On the Grid : Bras Basah Complex

"Since the 1980s, Bras Basah Complex has been the go-to place for textbooks, educational resources and art materials. Many Singaporeans will fondly recall bringing their booklists to Popular during the last week of the December holidays to purchase textbooks and assessment books for the next school term. This earned Bras Basah Complex its title as the City of Books. Built in 1980, the complex is named after Bras Basah Road, which originated as a colonial misspelling of Beras Basah. “Beras” refers to harvested rice with the husk removed and “Basah” means wet in Malay. In early days of the Bras Basah area, wet rice was laid out to dry on the channels of the (now mostly covered up) Stamford Canal. Bras Basah Complex comprises of a five-storey atrium serving commercial purposes and two 25-storey blocks of residential flats. Many of the original occupants were book merchants who relocated from demolished shophouses that lined up Bras Basah Road. Even before the construction of Bras Basah Complex, students already flocked to the many bookstores that operated from the shophouses. The market for book merchants was also greatly aided by the cluster of schools in the vicinity such as Raffles Institution, Raffles Girls’ School, Saint Joseph’s Institution and Saint Anthony’s Convent." - Fable