Halal Food in Bencoolen Street

Bencoolen Street traces its heritage to Singapore's earliest colonial period, taking its name from British Bencoolen in Sumatra, where Stamford Raffles served as Lieutenant-General before establishing Singapore. In the local Hokkien dialect, residents knew the street as Gor Beh Lor or Fifth Horse Carriageway, part of a numerical naming system for major roads that reflected the practical communication methods among Chinese communities. The area that became Bencoolen Street originally housed Kampong Bengkulu, where Malays from Bencoolen who accompanied Raffles to Singapore made their homes. In 1825, over 900 Indian convicts transferred from Bencoolen were housed in temporary attap huts in the kampong. The Bengkali Mosque, built around 1845 by Syed bin Ali Al-Junied, still stands on Bencoolen Street serving the Muslim community, representing the area's long religious and cultural heritage. Today, Bencoolen Street has transformed into a vibrant corridor served by Bencoolen MRT station on the Downtown Line. The street features landmarks including Sim Lim Square and Albert Complex, while recent enhancements have created pedestrian-friendly walkways and cycling paths as part of Singapore's car-lite initiative. The transformation reflects the area's evolution from a historic kampong to a modern urban street while maintaining connections to its multicultural past.