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Bugis Street, not to be confused with New Bugis Street, is today a pedestrianized street within the Bugis Junction shopping mall. It runs from Victoria Street on the one to North Bridge Road on the other, and is joined by the covered Hylam Street in the middle.
Named after the Bugis sailors who used to sail up the Rochor River (or canal, as it is today), to trade with the locals of the area, Bugis Street gained an entirely different reputation between the 1950's and 1980's, when it was a notorious nightlife area.
Bugis Square, within Bugis Junction (8 July 2011)
© Timothy Tye using this photo
The main draw of Bugis Street during those days were the transvestites, who became one of Singapore's curious tourist draws among male Westerners. During those decades, the street was lined with hawkers. As night descends, out come the flamboyantly-dressed "girls" who flirt openly with male Western tourists, sitting on their lap, or posing for photographs. One can easily tell who are real women and who are the transvestites - the latter are usually way more beautiful!
The government was not at all pleased with this indecent form of activity in strait-laced Singapore, and by the 1970's, the police began to crack down on both the transwomen as well as their Westerner clients. The final nail to the coffin came when Bugis Street was torn up for the construction of the Bugis MRT Station in the mid 1980's. It was a rather sad end to a colourful part of the country's history.
After the station was completed, the Bugis Junction integrated complex was built to restore the shophouses in the area. At the heart of the former Bugis Street is now Bugis Square, a paved square with a musical fountain and a 24-hour McDonald's. Apart from shopping kiosks, the hawkers were never allowed back. The result is a totally sanitized shopping mall devoid of the zest of the original Bugis Street.
There must have been a change of heart at the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, which is now attempting to bring some street life back to the Bugis area by transforming New Bugis Street into what it bills as "the largest street shopping location in Singapore". Alas, without the transvestites to pull in the crowd, the New Bugis Street is nowhere compared to Patpong in Bangkok.
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