as part of the urban renewal project.
