Upper Cross Street is a 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...

 located in 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....

 within the Outram Planning Area

Outram, Singapore

Outram is a district in Singapore, within the Central Area, relatively near the prominent city centre and financial districts, but is nearer the border of the Central Area, and outside the Downtown Core. Outram is served by extensive public transport, including SBS Transit and a Mass Rapid Transit ...

 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 street starts after Cross Street

Cross Street

Cross Street is a street in Singapore starting from Shenton Way in Downtown Core and ending at the junction of South Bridge Road in Chinatown which is in Outram Planning Area which then becomes Upper Cross Street. At the start of the street, it houses Telok Ayer Market...

 at the junction of Cross Street and South Bridge Road

South Bridge Road

South Bridge Road is a road south of Singapore River in Chinatown, Singapore which starts from Elgin Bridge and ends at the junction of Neil Road, Tanjong Pagar Road and Maxwell Road....

, with the street ending at the junction of Chin Swee Road, Havelock Road and Clemenceau Avenue. The street then continues on to Havelock Road. There are a number of shophouse

Shophouse

A shophouse is a vernacular architectural building type that is commonly seen in areas such as urban Southeast Asia. This hybrid building form characterises the historical centres of most towns and cities in the region.- Design and features :...

s on the street, housing restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

s and shops

Retailing

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

, with a Spring Court restaurant along the street. The Housing and Development Board development, Hong Lim Complex is also located on this street. Other landmarks include Yue Hwa Building

Yue Hwa Building

Yue Hwa Building is a historic building located at the corner of the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Upper Cross Street, in Chinatown of Outram, Singapore...

 (the former Great Southern Hotel), OG People's Park, Hotel 81 Chinatown, Chinatown Point and the Subordinate Courts. The entrance to the Central Expressway

Central Expressway, Singapore

The Central Expressway in Singapore is the major highway connecting the city centre of Singapore with the northern residential parts of the island, including Toa Payoh, Bishan and Ang Mo Kio and further onwards to the Seletar Expressway and the Tampines Expressway.-History:The first stage of the...

 towards the north.

Etymology and history

Upper Cross Street used to be the western boundary of the Chinatown area, which extended from Boat Quay

Boat Quay

Boat Quay is a historical quay in Singapore which is situated upstream from the mouth of the Singapore River on its southern bank.It was the busiest part of the old Port of Singapore, handling three quarters of all shipping business during the 1860s...

 to Cross Street. Until the early 20th century, the Indian meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

 and spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...

 traders resided on this street at the New Bridge Road part of the street). The Indians also had a Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 school located on the street, and was demolished to construct the Singapore Investment Trust government quarters' building. In the 1950s till the late 1970s, shophouses on this street used to have Chinese funeral

Funeral

A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...

 requirements, such as wreath

Wreath

A wreath is an assortment of flowers, leaves, fruits, twigs and/or various materials that is constructed to resemble a ring. They are used typically as Christmas decorations to symbolize the coming of Christ, also known as the Advent season in Christianity. They are also used as festive headdresses...

s and funeral bands. The sanitation system in most of the shophouses were using the night soil

Night soil

Night soil is a euphemism for human excrement collected at night from cesspools, privies, etc. and sometimes used as a fertilizer. Night soil is produced as a result of a waste management system in areas without community infrastructure such as a sewage treatment facility, or individual septic...

 system with honey bucket

Honey bucket

A honey bucket is a bucket that is used as a toilet in communities that lack a water-borne sewage system. The honey bucket sits under a wooden frame affixed with a toilet seat lid and may be lined with a plastic bag...

s, until flush toilet

Flush toilet

A flush toilet is a toilet that disposes of human waste by using water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location. Flushing mechanisms are found more often on western toilets , but many squat toilets also are made for automated flushing...

s were introduced when the shophouses were upgraded and restored.

The Chinese called the street Hai San Street as the secret society

Secret society

A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...

 bearing the same name was located there. The street was also known as Kling Street (kling is a local reference to Indians) as there was a community of Indian traders living in the area in the early years of modern Singapore.

Landmarks

This are the list of prominent landmarks along Upper Cross Street (from east to west).

• Hong Lim Complex
• Chinatown Point
• Spring Court restaurant
• Hotel 81 Chinatown
• Yue Hwa Building
  Yue Hwa Building
  Yue Hwa Building is a historic building located at the corner of the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Upper Cross Street, in Chinatown of Outram, Singapore...
  
   (Former Great Southern Hotel)
• OG People's Park
• Subordinate Courts
• People's Park Food Centre and HDB estate