Home»GALLERY»Personal Projects»The Thieves' Market @ Sungei Road

The Thieves’ Market came to be in the 1930s, where stolen, smuggled or illegal goods were sold. Over time, it became famous for second-hand goods or bric-a-brac, and even rare or antique offerings, sold cheaply.


Nestled in one of the oldest neighborhood on Sungei Road which is located between Jalan Besar and the Rochor Canal Road, the Thieves’ Market attracts many locals, foreign workers and tourists on every weekend to buy bits and bobs ranging from old coins, stamps, watches to vinyl records and audio CDs, from clothes to electronic gears; just about anything you can find.

In 2011, the authorities downsized the Thieves’ Market from its seven hectares to about half its size, as part of its now obvious goal of erasing the historical market for development.

In late July 2014, the National Environment Agency (NEA) has confirmed that the iconic flea market will be erased forever. After 8 long decades of history, the Thieves’ Market is one of the casualties in Singapore’s redevelopment plans, that has to make ways for the new Sungei Road MRT station, which is expected to be completed by 2017. Other redevelopment casualty is Dakota Crescent, a small HDB precinct made up of 50-year-old flats which will be demolished as part of its estate renewal plans.

What attracts me about this unlicensed, make-shift market are the peddlers as well as the mix of oddity characters. Each of the allocated DIY stall is on a first-come-first-serve basis and peddlers share an unspoken rule of control over specific space and they need not pay a single cents for rental.

As a street photographer, I tried to document the market presented in this small collection of photographs, on the lives of these peddlers whom mostly are in their 60s to 80s with little education or illiterate, along with their trading activities that operates daily from 1:00PM to 7:00PM at the mercy of our tropical climate.

All photographs were made at different point of time on several visits where I tried to struck up conversations with them and asking permission to have their portrait made. Most rejected and hence I resorted to shoot without asking in order to capture their candid shots.