Recovering the Complex Legacies of Kampong Melaka and Kampong Bengkulu: Two Forgotten Neighbourhoods of Early Communities

First aired on 29 July 2020 as part of our HistoriaSG lecture series

The urban wards named Kampong Melaka and Kampung Bengkulu appear in several maps of colonial Singapore. How did these two neighbourhoods of early communities develop when they were not reflected in the Raffles Town Plan (the "Jackson Plan") of November/December 1822?

In this talk, Dr Imran Tajudeen will discuss what actually developed in colonial Singapore within and beyond the colonial grid of representation, and, through the micro-histories of Kampong Melaka and Kampong Bengkulu, reconsider the conventional narratives and framing of the colonial city, particularly our present assumptions about the "Jackson Plan".

Image: Plan showing alteration and addition to compound house at 239 Bencoolen Street, later renumbered as 81 Bencoolen Street, 1926. Courtesy of the National Archives of Singapore.