History of Hougang in 1999 records the closure of Simon Road Market, a familiar market along the wider Upper Serangoon corridor that had been built in 1948. The National Heritage Board identifies the market as a trading place serving Singapore’s north-east, especially remembered for its poultry sellers, and states that it ceased operating in 1999. For readers searching for when Simon Road Market closed, the old Hougang wet market, vanished markets in Kovan or the history of Upper Serangoon Road, 1999 marks the end of an important everyday institution.
The answer should not be confused with Kangkar’s wholesale fish market, which closed in the 1980s, or with the later opening of a modern mall. Simon Road Market had its own customers, traders and physical site. After its closure, a row of single-storey shops near the former market area remained as a visible reminder. The 1999 story is not that people stopped buying food; it is that one longstanding place for buying and selling ceased to operate as the town’s land use and commercial patterns kept changing.
What closed in 1999?
The National Heritage Board’s Former Simon Road Market heritage entry records that Upper Serangoon Market was built in 1948 and ceased operations in 1999.
It had been associated with Simon Road and served people living in Singapore’s north-eastern region. The entry notes its reputation for poultry sellers.
That gives us two reliable endpoint dates for the market as a documented institution: construction in 1948 and closure in 1999.
What it does not give us is a complete list of every vendor who was still trading on the last day or the precise last transaction. We should not invent closing-day scenes to make the history sound more dramatic.
The date is compelling enough because the market had served a changing district for roughly half a century.
Why does losing a market matter?
A market is much more than a structure containing stalls. It connects deliveries, traders, households, transport routes, money and food.
For many residents, a shopping journey also includes information: hearing news from a vendor, recognising neighbours, learning which goods are fresh and returning to familiar sellers.
That social side of commerce can be difficult to measure. But it helps explain why some markets remain important in collective memory long after the physical premises disappear.
The market’s closure removed one established point of connection. Other food-shopping options existed, and new retail centres had developed, but replacing a commercial function is not identical to reproducing the relationships formed around it.
A historian should acknowledge change without assuming every resident experienced it the same way.
Where was the market?
The National Heritage Board gives the heritage location as 939 Upper Serangoon Road, near the former market site. Its entry describes a nearby row of single-storey terraced units that once housed provision shops, eateries and motoring workshops.
This row is identified as the only building remaining from the former market area.
That detail is especially valuable to local visitors. It means the site has not disappeared entirely as a source of physical evidence, even though the original market no longer operates.
Do not mistake the surviving terrace row for the original market building itself. A heritage marker may interpret a vanished place from a surviving feature nearby.
The difference matters whenever we reconstruct a historic site from present-day landmarks.
Why Simon Road Market was a useful economic node
Upper Serangoon Road was a long-established corridor linking communities, markets and services before Hougang became a planned HDB town.
A market along such a route had practical advantages: suppliers could move goods in, residents could find traders and nearby businesses might benefit from the repeated visits.
The National Heritage Board also describes different communities along the corridor in its 5th Milestone history, including Teochew, Hokkien, Hainanese, Malay and Eurasian residents in various neighbourhoods.
We should not assume that all communities shopped at the market in identical ways. The important point is that the corridor linked diverse settlements and businesses over time.
The market’s position was part of that geography.
Simon Road and Kangkar: two separate market histories
This is one of the easiest mistakes to make when discussing old Hougang.
Kangkar was closely associated with river-linked wholesale fish trading. Boats landed fish, and wholesalers participated in distributing supplies over a larger area. The original Kangkar market closed in 1984 after the industry shifted to a more purpose-built Punggol fishing port.
Simon Road Market, by contrast, was a neighbourhood-oriented market along the Upper Serangoon corridor, remembered in official heritage materials for its poultry sellers.
Both served the broader area’s food system, but in different ways, from different places, and with different closure dates.
Read History of Hougang | 1984 for the Kangkar transition and History of Hougang | 1948 for the original Simon Road Market construction.
Together these chapters offer a much clearer picture than calling them both “the old Hougang market.”
What other shopping options had appeared by 1999?
By the end of the 1990s, the district had changed considerably since 1948.
The HDB new-town plan was announced in 1979. A large supermarket-emporium was completed around the old Hougang Street 21 centre in 1983. A newer town centre was built at Hougang Central in 1987.
Hougang Plaza opened in 1993, Hougang Mall in 1997, and the older centre took on the name Kovan City in 1998.
This sequence reveals a broader transformation in where residents could shop, how commercial services were arranged and which places attracted repeated visits.
