Names
Toa Payoh highlighted in red.
English:	Toa Payoh
Chinese:	大巴窑
(Pinyin:	Dàbāyáo)
Malay:	Toa Payoh
Tamil:	தோ பயோ

Toa Payoh is a district located in the Central Region of Singapore. It commonly refers to the Housing and Development Board (HDB) housing estate of Toa Payoh New Town, one of the earliest satellite public housing estates in Singapore.

The Toa Payoh Planning Area, an urban planning zone under the Urban Redevelopment Authority, encompasses the Toa Payoh New Town, Potong Pasir and the private housing estates in the Upper Aljunied area. The planning area is bounded by Braddell Road and Bartley Road to the north, Upper Paya Lebar Road to the east, MacPherson Road and Jalan Toa Payoh to the south and Thomson Road to the west. It covers a total of 845 ha in land area.

Toa Payoh is a Chinese reference to "big swamp" (toa is "big" and payoh means "swamp"). The Malay word for swamp is paya. The reference indicates the large swampy area that preceded the later development of Chinese market gardens in this area.

It is the Chinese quivalent of Paya Lebar, i.e. big swamp land. To older generation Chinese, Toa Payoh is known as ang chang shan (or anxiangshan) or "burial hill" because of the cemetery located in the area.

J.T. Thomson, a government surveyor, refers to Toa Payoh in his 1849 agricultural report as Toah Pyoh Lye and Toah Pyoh. Whampoa or Hoo Ah Kay had an orange garden here that Johnson visited. The neglected garden which Whampoa had bought was converted into a tasteful "bel-retiro" with its avenues, front-orchard, hanging gardens, Dutch walls, bamboos and orange trees, shrubs, stags and peacocks, its aviary and menagerie and artificial curiosities of horticulture.

Toa Payoh was an extensive and notorious squatter district. Most squatters were engaged in farming and rearing pigs. The others were hawkers, factory workers, mechanics or domestic helpers.

The squatters started moving out in 1962 as a result of increased compensation rates and other practical inducements offered by the Government. Clearance work was able to commence and the redevelopment started in early 1964.

The Toa Payoh New Town, HDB's second satellite town, was built in 1970. The layout of the new town follows town planning principles of the time. The housing estate is self-contained and has a town centre acting as a focal point for the shopping and entertainment needs of the residents.

Industrial developments were also built within the town to provide residents with job opportunities close to home while schools were built within the neighbourhoods.

The town centre was the first prototype in Singapore. It is surrounded by separated neighbourhoods, each with its own shopping amenities and community centres, well served by a network of vehicular roads and generous open space separating them. The result, as in the English new towns of the 1950s, is that residents tend less to travel to the main town centre but rather to shop within their neighbourhood; if they travel, they go to Orchard Road or the town area via the MRT system, at the Toa Payoh MRT Station and the Braddell MRT Station, or public bus services at the town's central bus interchange.

Nevertheless, with time, the Toa Payoh Town Centre has become increasingly popular. It has a busy atmosphere because, as with many shopping centres of the time, all commercial activities are concentrated along a single mall with high point blocks on either side and major department stores at each end. The shopping mall is actually L-shaped and there are two plazas, one with a branch library and cinema, the other with an area office and a post office. Each plaza has a department store at either end.

The commercial development, HDB Hub, located at the Toa Payoh Town Centre was completed in 2002. The Housing and Development Board relocated its headquarters from its premises at Bukit Merah to the HDB Hub on 10 June 2002. The HDB Hub comprises two wings, an atrium, four commercial building blocks, a leisure and learning centre and a three-storey basement carpark. The building also accommodates Singapore's first fully air-conditioned Toa Payoh Bus Interchange and integrates it with the existing Toa Payoh MRT Station.

The Housing and Development Board decided to allocate a large area of the Toa Payoh New Town for a garden-landscaped park, the Toa Payoh Town Garden, despite the pressure on land here for housing.

The town garden used to be popular with visitors who came from near and far to enjoy the display of willows, bamboos and the brilliant reds and yellows of the Delonix regia trees. At the heart of the garden is a 0.8 ha carp pond which contains a waterfall and a cluster of islands linked by bridges. The islands are arranged to provide a sequence of delightful walking experiences not only by day but also by night when the garden is lit. The garden is buffered from the noise and night-time glare of passing traffic along Jalan Toa Payoh by an elevated slope planted with thick rows of Angsanas. There are also a children's playground, seating areas and outdoor chessboard, a tea kiosk and a 27-metre high viewing tower.

• Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2003), Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names, Eastern Universities Press, ISBN 9812102051
• Norman Edwards, Peter Keys (1996), Singapore - A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places, Times Books International, ISBN 9971652315

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