Lau Pa Sat literally means "Old Market", also
known as Telok Ayer Market ; it is a historic building located within the
Downtown Core in the Central Area of Singapore. It is currently a food-center.
There are several shops inside the market such as a 24 hours Cheers Store, a
shoe repair shop, a tailor and a laundry store. In the evenings on the weekend
a live band plays at the stage in the middle of the market.
Heading there is slightly difficult, thus do navigate
with GPS with coordinates: 1°16′50.2″N 103°51′01.2″E as the beautiful building is sinking amongst
the tall high rise modern buildings.
The market remains one of the oldest Victorian design
structure in the South-East Asia and one of the first structure built in
pre-fabricated iron in Asia. It is also the only remaining market left that
served the residents in the central district of early Singapore.
In the early nineteenth century, Telok Ayer Market was a
simple wooden building, located on piles just over the waters of Telok Ayer Bay
from which the market derived its name. The Malay name Telok Ayer means
"water bay", and the then coastal road Telok Ayer Street was located
alongside the bay before land reclamation work started in 1879.
Lau Pa Sat means "old market" in the vernacular
Chinese of Singapore. Lau means old; pa sat is the Hokkien pronunciation of the
Persian loanword bazaar (market) which is pasar in Malay. The original Telok
Ayer market was one of the oldest markets in Singapore; a new market was later
built along Ellenborough Road, and that market became known to the locals as
the "new market" (Pasar Baru or Sin Pa Sat), while the Telok Ayer
Market in turn became known colloquially as the "old market" or Lau
Pa Sat. Because of its Victorian iron structure, the market is also referred to
in Malay as pasar besi (market of iron).
