rendezvous @ bras basah road

last saturday, we had buffet lunch at the straits cafe on the ground level of rendezvous. rendevous, which is touted as a four-star hotel today, had a humble beginning. it started off as a coffee shop at the corner of selegie road and dhoby ghaut. i remember it as a place very popular for its nasi padang.

i used to walk past this place sometimes on my way home from school but it did not get much of my attention because i was more interested in the second-hand books at the rows of book stores along bras basah road. apart from the many book shops, there was also a cathay silk store and a cathay photo store.

across the road, where the singapore managment university (smu) now stands, was the ymca and some tennis courts which extended right up to bencoolen street. i can vaguely recall that i attended some first aid course in one of the buildings - could have been the ymca - there.

(my friend victor samuel, whose family was a tenant on the 2nd floor of the rendezvous building for 24 years, will take you down -memory lane - the row of shops up to waterloo street)

right across rendezvous was a triangular field with a huge angsana tree, nearer to the cathay cinema. it was a play area with swings and see-saws. at the other end, nearer to the former st joseph's institution was another yma called the catholic young men association (cyma). for a while in the 50s, it housed the royal english school.

in the 1950s, rendezvous had a bar on the ground floor. the first floor was already a hotel. the second floor was tenanted. the tenants, protected by the rent control act, enjoyed low rentals and later, many refused to move out until they were adequately and satisfactorily compensated. right at the top of the building, the huge circular sign was an advertisement for 'green spot'. in the 80s, it was changed to 'nikon'.

to the left of the entrance to rendezvous was a small mamak stall. the indian family lived above the shop.

the nasi padang business which started in the 50s was already doing a brisk business. next door to rendezvous was a chinese coffee shop owned by a foochow family. in front of the coffee shop, on the left was a char kway teow stall and on the right, a malay food stall. the next shop was manir udin shop managed by an electrical contractor. cathay photo store subsequently took over this shop. the next shop was ong hock mein fish tackles, which also sold stationeries and just before the lane was modern book store.

modern book store and the next shop was separated by a small lane - lorong pulai- with about ten houses along it. you could get to bencoolen street via this lane.

on the other side of the lane was a cobbler shop and a plumbing contractor; the next shop was cathay silk store. then there was tattooist johnny 'two thumb', sharing his shop with rudgee astrology. next was oriental book store and another shop selling books & other stuff. along this strtech was a shoe shop, western corporation selling sports goods, another foochow coffee shop, wong photo shop, owned by a hainanese and at the end, an indian stationery shop.

turning left into bencoolen street, at the corner was ratna sports, followed by a provision shop and a small alley that led to an open space which was the back of lorong pulai. (i remember ratna sports because it always fascinated me watching him restring the guts of the wooden badminton rackets.)

on the other side of bencoolen street were 3 chinese bridal shops before you came to a small alley leading to beng swee place. after the alley was another popular book shop, s s mubarak, then there was a sports shop, another 2nd-hand book shop and yet another sports shop.

turning into waterloo st, you would come to a foreign news agency. that was where i got my copies of beano and dandy comics.