New Series in May:
1) Lost&Found@MyQueenstown features the memories and old pictures of residents who lived in estates no longer exists in Queenstown and activities which have ceased. We have interviewed residents living in Ballater Close, Boh Beh Kang villages and Queens' Crescent as well residents from the former Boys' Brigade. Look out for the Blog posts!
Boys Brigade from Queenstown Lutheran Church
2) Ever wonder where does your fish and fruits come from? Another brand new column, Pasar@MyQueenstown, features lives of hawkers and vendors in wet markets around Queenstown.
3) The return of the ALL-TIME favourite series, Restricted Access@MyQueenstown, will introduce residents to places that are "restricted" to access for the general public. Remember the Venus & Golden City Theatres? Complementing Restricted Accesss will be Farewell MyQueenstown. We will continue to feature the demolition of Blocks along Margaret Drive, Holland Drive and KTM Tracks
4) Ever wonder how did those coffeemakers around Tanglin Halt and Stirling View came about? The return of Makan Shiok and Shop Til U Drop will introduce residents to the good food and the old authentic shops in Queenstown!
5) My Father and I will tell you more about the heritage and history of places around Queenstown. Places include the Lutheran Church, Church of the Good Shepherd and Masjid Mujahiddin will be featured in the returning series.
2011 is the year when numerous familiar buildings in Queenstown will be demolished. MyQueenstown Blog, which captures the memories of residents, students and ex-acquaintance of the estate, has seen a substantial increase in our daily blog readership.
Readership on April 1 11:11 to 13:10
In two hours on a weekday morning (where ratings are usually very low as many are working and studying), MyQueenstown Blog recorded an average readership of about 10-13 unique visitors per minute or about 1500 readers in 2 hours. Exclusive features on places such as Commonwealth Avenue Cooked Food Centre (Margaret Drive Hawker Centre) are among the most popular.
In just 2 hours, there are over 800 unique viewers reading the post on the removal of hawkers at Margaret Drive Hawker Centre although the article was posted about one month ago. To date, there are over 56,500 views for that post as the article has been circulated around other major forums such as hardwarezone and sgforum alongside other blog posts about Queenstown Cinema & Bowling Alley, Queenstown Sports Complex and KTM Tracks.
Weekly Ratings 25-31 March 2011
In the past one week, our blog has attracted over 106,600 unique views. Credibility and neutrality are our core principles when we write each article. Every allegation or opinion in the post are well substantiated with photographs (of the interviewee). We are not affiliated to any business or political ideology and we remain committed to improve our content.
Our All-Time Top 10 Posts:
#3 Restricted Access@MyQueenstown #2 - Palace KTV 69,290 views #5 Restricted Access@MyQueenstown #7 - Ayer Rajah Camp (Part 1) 64,125 views #7 Restricted Access@MyQueenstown #8 - Ayer Rajah Camp (Part 2) 57,240 views
We are proud to be the content provider for Queenstown's newsletter, which has a circulation of 18,200 household. We will administer our principles and practices while writing for the newsletter. The second issue of the newsletter will be ready by May 2011.
Finally, MyQueenstown Team would like to thank all residents and readers for their continuous support =)
MyQueenstown Team
It had been a great year for MyQueenstown Blog and a great time for us to fill you guys with insights on the history, civic life and aspirations of our beautiful community. New columns were introduced and a new approach was used in improving our content. Let us take a peep at some of the interesting articles posted and what other posts to look out for this January!
Before Dawn @ MyQueenstown
Let us take a peek into what goes on in Queenstown before dawn! Most of us are asleep or playing computer games in this period. Find out more about what our kids are like on their First Day in School (8842 views) and who goes for morning exercise at 4am in Queenstown Stadium (6889 views).
What goes on Before Dawn@MyQueenstown?
Upcoming Posts: Early Birds at Tanglin Halt Market & Food Centre & Worshippers at Blessed Sacrament Church
Home Sweet Home @ MyQueenstown
Rearing 50+ animals at home? Or staying in your comfortable house for one last night? Home Sweet Home @ MyQueenstown will feature interesting snippets about residents in Queenstown. Our first two posts have attracted 12428 and 17209 views respectively, making this column the most popular one!
One last night at Blk 27A
Farewell MyQueenstown
2011 marks the end of many things in Queenstown. All the old photographs and all the memories will be kept alive - right here! Our first two posts on Commonwealth Avenue Cooked Food Centre attracted over 25,000 readers.
Goodbye Commonwealth Avenue Cooked Food Centre
Upcoming Posts: Farewell Queenstown Poh Pia, Farewell Fried Dough Sticks! Farewell NTUC Cooperatives!
MyQueenstown Panorama
An insight into the contemporary social issues in Queenstown from high-rise littering (8445 views) to high costs of living faced by Queenstown folks during the onset of inflation.
