The Burmese Roads around Balestier

I knew that running off Balestier Road were some roads named after Burmese cities and rivers , but I didn’t know how many of these roads there were.

Turns out , every road bound by Balestier Road, Moulmein Road and the Novena district is named after something in Burma.

There’s Irrawaddy Road after the Irrawaddy River.

(The other large road is Mandalay Road, named after the second largest city, and the last royal capital of Burma (before British rule).

Today its most well known occupant is the new medical school between NTU and Imperial College London.

(After these, there are the smaller roads like Ava Road, named after the Kingdom of Ava,)

(Pegu Road, named after Bago, a major city in Burma,)

(Martaban Road, named after the Gulf of Martaban,)

(Minbu Road, after the city of Minbu)

(as well as Bassein Road, the english translation of Pathein a port city)

So why were these roads name so? One theory states that the roads were named after the successful conquest of each city, but some have questioned the sense of it, seeing as there is no geographical sequence to the roads. 

The second theory is that the names were worked out and proposed by a famous Burmese businessman in Singapore, U Kyaw Gaung to recall culturally important places in Burma. 

Apart from the names, there is little to remind us of the Burmese past of this place. 

Little Burma is today at Peninsula Plaza instead.

Ref: The Burmese Roads around Balestier