The Balestier Art Deco shophouses are two shophouses located on 230 & 246 Balestier Road in
Balestier
Balestier () is a sub zone located in the planning area of Novena, Singapore, Novena in the Central Region, Singapore, Central Region of Singapore. The main road, Balestier Road, links Thomson Road, Singapore, Thomson Road to Serangoon Road and ...
,
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
.
History
The Balestier Art Deco shophouses were built in the 1950s on former cultivating vegetable farmland and ponds, which cultivated
taro
Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...
, in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
style.
Unlike typical shophouses, the art deco shophouses were designed to include individual apartments on each floor of the building.
The shophouses are located on either corners of an unnamed side road which runs off of Balestier Road, and are opposite the
Goh Chor Tua Pek Kong Temple.
The shophouse on 230 Balestier Road houses the
Balestier Bak Kut Teh stall, while the shophouse in 246 Balestier Road houses the Hoover Hotel, named after the defunct
Hoover Theatre.
The shophouses were conserved in 2003, along with the nearby
Balestier Pre-war Shophouses.
The shophouses have also been included in the Balestier Heritage Trail by the
National Heritage Board.
References
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Buildings and structures in Singapore