That context helps us understand why an older market’s closure is historically significant. But it does not establish a single official reason for the closure, so we should not state that a specific mall alone caused it.
A strong history distinguishes concurrent change from a proven direct cause.
The surviving shops are still worth observing
A row of single-storey units tells us about the scale of commercial activity in a different era.
Street-facing provision shops, eateries and workshops could operate near a market because the area brought customers and workers into contact.
Compare that setting with the enclosed design of a contemporary mall. Entrances, walkways, sheltered space, vehicle access and the way customers find shops are all different.
The physical forms reflect changing expectations about comfort, circulation and scale, as well as changes in land use and property development.
We can observe architectural differences directly today. But the original operating hours, rents and individual businesses would need archival evidence before they could be described for a particular past year.
What can memory add to the official record?
The National Heritage Board provides dates, location and a summary of the former market’s significance. Former vendors and customers may remember details that a heritage marker cannot fit.
They may recall certain food stalls, how they travelled to the market or why they preferred it to another place.
Those recollections are valuable, but memories should be recorded with context. When was the person living nearby? Was the recollection from childhood, adult life or a later visit? Are the dates remembered precisely or approximately?
A school project can combine oral accounts with official records without forcing both sources to agree on every detail.
History becomes richer when we let people describe what the market meant while retaining a careful timeline of documented events.
A useful family field trip
Start by reading the National Heritage Board’s Former Simon Road Market entry and locating the heritage site on a map.
Then compare the older Upper Serangoon Road corridor with the present surrounding streets. Look for the row of single-storey shops identified in the heritage description.
Record which features are still visible and which appear only in photographs or written accounts.
Ask three questions:
- What does the 1948 construction date tell us about the market’s original role?
- What does the 1999 closure date tell us about its operating lifespan?
- What can the surviving terrace show us that an official timeline cannot, and what can it not prove?
This is excellent practice for local history because it separates physical evidence, dates and interpretation.
The market was part of a larger food landscape
Hougang’s food story includes fishing, wholesale supply, wet markets, small shops, eating houses and modern malls.
Each serves a different part of daily life. A fish landing point connects harvest and trade. A market connects traders and households. A restaurant provides prepared meals. A supermarket offers another form of retail shopping.
When a particular market closes, the broader food system continues through other institutions.
The question is not simply whether a district still has places to eat. It is which kinds of exchange remain available, how far people travel, and what forms of social contact change.
That perspective turns one market’s closure into a useful study of urban transformation rather than a nostalgic anecdote alone.
What happened next?
The North East Line opened in 2003, connecting Hougang and Kovan by rail. The transport change made other parts of Singapore easier to reach and contributed another layer to the district’s commercial geography.
The former Simon Road Market was already closed by then. It is incorrect to describe it as an operating destination that passengers could visit in 2003.
In 2020, the National Heritage Board launched the Hougang Heritage Trail, enabling residents to revisit the history of vanished sites as well as surviving buildings.
The market’s memory became part of that public heritage route.
This is a second life of the location: from everyday commerce to a subject of historical interpretation.
Frequently asked questions
When did Simon Road Market close?
1999, according to the National Heritage Board.
When did the market originally open?
NHB dates the construction of Upper Serangoon Market at the Simon Road site to 1948.
Is Simon Road Market still operating today?
No. The former market is interpreted through heritage materials and a surviving row of nearby single-storey shops, rather than an operating market in its original form.
Was this the Kangkar wholesale fish market?
No. Kangkar’s old wholesale fish market was a separate river-linked trading facility, and its closure belongs to the 1980s.
Why does the Hougang Heritage Trail include a former market?
Because ordinary economic life is part of a neighbourhood’s history. Markets reveal how residents acquired food, travelled, worked and met one another.
Explore the surrounding history
The opening-year companion is History of Hougang | 1948, while How Markets Built Hougang follows the larger changes in commercial geography.
For the 1990s town-centre context, visit History of Hougang | 1997 and History of Hougang | 1998. The Hougang Heritage Trail guide helps visitors identify surviving locations.
The History of Hougang master timeline links all the dated chapters.
The closing of a market is not the end of food, trade or community. But it is the end of a particular place where those things came together, and that is worth preserving in Hougang’s history.
Sources
- National Heritage Board, Former Simon Road Market.
- National Heritage Board, the 5th Milestone.
- National Library Board, Hougang.
Continue the History of Hougang timeline
This is one chapter of the History of Hougang | 1822–2026 master timeline. The master index connects dated events with earlier settlements, neighbourhoods, schools, markets, housing and transport.