Mango fish bay

Telok Kurau Road takes its name from a former fishing village. Telok is Malay for “bay” and kurau refers to the threadfin, or “mango fish”. 12 Residents of the area once watched milkmen lead their cows from house to house, milking them on the spot for customers. 1

A school in a coconut plantation

Telok Kurau English School opened on Telok Kurau Road in 1926 as a two-storey wooden building in the middle of a coconut plantation. Lee Kuan Yew enrolled there in January 1930, and future Malaysian Prime Minister Hussein Onn in January 1931. In 1967 a new building at 408 Joo Chiat Place replaced the old wooden school facing Lorong J. 2

Two more schools followed on Telok Kurau Road — Telok Kurau Malay Girls’ School (1960) and Telok Kurau West School (1962) — before they merged in the 1980s. Since 2001, the former Telok Kurau West School site has been home to the Telok Kurau Studios art centre. 23

Where did Lorongs A to F go?

Telok Kurau’s lanes start at Lorong G. The earlier letters didn’t disappear — they were renamed. In a 1934 exercise, the lettered lorongs off East Coast Road were given names honouring people and tropical fruits: Lorong A became Crane Road, after the Crane family who owned plantations in Geylang and Katong; Lorong D became Duku Road; Lorong E became Koon Seng Road; and Lorong F became Langsat Road. Duku Place and Duku Lane were added as offshoots of Duku Road in 1952. 4

The lanes that kept their letters — Lorong G through Lorong N Telok Kurau — form the compact grid of terraces, semi-Ds and bungalows that the estate is known for today.

Sources

  1. History of Katong-Joo Chiat — Roots.gov.sg, National Heritage Board
  2. The Beginning (1926) — School History — Telok Kurau Primary School, Ministry of Education
  3. Telok Kurau West Primary School — MOE Heritage Centre
  4. The Missing Lorongs (citing Savage & Yeoh, Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics) — Joo Chiat Today