Like a frightened self-proclaimed cat, of course I visited a supposedly haunted place in the middle of the day.
Of all the haunted houses in Singapore, Spooner Road is one of the most well-known. These ghost stories are made all the more frightening by the fact that current and former citizens have extensively documented their supernatural encounters, with “substantial” evidence of otherworldly entities. .
Many videos and articles have circulated online about reports of paranormal phenomena and Ghostbusters-like explorations through adrenaline junkies. There are stories of sobs in empty rooms and dark figures hiding even in daylight.
I’m not one to be swept up in ghosts, but I’m very scared, so I ventured to Spooner Road on a sweltering afternoon to discover the truth behind the estate.
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For ghost stories to carry weight, there will have to be an explanation for their supposed reputation. I did a quick Google search on Spooner Road before going down, just in case I needed to bring salt or garlic, and this is what I found.
The HDB blocks on Spooner Road are some of the oldest in Singapore, with a history dating back to the mid-1970s. More blocks were originally built, but have since been demolished. Today, there are two left, built a little later. in 1983.
Here’s a map of the domain around Spooner Road from the 1970s to the present day. There were 8 buildings along Spooner Road marked on the map in the past, but today there are 3.
Lately, the estate contains two apartment buildings: Kemuning (Orang Jasmine) and Melati (Arabian Jasmine), built in 1983, which served as housing for Malaysians in the 1980s and were located near the Tanjong Pagar railway station.
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Spooner Road is named after Charles Edwin Spooner, the first director of the Federated States of Malaysia Railways, predecessor of the Malaysian Railway Administration.
Spooner is an engineer and is also known for making plans and structures for many buildings in Malaysia in an Indo-Saracenic architectural style, such as the Kuala Lumpur railway station.
Speaking of Malaysia, did you know that they owned the land on Spooner Road until recently?Malaysia only returned the parcel of land on Spooner Road to Singapore in 2011, after the Tanjong Pagar station closed permanently.
Subsequently, the domain was remodeled to house HDB rental apartments. The buildings, Kemuning and Melati, now house several low-income families and provide them with transitional housing before they can get permanent options.
In addition to the HDB rental systems, some of the apartments in either block are used as transitional shelters to space out other people through systems run by organizations such as the Ang Mo Kio Family Service Center.
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A deserted railway mission doesn’t strike me as a scary story about its origin.
Apparently, after the hotel closed, the apartments sat empty for years and reportedly attracted wandering spirits. Over time, when they were used as rented apartments, the spirits rejoiced at the influx of new roommates to their free properties, becoming restless and tormenting the intruders who invaded their home.
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I took the exercise to Outram MRT and walked down the street. It’s amazing to have such a giant piece of land around the area, which is usually not used, especially so close to the city center.
Surrounding the farm were giant green fields, some demarcated for structure and others preserved as a component of the rail corridor segment.
Since Malaysia didn’t return the Spooner Road buildings until 2011, those blocks have been improved through the Housing and Development Board and remain a snapshot of a bygone era.
With windowless elevators and lockers for laundry on the first floor, the HDB estate is a special feature compared to its evolved neighbors around it.
I didn’t see anyone during my entire stay there, but I’m pretty sure there were other people at home. I heard the water rushing, saw the roof enthusiasts circling around and knowing there was a retiree organization living there, it made me feel happy. sense.
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Tucked away in the block on the left (Kemuning) was a deserted bungalow. I tried to get in, but there were half a dozen CCTV cameras in the wreckage and a giant “NO ENTRY” sign that I wasn’t in such a hurry to disobey.
Arguably the scariest component of the entire field, the government can take advantage of it and turn it into the new Halloween Horror Night thing.
Walking through the HDB grounds, I also discovered some social action offices. The domain definitely looked older and rougher than most HDB domains, but it wasn’t dirty, just symptoms of aging and years gone by.
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There were also some interesting old mailboxes in those buildings along Spooner Road, most of which were empty.
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Unfortunately, all the old stuff has to be renewed faster or later; We don’t have a lot of space to allocate them. And being in such a privileged neighborhood, it’s no wonder both blocks are being demolished.
The HDB plans to relocate all citizens until October 2024, and in July 2023, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for National Development, Indranee Rajah, said in a Facebook post that she had visited affected citizens last week to ensure I told them that the HDB would do so. It would allow them to move into new housing.
There are still a few months left to explore this rich heritage, preserving recent history among the immediate advances in Singapore. In a few months’ time, possibly only in the archives of the Internet, instead, there will be a brilliant new development.
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