A journalist’s terrace in a new estate

Aida Street, named after Giuseppe Verdi’s opera set in ancient Egypt, was among the first streets developed in Opera Estate. Crédit Foncier’s original single-storey terraces here, with asbestos roofs and cement floors, were priced from $9,760 in the mid-1950s. 1

One of its best-known residents was Yusof Ishak, who lived on Aida Street while still a journalist, years before he became Singapore’s first President. A family photograph from 1955 in the National Archives shows him with Puan Noor Aishah and their children at their Aida Street home. 12

Orchids over the fence

Neighbours knew him as a keen gardener. Journalist David Kraal later recalled meeting the couple at his uncle’s new terrace in the estate: as the evening ended, Yusof Ishak picked an orchid from his garden and handed it to Kraal’s mother. 1

Mrs Nancy Tan, who grew up in a bungalow on Tosca Street in the 1950s and 60s, could see the Yusof Ishak home from her backyard. She remembered Puan Noor Aishah as warm and friendly, handing out kueh to neighbours during Hari Raya. In those years, she said, Tosca Street had a single row of houses facing a field where cows grazed, and goats roamed a small rocky hill on Aida Street. 1

A street of firsts

Yusof Ishak was not the estate’s only prominent resident: Othman Wok, one of Singapore’s first-generation cabinet ministers, also lived in Opera Estate. 1 Today, Aida Park sits between Aida Street and Bedok South Road, and the street’s original terraces have largely been replaced by modern homes. 1

Sources

  1. Living in Harmony: The History of Opera Estate — BiblioAsia, National Library Board (2022)
  2. Siglap, Frankel Estate and Opera Estate (Bedok Heritage Trail) — Roots.gov.sg, National Heritage Board