Read Bridge

The area around Read Bridge used to be an entertainment spot for Chinese labourers who would gather on the bridge to listen to storytellers hence people often associated the unique name the bridge got itself to the reading of stories by storytellers in the past. However, coincidence it may be, the bridge was actually named after a prominent English merchant in the 1880s named William Henry Mcleod Read.

The Read Bridge was built in replacement of Merchant Bridge in 1889 as the latter was not built high enough to allow the passage of boats during high tide. As the area in the past was called Kampong Melaka, the Read Bridge was also known as the Melaka Bridge. This was because Kampong Melaka was a fuel hub where trading of firewood, charcoal and oil supplied from Melaka took place.

We tried to look for the oldest mosque in Singapore called Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka, which was built in 1820, but missed it due to time constraint. However, we do know that the mosque was named after Syed Omar bin Aljunied, an Arab merchant who used to live there. He became very successful during his time because of his shrewd business tactics and hence Aljunied was named after him.