One of the first streets to be paved in colonial Singapore, North Bridge Road in the 1920s and 1930s was a popular location for Chinese book retailers such as the Popular Book Company and the Shanghai Book Company. Many of these stores relocated to the nearby Bras Basah Complex in the 1980s, which is known as Book City, or ‘Shu Cheng’ in Mandarin. However, the decline in the number of Chinese readers in recent years has resulted in the restructuring or closure of many of these institutions.In the 1970s, the old city centre underwent redevelopment under the government’s urban renewal scheme. New structures built as part of the renewal scheme included: the Peninsula Hotel and Shopping Complex at Coleman Street (centre background) completed in 1974; and the 31-storey High Street Centre (centre background, behind the Peninsula Hotel), a residential, office and shopping complex which was erected along Hill Street that same year.
