Neo Tiew Abandoned Housing Estate, Singapore

Gone are the days Here are no housewives shopping at the wet market (which is shuttered anyway), no old men playing Chinese chess at the void decks, no children running around in the playground. The utter lack of humanity makes this place a ghost town.

Located deep within the northwestern part of Singapore, Neo Tiew Abandoned Housing Estate is a small neighbourhood with three low-lying blocks of HDB flats, provision shops, a wet market and a food centre which have not seen any sign of life since the habitant moved in 1999.

Right smack in the middle of nowhere, it is located along Lim Chu Kang Road (near the Neo Tiew Road junction) – a five-minute drive from the largest cemetery in Singapore. An Army Camp lies nearby and this place is now used for military training purposes.

Built in 1979, and now lying in waste, my friends and I have visited this place twice to capture its rustic charm before it disappears years down the road. Graffiti and broken doors, walls being destroyed and overgrown vegetation brings this place to ruin.

Along the five-foot way, a fading signboard of a clinic creaked in the wind. Inside one of the three-room flats, there were shattered windows, a dusty stool and the remains of a broken cupboard.

Time has truly stood still for this forgotten estate.

2010-02-24 #places #abandoned #singapore #location #housing-estate #yashica-gsn #lim-chu-kang