High Rise Littering in Queenstown
Upcoming Posts: Calls for Feeder Service!; Things I can't afford in Queenstown
Old stories, old memories and old photos... My Queenstown intends to collate the memories and pictures of Queenstown residents into a book and would like to urge residents, ex-residents or workers to come forward and contribute to the social fabric of our community.
What you can contribute?
You can digitalised your old photographs (present pictures are fine too!) or pass the hard copy to us via myqueenstown@gmail.com or arrange a separate appointment for us to collect the old photographs by SMS 91769891. A separate interview will be conducted to record your memories and accounts of various landmarks and features of the estate. We welcome any photographs and any accounts!
How you can contribute?
Unsure of what you can do? If you don't have photographs or a good memory, you can assist us by helping to collect those photographs! Send us a message on facebook here or via myqueenstown@gmail.com!
All the photographs and accounts will not be published without prior permission! =)
Dear Residents and Readers,
Thanks for your continuous support for our blog. Our blog has enjoyed an increase in ratings over the past month. Columns such as Restricted Access are popular among the readers and they are among our most read posts.
Our Readership for the week between October 18 and October 24
Our Top Rated Blog Posts
In the coming months, we will introduce new columns to replace the old ones as a usual process of renewal. Look out for more the changes likely to take place in December! Do tell us any interesting ideas for the blog! =)
My Queenstown is a subsidary of registered society, My Community. We are established intially as an online community portal offering updates and insights on civic life in Queenstown in December 2009. We expanded our portal to Facebook (February 2010), Twitter (April 2010) and Youtube (May 2010) to link Queenstown residents to the heritage, community news and happenings around Singapore's first satellite estate.
As a society, My Queenstown aims to
1) Preserve, protect and educate residents on the culture, heritage and tradition in the community.
2) Integrate residents together regardless of race, language and religion.
3) Instill residents with a sense of pride and belonging to the community.
As a civic platform and a credible fourth estate, we have achieved some success in voicing out residents' concerns to the relevant authorities and censuring inappropriate conduct:
Wires No Longer Tangled
1) In June 2010, our publication on severe maintenance lapse in Queenstown has enabled the Town Council to reconsider their strategies in providing a condusive living environment.
2) In July 2010, MyQueenstown Team investigated the problem of littering in Stirling road and managed to reduce the problems after speaking to the residents and students there. We have also suggested ways to the businesses there on how to reduce impact of littering. Stirling Road (outside Blk 49) is much cleaner now!
3) In August 2010, our publication on insufficient wheel-chair accessibility has attracted intense scrutiny on managing elder folks' needs in Queenstown. Prompt action was taken to alleviate the residents' concerns.
MyQueenstown Online Portal will continue to serve as an independent media platform which is not affiliated to any government organisations, businesses and political parties. In the past few months, MyQueenstown Team is glad to have transformed a part of the civic space in Queenstown and we would continue to showcase Queenstown's beautiful and long history, civic life in Queenstown and the collective civic movement on how to improve our estate further.
Residents who wish to assist in our preservation of the heritage and history can send us photos of historical places in Queenstown (digitalised or hard copy). Our team will process the photos and return the hard copy within 5 working days.
My Queenstown is the current content provider for Queenstown newsletter, which is jointly published by the Queenstown Citizens' Consultative Committee and My Queenstown. This newsletter allows residents in Queenstown who do not have access to our website, a golden opportunity to browse through the rich history and heritage, civic life and community aspirations of our estate. Besides being a content provider, we do not and will not canvass for the organisation.
In the upcoming months, My Queenstown will launch a heritage portal with the Queenstown Citizens' Consultative Committee and several heritage trails with Queenstown Secondary School. This fulfills our aim to propagate the history of our estate to more residents within the community.
Let us make Queenstown the most caring and friendliest estate!
My Queenstown My Heritage, My Community, My Aspirations
Woohoo! MyQueenstown Blog will have brand new content and fresh columns starting 26 September 2010! =) We promise more exciting and kaypoh features about Queenstown!
Former Queenstown Cinema and Bowling Centre
Restricted Access@MyQueenstown will feature places that are inaccessible to Queenstown residents. Remember Queenstown Cinema & Bowling Centre? How about a training at Etoile FC? Have you entered Alexandra Fire Station? Catch RA@MyQueenstown every Sundays from 26 September 2010 onwards.
What's this Pink Building doing in Margaret Drive?
Eh... What's this pink building doing in Margaret Drive? Why are there statues at Commonwealth Crescent? MyQueenstown Team will kaypoh kaypoh on the small little things in Queenstown every Mondays at MyQueenstown KayPoh Club!
Snacks Attack!
Yummy Yummy! This season, everyone is blaming My Queenstown for introducing oily and fattening food! Come 30 September, we will launch a brand new Snacks Series replacing Makan Shiok! every Thursdays!
