How Come Sennett Road Is Not In Sennett Estate?

Today, Patricea left a comment on this post saying that her family used to live in Sennett Estate. Some 14 to 18 years ago, she would take bus 154 or 151 to school in the morning, and it would pass the National Aerated Water building at the traffic junction directly opposite it.

I must confess that I did not know exactly where is Sennett Estate in Singapore until recently. (For those who still don't know, it is in the corner bounded by Upper Serangoon Road and Macpherson Road.)


All the while, I thought that Sennett Estate was off Upper East Coast Road where a cluster of streets with names starting with "Sennett" are found - Sennett Road, Sennett Lane, Sennett Drive, Sennett Place, Sennett Close and Sennett Avenue. Who would have thought that Sennett Estate is actually so far away?


Some people may also confuse Sime Road with Simei Road or Anderson Road with Henderson Road but at least their spellings are different. A taxi driver once complained to me that a passenger asked to be taken to "Bedok Park". When the taxi arrived at Bedok Park, the passenger said he actually wanted to go to "Bedok North" (pronounced as "Bedok Park" in Cantonese). Now how do you expect the poor taxi driver to ever decipher that?

Do you know of any other places in Singapore with similarly confusing names?

Old Singapore Quiz (3)

1. What is the address of this building? (Provide the number, road name and postal district.)

2. When was it built?

3. Who was its occupant (up till the early 1990s)?

4. Who is its current occupant?

5. When did the current occupant move in?

Note: I have "painted over" the square signboard above the main entrance to the building as I recently discovered that Icemoon has an uncanny ability to read very small signs. Now I hope that he can't read the plaques hanging in the corridor of the ground floor.

Update on 1 Oct 2008 - Answers to Old Singapore Quiz (3):

YG provided the most complete and correct answers in my blog. He got 4 out of 5 answers correct. His answer "1976" for when the building was built was incorrect. Before I give you the answers to the quiz, let's look at other photos I took of this building.




This is the unmistakable old gate of Institute of Dental Health (IDH) - the letters "IDH" appear 20 times on this gate. It is a good thing that the old gate was retained.

1. What is the address of this building? (Provide the number, road name and postal district.)
Ans: 10, Hyderabad Road (off Alexandra Road), Singapore 119579.

2. When was it built?
Ans: 1935.

3. Who was its occupant (up till the early 1990s)?
Ans: Institute of Dental Health.

4. Who is its current occupant?
Ans: S P Jain Center of Management

5. When did the current occupant move in?
Ans: Mar 2007.

I remember having had a few dental treatments done at the IDH in the late 1980s. It had an open concept, just like what this 1952 photo from National Archives of Singapore shows:


While waiting for my dreaded turn, I could hear the drilling sounds as well as the moans and groans coming from the patient in the adjacent chair. This only made me more nervous. No wonder I still dread going to the dentist till this day.

Old Singapore Quiz (2)

1. What is the address of this building? (Provide the number, road name and postal district.)

2. Which company used to occupy this building?

3. When did the company move into the building?

4. What product did the company manufacture?

5. Name 3 brand names under which the product was marketed as.

Note: To make the quiz more challenging, I have deleted the background as well as the words on the building.

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Update on 24 Sep 2008 - Answers to Old Singapore Quiz (2)

Thanks for all your guesses. Most of you got the answers right. The most complete answers were provided by a reader named Eugene (please see this post). Well done, Eugene.

First, let's take a look at the original unedited photo:


Another photo taken from a different angle:


Below are photos of the same building from other sources. Here's one from National Archives Singapore (NAS) circa 1986:


Photo from Straits Times article dated 3 Jan 2007:


Here is an NAS image which shows a different building but with the same name. Anyone knows whether this building was located next to the present one? (I think the building has been demolished.)


There is even one of the same name in KL:


(Photo taken from this blog.)


Now for the answers to Old Singapore Quiz (2):

1. What is the address of this building? (Provide the number, road name and postal district.)

Ans: 1177 Serangoon Road, Singapore 328231.

2. Which company used to occupy this building?

Ans: National Aerated Water Co. Ltd.

3. When did the company move into the building?

Ans: 1950s.

4. What product did the company manufacture?

Ans: Soft drinks.

5. Name 3 brand names under which the product was marketed as.

Ans: Sinalco, Kickapoo and Royal Crown (RC) Cola.


Here are some items related to the 3 brand names:


Old Sinalco symbol. You can see a partial image of this symbol in the NAS photo of the building above. Hence the building was also referred to as "Sinalco Building" by people of the older generation (like Peter).


A Sinalco bottle but not quite like the ones we used to see as kids. The surface of the old bottle was not so smooth, the Sinalco symbol was the old one shown earlier and the colour of the drink was more reddish and transparent.


An old Kickapoo advertisement, courtesy of the NAS. The Kickapoo glass bottle was dark green in colour and the picture on the bottle was printed in red words on a yellow background. (Hmm... I wonder why they called it "joy juice"?)


A Royal Crown Cola cap. This is a US version. I think ours looked different - the words "Royal Crown" were simply replaced by a stylised red "RC". However, I am so sorry that I can't find a sample to show you.