Old Airport Road Food Centre

Old Airport Road Food Centre

A northeast food haven

Old Airport Road Food Centre was first built in 1972 with the aim to resettle street hawkers found all around the Kallang estate. The estate was first created in 1955 in which the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) built low-cost housing in the district to accommodate squatters who had been cleared from the Town areas. At first, there were 172 stalls that provided fresh and cooked food. This number would eventually grew by another 315 stalls in order to accomodate the street hawkers in the area. However, a permanent solution was required to accommodate the ever growing hawker population in the area and thus a decision was made to construct a new facility to house all these hawker stalls.

History

The new hawker centre costs 2.5 million and accommodated 176 food stalls on its first level and 136 shop units on its upper floor. The newly built hawker centre had similar designs to ones built in new towns of 1960s and the 1970s. However, a unique feature of the hawker centre is that it had enough space to serve other public and civic functions. Besides the shop units on level two, the also had a Post Office branch and a POSB ATM to serve the population living in the area.

In 1973, a hawker stall in the centre, Khoon Kee Chicken Rice, won the very first competition for the “Cleanest Cooked Food Stall” in Singapore. Between 2006 and 2007, the hawker centre also underwent an upgrading initiative worth 5.8 million under the Hawker Centre Upgrading Programme. Its seating capacity has now been upgraded to 1904 and now also houses a kindergarten at its second level.

Old Airport Road Food Centre is a symbol of Singapore’s architectural advancement during the 1970s and has now since developed into a foodie’s paradise where one can find delectable foods from all cultures and traditions.