Is there a lady named Margaret?
Why Margaret Drive is called Margaret Drive? Why Dawson Road is called Dawson Road? Let us find out the history behind each road and place names in The Name Game! every Saturdays from 2 October 2010.
Remember to check us out this upcoming relaunch on 26 September 2010!
MyQueenstown Team would like to say a BIG thank you to all residents and patrons of our beautiful estate for the past few months. Our online portal has experienced a huge increase in our readership and we will continue to deliver insights and snippets of the most beautiful housing estates in Singapore.
Average Daily Unique Views of MyQueenstown.Blogspot.com (courtesy of blogger.com & blogcounter)
Do support us by informing your friends and neighbours in the estate about this exclusive portal for Queenstown! We will be introducing new columns by end September and we promise more exciting posts including Restricted Access@MyQueenstown, MyQueenstopedia and MyQueenstown KayPoh Club.
Top Rated Posts of MyQueenstown.Blogspot.com
Once again, thanks for your support. Do SMS us 91769891 for news and heritage information about Queenstown
MyQueenstown Team would like to emphasis our position as an independent platform which serves to integrate residents and friends regardless of race, religion, language and background. We aim to preserve and propagate the heritage, history and tradition of Queenstown community and instill residents with a deep sense of belonging and pride for our Community. For residents who are less inclined socially, we will put our utmost effort to improve their living environment through our programmes such as Love@MyQueenstown, MyQueenstown SMS, etc (which we will announce from time to time).
We are proposing to expand our outreach programmes and community services in the next few months as a full fledged civic entity.
We understood from sources that the People's Association classify our online portal (our team is proud that it's quite successful and we thank Queenstown residents for their continuous support!) as part of their new media initiatives. Furthermore, certain ranks in the ruling party has expressed interest in "using our portal for their upcoming election campaign." We would like to reiterate that we are residents and friends of Queenstown who establish My Queenstown for our fellow residents. This website captures our stories, our heritage and our aspirations in one true voice of the community. What's different from other community websites is My Queenstown's ability to provide a depoliticised, community-centric and genuine sentiments from the residents (we always take a photograph of the resident or shopkeepers we interview).
We are neither connected to nor established by the People's Association. Furthermore, we do not possess any political inclination so that residents can continue to use our platform to "speak up" on issues freely that concern our bread and butter, our shared heritage and our common destiny for the future (Just speak up!). We are sorry that certain groups of people from the above organisations have used our portal as their "mouthpiece" and we strongly urge them not to do so and allow residents, friends and students of Queenstown possess a credible and bottom-up approach to contribute to their community so that Queenstown can become a caring, vibrant and exciting home for all of us.
Cheers,
MyQueentown Team
Once upon a time, Queenstown was hills, swamps and cemeteries. Villagers in Queenstown called it Boh Beh Kang or no tail swamp which indicates the idyllic and spartan life in the area. After World War II, the British government has decided to develop the land in Queenstown for residential purposes due to the overcrowding situation back in Chinatown. However, the failures of the British housing initiative, the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT), meant that the Housing Development Board (HDB) took over in 1960 and completed where the British had left.
Our Society's Map of Queenstown
There are generally 7 districts in Queenstown. They are:
Princess Margaret Estate or Princess Estate was originally the 5 neighbourhoods of Queenstown. It is bounded by Alexandra Road, Margaret Drive, Tanglin Road and Strathmore Avenue. It was named after the sister of the reigning Queen. Flats in the estate are fondly known as lam por day or blue glass used for the windows of the chap si lau (14 storey) tall flats. One prominent building in this estate is Block 39, Forfar House, the tallest residential building at its time opened in October 1956. Today, Forfar house is no longer around. Forfar Heights are a cluster of 40 storey flats with panoramic views of our harbour and the city. Furthermore, a cluster of eco-friendly flats are built along Dawson Road. It is the most expensive HDB flats ever sold due to its close proximity to Orchard Road.
Duchess Estate or Queenstown "Central" was started building in 1954 and completed in 1967. It was called the central because of a variety of commercial and entertainment amenities were built including the first Polyclinic in 1963, Venus and Golden City Theatre in 1965, Queenstown Remand Prison in 1966, Queenstown Community Library (the first in the estate) in 1969 and Queenstown Cinema and Bowling Alley in 1976. Some prominent flats include Blk 39A and Blk 6C. As time passes, many younger generations have moved to other estates which offer larger apartment flats, leaving behind older folks with a lower purchasing power. In the next few years, we shall anticipate the authorities' plans to rejuvenate Duchess Estate.
Commonwealth Estate, fondly remembered as chap lak lao chu (sixteen storey tall flats) is the third estate developed between 1962 and 1964 under HDB. One prominent flat, Blk 81, has received numerous foreign dignitaries over the years because it offers panoramic views of the developments in Queenstown as well as Holland Road. Some of these prominent figures include Emperor Akihito of Japan and Prince Phillip. It also houses the first flatted factory in a neighbourhood industrial estate as well as the iconic Lutheran Church.
