The Blair Road Walk, NUS Baba House and the Peranakan Museum
Join me on a journey that begins along the conserved shophouses of Blair Road, continues into the restored interiors of the NUS Baba House at Neil Road, and culminates in the curated splendour of the Peranakan Museum at Armenian Street. Each step of this walk is more than a passage through heritage streets — it is a dialogue with memory, culture, and continuity. As I traced patterned wall tiles and ornate pintu pagars, memories of my childhood in Taiping, Perak returned vividly. The Blair Road walk thus stands as both inspiration and affirmation. It connects the Peranakan textures of Singapore with the enduring spirit of Taiping, grounding this book in memory, continuity, and the belief that heritage lives on through us.
1. The Walk Begins
This triptych speaks of passage and endurance. Each doorway and window holds memory in its frame, inviting us to step across into stories that continue beyond the walls.
2. Memory Surfaces
This triptych feels like a quiet return to domestic memory—romantic, tactile, and deeply personal. The rose floral tiles evoke warmth and care; the star floor tiles mark the passage of time; and the checker-board floral arrangement becomes the emotional anchor, filtering light like recollection itself. Together, they form a nostalgic surface where heritage is lived, not merely seen.
3. Steps of Heritage
This triptych embodies the pulse of Blair Road: ornament transformed into routine, memory embedded in every stride.
4. Transitions of Time
This triptych reveals time’s gentle hand—tiles and peacock motifs aged with patina, swing doors balancing ventilation and security, and and a sewing machine worn by years of delicate use. Heritage here is layered, never erased: renewal and wear coexisting, each surface remembering its own season.
5. Echoes of Craft
This triptych captures the tactile artistry that sustains memory—wood carved with patience, jewellery shimmering with lineage, and batik traced with living rhythm. Here, craft becomes remembrance: every gesture a vessel of continuity, every ornament a keeper of heritage.
6. Life Along Blair Road
This triptych mirrors the warmness of daily life. In every shared sip, in every written stroke, companionship blossoms—like tea and cakes, simple yet profound, a daily art of togetherness.
7. Heritage Lives On
This triptych closes the Blair Road sequence with a radiant tableau—lanterns glowing against green shutters, portraits and clock marking continuity, and rose-patterned tiles grounding memory in daily rhythm. The sequence does not end, but invites us to carry its glow into our own spaces.
NUS Baba House, Neil Road
The Blair Road walk then extends to NUS Baba House at 175 Neil Road—built around 1895, it stands as a showcase of Straits Chinese heritage, with interiors preserved to reflect the domestic life of a Peranakan family.
Peranakan Museum, Armenian Street
The Blair Road walk culminates in a short drive to the curated splendour of the Peranakan Museum at 39 Armenian Street. The museum holds the distinction of housing the most comprehensive collection of Peranakan artifacts and wares — transforming lived heritage into collective memory and bridging private tradition with public legacy.