Lifestyle

5 Most Ulu (& a Little Eerie) Shopping Malls That Still Exist in S’pore

2017-06-11 , 6:44 am

Last Updated on 2017-07-11 , 5:58 pm

Okay, most if not all of us are familiar with shopping malls that have the same shops, same style and same crowd, but do you know that there’re some malls here in Singapore that look so different and, well, so ulu that you might just have a culture shock when you enter the premises?

Here’re some of the most ulu malls in Singapore–have you been to any before?

Beauty World Plaza

This shopping mall is like a place out of time, as though the rest of Singapore has moved on leaving this once vibrant place behind. Many of the shops have closed, doors are shuttered and shop windows blacked out.

Some of the outlets are occupied by companies who might be here due to the mall’s relatively cheap rent. There are a couple of vendors selling food. A barber shop. A tailor. A clinic. A store peddling sports goods. A few laundry and dry-cleaning shops.

What, you were expecting a Harvey Norman or an NTUC FairPrice?

Pearls Centre (Closed Down in 2016)

Pearls Centre houses mostly mom-and-pop businesses of tailors, barbers and Chinese medicine shops. Mr Hong Fu who runs ABC Mobile with his wife Lee Mei Leng, says it is difficult for them to move out as the store is packed with used handsets, cameras and laptops. He also says that the glamour of this place died down a long time ago. And it’s true, most of the shops are only on the first two levels. As you go up, it gets emptier, and eerier.

Don’t even get me started on the narrow pathway.

The mall, if you would still want to call it that, made way for the Thomson MRT Line and mixed-use project.

People’s Park Centre

For more than 40 years, the iconic People’s Park Complex stands proudly along Eu Tong Sen Street. At 31 storeys high, the yellow-and-green building is easily noticeable from far. But human traffic has decreased drastically in this place, giving it an abandoned look and feel.

There have been attempts to revitalize this place recently, but they do not seem to be working out well. But there is a cool rooftop garden-café that you can check out here though.

And while it’s a little ulu, many 90s kids would have memories of this iconic place as many parents used to bring their kids there.

Peace Centre

Peace centre is a heaven for students who want to get their stuff printed out for reasonably low prices. But despite being near to Little India and Plaza Singapore, this mall does not see many visitors.

Many of the tenants here provide school and office supplies, and printing services. Shops do not stay open till late, and if you walk past at about 8pm, you can easily forget that this place is actually a shopping mall. The toilets here are worthy of mention as they are especially spooky.

The place used to be popular for young adults looking for a game of billiard, but now, with young adults playing their billiard on their phone, you won’t find any of these young Ah Bengs and Ah Lians around.

Golden Mile

We know this place as the place to take the coach to Malaysia. This mall is also known as Little Thailand as there are many Thais running their businesses here.

On a typical weekday, hardly anyone is here, especially on the upper levels. And on weekends, you can see maybe 20 people more in this place. Only some of the food places, the travel agencies and money changers attract most of the small crowd in this place.

But walk out of the area with the coaches and you might just be shocked at the number of people, though all of them are there just to take a bus, not to visit the mall.

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This article was first published on goodyfeed.com in 2015 and revised on 11 July 2017.