Thieves' Market @ Sungei Road

Thieves Market, in my opinion, is one of Singapore's most under-rated attractions. Not surprisingly, it doesn't feature very much in any of the Tourism Board's official brochures or maps - most probably because the market reflects the seedy and rough underbelly of S'pore life which totally contradicts our usual clean modern city image.

According to information on the web, the market came to be at Sungei Road in the 1930s. And it was called Thieves Market due to the rather dubious nature of the items sold there. While most items are probably bought from the "rag & bone man" or salvaged from the local HDB Housing Estate rubbish dump, some people believe that the items may have been stolen as well.

Most items are displayed on make-shift tables or simply placed on the road. There isn't any governmental control (or least it appears to be so) and stalls are located/placed rather haphazardly around the area, which gives the market a certain old world charm. To me, the market is almost like a living fossil record of Singapore's early roots as a trading post.

There's a whole lot of things that can be found at Thieves Market. It is literally an Aladdin's cave of used items - from shoes to clothes to cameras to books to CDs to tapes to mobile phones etc. You will be amazed at what you can find at the market.

The people who make up the market are quite interesting too. Sometimes I wonder what their lives are like and what sort of stories they have to tell. Among them, there is a old lady who left quite an impression on me. She looked really old and frail, and you wonder if she was really able to have pushed/moved all those things she had for sale here by herself.

I doubt that the market will survive any much longer than 5-10 yrs at this current location, given the current blazing pace of development. The area which the market occupies is only about a 15mins drive away from Orchard road and the main business district.

Thieves Market is generally bounded by Weld Road, Pitt Street, Larut Road, Pasar Lane and Sungei Road. Geographically, the market is located at latitude (1.305 degrees) 1° 18' 17" North of the Equator and longitude (103.8559 degrees) 103° 51' 21" East of the Prime Meridian on the Map of Singapore.