Haji and Bali lanes
South of Arab Street, Haji Lane and tiny Bali Lane – the last of these petering out into the wide walkway next to Ophir Road – have smartened up a fair bit of late. Both have something of London’s Brick Lane about them, with traditional shops rubbing up against trendy boutiques; in the evenings and at weekends DJs set up informally on Haji Lane, spinning dance sounds from their computers or record decks. It’s one of Singapore’s most appealing and organic enclaves, and yet it’s not hard to discern that not all is rosy: the local community is having to cope with fast-rising rents while trying, often unsuccessfully, to maintain a semblance of an Islamic character by getting new restaurants to subscribe to a voluntary no-booze policy.
Sultan Mosque
Pause at the Baghdad Street end of pedestrianized Bussorah Street for a good view of the golden onion domes of the
Sultan Mosque
or Masjid Sultan, the beating heart of the Muslim faith in Singapore. An earlier mosque stood on this site, finished in 1825 and constructed with the help of a $3000 donation from the East India Company. The present building was completed a century later to a design by colonial architects Swan and MacLaren. Look carefully at the base of the main dome and you’ll see a dark band that looks like tilework, though it actually consists of the bottoms of thousands of glass bottles. The wide foyer has a digital display listing prayer times. Beyond and out of bounds to non-Muslims is the main prayer hall, a large, bare chamber fronted by two more digital clocks.