Smith Street is a small street

Street

A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...

 running through the heart of the Chinatown

Chinatown, Singapore

Singapore's Chinatown is an ethnic neighbourhood featuring distinctly Chinese cultural elements and a historically concentrated ethnic Chinese population. Chinatown is located within the larger district of Outram....

 district in Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

. The only road in the area to be named after an Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an, it commemorates the hugely popular Sir Cecil Clementi Smith

Cecil Clementi Smith

Rt Hon Sir Cecil Clementi Smith G.C.M.G. , was a British colonial administrator. He was known for his effective work in quelling Chinese secret societies in the Straits Settlements, such as those in Singapore...

, then Governor of the Straits Settlements and High Commissioner

High Commissioner

High Commissioner is the title of various high-ranking, special executive positions held by a commission of appointment.The English term is also used to render various equivalent titles in other languages.-Bilateral diplomacy:...

 in 1887 to 1893, who was a Chinese scholar and responsible for most of the work to combat the problems of secret societies

Secret societies in Singapore

Secret societies in Singapore are generally Chinese in origin. They have been largely eradicated as a security issue in the city state. However many smaller groups remain today which attempt to mimic societies of the past...

.

As is common for roads with English names, it has an informal Chinese name, hei yuen kai, meaning Theatre Street in reference to the Lai Chun Yuen Theatre then located at unit 36 and the centre of entertainment in the Kreta Ayer area. The theatre existed sometime in the 1880s and staged Cantonese

Cantonese people

The Cantonese people are Han people whose ancestral homes are in Guangdong, China. The term "Cantonese people" would then be synonymous with the Bun Dei sub-ethnic group, and is sometimes known as Gwong Fu Jan for this narrower definition...

 operas until 1927. With the advent of cinema

Movie theater

A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

s, the theatre was converted into a cinema theatre, Sun Seng Cinema, just before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, when it was damaged in a bomb

Bomb

A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...

 attack in 1942.

Its red-light

Red-light district

A red-light district is a part of an urban area where there is a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters, etc...

 reputation contributed character to the street, which was also known for hawker

Hawker (trade)

A hawker is a vendor of merchandise that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with peddler or costermonger. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells items or food that are native to the area...

 stalls crowding into the street during its heyday reputation as the main "Food Street". There are attempts to recreate the ambiance today by closing parts of the road and turning it into an outdoor eating area.

A local joke has it that the road got its English name when the British asked Chinese locals the name of the road, they given clueless answers "See mee?" (Hokkien

Min Nan

The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....

for What?) as they could not understand English. Thus they duly recorded the name as "Smith" instead.