The area bounded by River Valley Road and Havelock Road was occupied by Prisoner-of-War (POW) camps during the Japanese Occupation (1942-1945). The Havelock Road/River Valley Road camps comprised groups of dilapidated attap huts which housed thousands of POWs. The camps were mainly run by the POWs themselves and were said to enjoy privileges other camps did not have, especially in the early stages of the occupation, such as having a Roman Catholic chapel and a small library. The POWs were also dispatched from the two camps to clean up and repair war-torn parts of the city, including the badly bombed Chinatown area.
