Few neighborhoods embody Singapore’s spirit of transformation quite like Tanjong Pagar. Once a bustling maritime gateway where traders, migrants, and merchants arrived from across Asia, the district has evolved into one of the city’s most exciting destinations for food, design, culture, and creativity. Historic streets lined with beautifully restored shophouses now house everything from award-winning cocktail bars and fashion boutiques to wellness concepts and contemporary galleries. Yet despite its modern energy, Tanjong Pagar moves fast, yet it refuses to leave its past behind. The neighborhood wears its history in layers, balancing a gritty, storied heritage with the hyper-modern energy of a world-class urban quarter.
Once a port district where migrants worked in shipyards and warehouses, Singapore’s storied Tanjong Pagar area is today thriving through reinvention. The former constituency of the city-state’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, it is also a great area to be during Singapore’s National Day and its broader celebrations. Wedged between the gleaming towers of the Central Business District and Chinatown, its lanes – Duxton Hill, Ann Siang Hill, Club Street – are lined with converted shophouses housing everything from Japanese izakayas to Korean barbecue joints and inventive cocktail bars. And this talent for adaptive reuse runs deep: century-old buildings house independent labels, creative galleries, and cultural institutions, while ornate temples like Thian Hock Keng speak to the district’s multi-layered past. Also worth seeking out is a new initiative, the Tanjong Pagar Designers Clan, that has quietly united homegrown local labels under one banner. No other neighborhood better captures the restless spirit of a nation that never stops evolving, or eating.
BOP – Bartenders of Pony
Tanjong Pagar is known as Singapore’s unofficial Little Korea, and cocktail dining bar BOP Bartenders of Pony (Tues-Thurs & Sun: 18:00-01:00, Fri-Sat: 18:00-02:00) is one of its most exciting new additions. The creative force behind it is Uno Jang, recipient of the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award at The World’s 50 Best Bars 2025. Uno distils three Korean values into every corner of this Tras Street shophouse: Kki (craft and discipline), Jeong (connection), and Heung (joy). Cocktails lean bold and experimental while the food menu designed by Jason Oh, an alumnus of Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars reality show, matches every bit of that energy. All of it unfolds to stylish and groovy music, mirroring the way Koreans actually drink: socially and instinctively.
Inner Teahouse
Formerly nestled in indie enclave Pearl’s Hill Terrace, Inner Teahouse (Mon-Thurs: 13:00-18:00, Fri-Sun: 12:00-19:00) has since found a new home on the third floor of a Keong Saik Road shophouse. Founded by a tea enthusiast from the southern Chinese city of Xiamen, the space is softly lit, its dark wood furnishings and careful curation of artisanal teapots, incense, and pottery lending it a peaceful, lived-in charm – while the busy surrounding neighborhood hums just beyond the glass. The focus is on high-quality traditional leaves sourced from Fujian, as well as workshops and curated experiences that delve into the history and taste of the Chinese region’s teas. The perfect place to while away a slow afternoon.
