Waterloo Street is a two-way 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...

 in downtown 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...

 stretching from Rochor Road to Bras Basah Road

Bras Basah Road

Bras Basah Road is a one-way road in Singapore in the planning areas of Museum and Downtown Core. The road starts at the junction of Orchard Road and Handy Road, at the ERP gantry towards the Central Business District, and ends at the junction of Nicoll Highway and Raffles Boulevard which then...

. It passes through the planning areas

Urban planning areas in Singapore

Singapore is currently divided into 55 urban planning areas by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, organised into five regions. A Development Guide Plan is then drawn up for each planning area, providing for detailed planning guidelines for every individual plot of land throughout the country.The...

 of Rochor

Rochor

Rochor is a place in the central area of Singapore. There are two hotels in the area and there are many commercial buildings in the area as well.-External links:*...

 and Museum Planning Area

Museum Planning Area

The Museum Planning Area is an urban planning area in the Central Region of Singapore. It is located in the area known as the Civic District. The area plays a "bridging role" between the Orchard Street area and the Downtown Core, which necessitates proper transport networks for vehicles,...

.

The street was constructed in 1837 and was initially named Church Street

Church Street

-Streets:* Church Street, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom* Church Street , New York City, New York, United States* Church Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia* Church Street , England, United Kingdom...

 after Thomas Church

Thomas Church

Thomas Church may refer to:* Thomas Dolliver Church, American landscape architect* Thomas Haden Church, American actor* Thomas Langton Church , Canadian politician...

 who became a resident councillor

Councillor

A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

 that same year. A survey

Surveying

See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...

 of this street was done by J.T. Thomson

John Turnbull Thomson

John Turnbull Thomson was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth century Singapore and New Zealand. -Biography:...

, and it was very likely that he used Church's name for the street due to the close working relationship between the two of them. The street name was renamed to its present name by the Municipal Council

Municipal council

A municipal council is the local government of a municipality. Specifically the term can refer to the institutions of various countries that can be translated by this term...

 in 1858 to commemorate the Duke of Wellington

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...

's victory over the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in 1815, which is the Battle of Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...

. Formerly a one-way street, the street has been converted to two ways for a couple of years, and the northern end of the street has been converted into a pedestrian mall

Pedestrian mall

Pedestrian malls in the United States are also known as pedestrian streets and are the most common form of pedestrian zone in large cities in the United States. It is a street lined with storefronts and closed off to most automobile traffic...

 to ease the problem of traffic jams and the crowd at Kwan Im Thong Hood Co Temple in the past, especially during the weekends and public holiday

Public holiday

A public holiday, national holiday or legal holiday is a holiday generally established by law and is usually a non-working day during the year....

s. The street, which previously extended to Stamford Road

Stamford Road

Stamford Road is a one-way road in Singapore within the planning areas of Downtown Core and Museum. The road continues after the traffic light junction of Nicoll Highway, Esplanade Drive and Raffles Avenue towards Orchard Road. It then ends at the junction of Fort Canning Road, Bencoolen Street...

, has been shortened after the construction of Singapore Management University

Singapore Management University

The Singapore Management University was officially incorporated on January 12, 2000, and was Singapore's first private university funded by the government...

's city campus and the MRT

Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore)

The Mass Rapid Transit or MRT is a rapid transit system that forms the backbone of the railway system in Singapore, spanning the entire city-state. The initial section of the MRT, between Yio Chu Kang Station and Toa Payoh Station, opened in 1987 establishing itself as the second-oldest metro...

 station.

Several well known landmarks include the well known Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple

Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple

Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple is a traditional Chinese temple situated at 178 Waterloo Street in Singapore. The temple is of significance to the Chinese in Singapore, and is believed to bring worshipers good luck after praying to the Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, the Goddess of Mercy...

, Maghain Aboth Synagogue

Maghain Aboth Synagogue

The Maghain Aboth Synagogue is a synagogue in Singapore. It is located at Waterloo Street in the Rochor Planning Area, within the Central Area in Singapore's central business district....

, Sculpture Square and Sri Krishnan Temple. Maghain Aboth Synagogue is the oldest synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

 in Singapore and was built by the local Jewish community in 1878.

The Tamils

Tamil people

Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...

 call the street krishmen kovil sadakku or "Street of the Krishnan Temple", where the Sri Krishnan Temple is located next to the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple. The street is known as mang ku lu chai tng koi in 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....

, which mean the street in Bencoolen where the vegetarian hall is. The Hokkiens and Teochews

Chaozhou

Chaozhou is a city in eastern Guangdong province of the People's Republic of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, and the South China Sea to the southeast...

 call it si beh lo that means "four horse carriages road" in English.

Landmarks

In order from Rochor Road to Bras Basah Road

Bras Basah Road

Bras Basah Road is a one-way road in Singapore in the planning areas of Museum and Downtown Core. The road starts at the junction of Orchard Road and Handy Road, at the ERP gantry towards the Central Business District, and ends at the junction of Nicoll Highway and Raffles Boulevard which then...

.

• OG Albert Complex
• The Bencoolen
• Fu Lu Shou Complex
  Fu Lu Shou Complex
  Fu Lu Shou Complex is a shopping centre in the Bugis section of downtown Singapore that specialises in Daoist and Buddhist religious paraphernalia...
  
  
• Albert Centre and Cheng Yan Court
• Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple
  Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple
  Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple is a traditional Chinese temple situated at 178 Waterloo Street in Singapore. The temple is of significance to the Chinese in Singapore, and is believed to bring worshipers good luck after praying to the Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, the Goddess of Mercy...
  
  
• Sri Krishnan Temple
• Fortune Centre
• Sculpture Square (Former Middle Road Church)
• Maghain Aboth Synagogue
  Maghain Aboth Synagogue
  The Maghain Aboth Synagogue is a synagogue in Singapore. It is located at Waterloo Street in the Rochor Planning Area, within the Central Area in Singapore's central business district....
  
  
• Singapore Art Museum
  Singapore Art Museum
  The Singapore Art Museum contains the national art collection of Singapore. It has a collection of 7,750 pieces of Singaporean and Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art, and has an expanding collection of new Asian and international contemporary art.- History :Officially opened in 1996, it...
  
  
• Plaza by the Park