Memories of Towner Road

Not many would have heard of Towner road but that street has special memories for 6 of us in my family. My siblings and I grew up in Towner road in the early to mid 70s in one of the Terrace houses there. I was probably 2-4 yrs old then but I remember very vividly the fun I had in that spacious house and during my increasingly lonely weekends in the OC, the touch of alcohol further irrigates the already fertile effervescent mind of mine, propagating pleasant thoughts of growing up on the streets of Towner Road.

The two-story house was huge and contrastingly furnishing was spartan and mininalistic. I remember a couple wooden furnitures but none of my siblings had a bed. All of us had rattan mats to sleep on.

The row of houses were of colonial style and built in the 1920s. The house had a peculiar architecture and layout was even more so enigmatic. Outhouse toilets, detached kitchen, a huge open space in the back, a concrete tub for bathing, a refreshing veranda with rattan blinds, spiral stairs...the list goes on.

On my trip back to Singapore after graduating from the instituition, I paid Towner road a visit after many many years (probably 22-23 yrs?). I learnt that the houses are still there and renovated back to its glorious past. They are owned by the Far Eastern group and are up for lease being marketted as the "Towner Ville" housing project. One of my high-level "to-do" list in my life is to buy that property back one day and live in that very house that I grew up.