We ♥ Queenstown

Our Neighbourhoods

Urban Sketchers Singapore

ISBN: 978-981-076602-3
First Edition, October 2020
© 2020 Epigram Books

Cover design by Tzuen
Front cover illustration by Paul Wang
Back cover illustration by Kenneth Chin
Map by Tammy Lu
Edited by Aditi Shivaramakrishnan
Sketchwalk organised by Urban Sketchers Singapore

Published in Singapore by Epigram
www.epigrambooks.sg

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Table of Contents

Queenstown Girl

Map

Credit : Sketch by Chanel Hu

Credit : Sketch by Betty Huang

Queenstown Girl

Why do we care about old neighbourhoods and spaces? I think we do because it helps us to understand who we are, how we have come to be and how we want to shape our world for the next generation.

I am a Queenstown girl. I studied in Queenstown Primary School, with schoolmates of different classes, races and abilities. I spent long afternoons at Queenstown Branch Library, where a girl from a working-class family like mine could discover Dr Seuss and Nancy Drew. I learned to swim at Queenstown Swimming Complex, thanks to the kor kors and jie jies who lived in the same block as I. I accompanied my parents to the Queenstown bowling alley and cinema to watch countless films about voodoo and jiangshi (Chinese zombie-vampires) back before the advent of the ‘PG’ (‘Parental Guidance’) rating. I have lived in both Block 27A and the four-storey walk-up flats on Stirling Road; back then, everyone would keep their front doors open.

I live in a different world now, but everything I do is informed by my time in Queenstown in some small way.

This collection of drawings by the talented artists from Urban Sketchers Singapore is not simply a romantic trip down memory lane, but a record of a community, its connections and the people’s sense of possibility.

My dream is for my daughter to grow up in a neighbourhood just like that.

Dr Woo Yen Yen
Associate Professor of Education, Long Island University (New York)
Director, Singapore Dreaming
Creator and Publisher, Dim Sum Warriors

Situated at the intersection of Queensway and Alexandra Road since 1975, Queensway Shopping Centre is as famous for its unique triangular layout as for its plethora of shops selling sports gear and shoes at attractive prices. Credit : Sketch by Marlo Sudaria

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