Tanglin Halt or the Chap Lao Chu (10 storey) has been synonymous with the history of Queenstown. Ask any older taxi drivers around and it is likely they understand the Hokkien translation of the place. Tanglin Halt is known as such because the Keretapi Melayu Trains used to stop near the estate. Residents will most probably recall their experiences KTM railway tracks. Tanglin Halt has several features that other parts of Queenstown do not have! It has 2 markets and 2 spectacular places of worship, namely the Blessed Sacrament Church and the Sri Muneeswaran Temple. Blessed Sacrament Church is gazetted as a National Monument for its architectual excellence whereas Sri Muneeswaran Temple is the largest temple in South East Asia worshiping the Hindu God.
Queens' Close/Crescent is the fifth estate built in Queenstown. Queens' Market, opened in 1964, was closed thereafter. Queens' Close used to be a pig and chicken farmland.
The sixth district of Queenstown is Mei Ling/Stirling Road. However, Blk 45, 48 and Blk 49 along Stirling Road were in fact the first HDB blocks. They are 7 storey tall. There are several prominent places of worship in Stirling Road, namely Masjid Mujahidin (built in 1977), Tiong Ghee Temple and True Way Presbyterian Church (built in 1961). Several features of HDB flats in Mei Ling district differ greatly from other estates as well. In order to facilitate interaction among residents, void decks are first introduced. Furthermore, emphasis of privacy in public housing can be seen where point Blocks 160 and 161 were designed to accommodate less than 6 units per storey and often located near lifts. Mei Chin or Good Scenery in Mandarin, also houses an extensive shophouses. You can travel from Mei Chin to Queens' Close via a sky bridge.
The seventh district of Queenstown is Buona Vista, which consists of Ghim Moh, Holland Village and Dover. However, due to its location and the influence of media, Buona Vista is often seen as a separate housing estate.
My Queenstown Community Portal
MyQueenstown is an integrated platform of blogging, facebook, twitter and SMS service which aims to connect the residents of different background, different faiths, different racial and language groups together in this large Queenstown community. We aim to inspire a collective memory and destiny for the future with extensive coverage on the history, the people, the places and the activities in Queenstown. We also aim to provide Queenstown residents with an alternative source of entertainment and information because knowing our community better can empower us greatly!
MyQueenstown Blog is a website that introduces Queenstown estate through our scribbles about the history of Queenstown, the nice makan and shopping places, the people and the social news! You can tell us what interesting stuff you wish to see and know more! We'll try to kaypoh whenever possible! MyQueenstown Facebook is the interactive page to engage the residents on the hot topics and reminisce on our collective memory as a community. We'll update the facebook page daily (Guarantee)! You are welcomed to publish anything (photos, complains, memories) as long as they don't contain any racist content, political thrusts or business advertisements! MyQueenstown Twitter contains real time updates on the traffic conditions along roads in Queenstown or events going on in Queenstown. If you are bored anytime of the day, you can consider going to those places on the tweet! MyQueenstown SMS is a community SMS service which provides geographical assistance and community enquiries. So if any former Queenstown residents get down to Queenstown and "holland" because of the frantic developments here, feel free to SMS 91769891 with your name and details. We will SMS you ASAP! Furthermore, if you spot any folks requiring some form of community assistance, we will go down and see what kind of assistance is required to help them! MyQueenstown Events are monthly activities we organise to bring residents of all ages and background together. We have visited spooky places in Queenstown and had one Makan session! We will be having Flying Kite Sessions together. MyQueenstown Heritage Trails, as the name suggests, is a trail around Queenstown heritage places where we are approached to conduct for interested groups, student bodies, research or agencies. We have conducted 4 trips so far to tourists and newspaper agencies who approach us! We don't collect any financial rewards but we hope to propagate our rich heritage to people living elsewhere! Simply SMS us or email us if you wish to go for a tour of Queenstown!
Love @ MyQueenstown is an ongoing project where residents and friends of Queenstown will visit all the households in Queenstown to understand fellow residents better! Through this form of interaction, we hope that residents can learn more about the estate and targeted help can be rendered to needy residents with the relevant bodies and VWOs! My Queenstown-the Book is an upcoming long term project where we will collect information, memories and experiences from residents and "try" to publish them into a book! Do email us if you can contribute to our giant collection. Let's make this book the most "soulful" book! We have started interviewing residents and received some interesting insights and pictures about Queenstown!
In the upcoming months, MyQueenstown has plans of organising community projects such as MyQueenstown See-A-Dentist and MyQueenstown Funeral Fund. Do support us in making Queenstown a vibrant and caring community!
