Margaret Drive - Part 2

Continuing my walk down old home town

This was where we saw our very first 'modern' department store. It was in those days a magnificent 3 storey building. On the ground floor was a modern bakery Mon't dor (or something like that) and a supermarket. There was also a bank where we go to pay the PUB bills. On the 2nd floor was the Tah Chung Emporium. I loves to walk through it whenever I passed by - not that we could afford a lot of stuff there but for the air con. On the 3rd floor was a Chinese restaurant. Sadly like most of the HDB blocks in the area, it is now demolished. Fortunately, so far this was the only major building that was demolised.

Still intact is the very quaint looking wet market.

It is a 2 storey structure with the ground floor selling wet produce on the inside and 2 rows of food stalls on the outside. The upper floor was where the dried stuff were sold. My favourite stalls there were the duck noodle and the aquarium stall. I used to just go there and gawk at the fishes displayed in the tank. They also sell the cheapest and beautiful guppies.

Crossing the road, and still standing is the Queenstown Polyclinic.

Now I simply love the layout of the place. It was airy, spacious and had a resort feel to it nevermind that there was always a strong smell of disinfectant. It is now a foreign worker dormitory.

Next to the Polyclinic is the Queenstown library.

I think I spent the most time there. I loved to read and I must have borrowed hundred of books in those years. Back then, the library don't stock magazines, comics and paperback novels and most of the books are what I considered 'serious fiction' but still a book was a book. Fortunately, the library is still operating and has in fact been renovated and modernised. Of all the current libraries, I still prefer to come here. Why? Because it is the most quiet. No noisy kids running around and plenty of chairs to sit.

Across the road is the 2 youngest building in the neighbourhood - the 2 cinemas cum bowling alley

and the building where the Fairprice supermarket is now.

For the life of me, I cannot remember whether Fairprice was the original occupier there and I do remember there was a KFC outlet at the cinema building. The 2 cinemas Queensway and Queenstown didn't last too long like the bowling alley and though still standing, the whole building looks derelict and is probably haunted as well.

To be continued........