Block 233 HDB Bishan

Bishan today was once land that belonged to Kwong Wai Siew Peck San Theng, a cemetery that mainly served the Cantonese and Hakka communities of Singapore. Following the establishment of the cemetery in 1870, the first human settlements began to appear in the area, forming what eventually became Kampong San Teng. During the Battle of Singapore in 1942, Peck San Theng was the site of a fierce firefight between the invading Japanese forces and the defending British. The subsequent fall of the island to the Japanese that same year eventually made Peck San Theng a place of refuge for most of the Singapore population. In 1973, Peck San Theng stopped accepting burials and six years later following a government lease, land was acquired for development. Graves were then exhumed between 1982 and 1984 paving the way for the construction of Bishan New Town in 1983. Today, Peck San Theng still remains in operation, although it had since been converted into a columbarium. Bishan New Town became the first in Singapore to depart from the brutalist design seen in most previous Housing and Development Board (HDB) towns. Instead of slab-like residential blocks that were built in uniformed rows, apartment blocks in Bishan varied in height and were often dislocated. Flats within the town also featured pitched roofs which have since become closely associated with the skyline of Bishan. The town is also home to two of Singapore's most prestigious educational institutions, Catholic High School and Raffles Institution.