Yio Chu Kang Gardens is a small landed enclave in Ang Mo Kio, close to Lentor MRT and within 1 km of Anderson Primary, CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School and Mayflower Primary School. As it’s close to several HDB estates, there are amenities within walking distance and a playground that is large enough to be considered a small park right in the middle. Most of the houses are terrace properties, though there are a few semi-Ds too. Interestingly, the properties comprise both leasehold and freehold houses.
Here’s a map of the area to give you a better idea of what to expect:
And the Masterplan of the area (Do note that there is still some empty residential land that is “subject to detailed planning” in the vicinity):
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s go see what the area is like! Let’s start at the playground-park:
In front of me is the playground, behind me are two rows of houses. As you can see in the photo, parking in the area is not particularly ample, so people make use of all the space they can get.Here is a photo of some of the houses. They have quite a wide frontage for terrace units.After entering the park, I turn right and this is what I see. The houses pretty much open right onto the park here. It’s nice in that they have a rather unblocked view, especially since the park is on elevated land, but it could get quite noisy if the kids are out. (No kids to be seen when I did my walkabout.) The park is sizeable and has quite a lot of equipment.Looking down. As mentioned, part of the park/playground is on higher ground. I like how there’s a ramp to make things more accessible.
However, let’s not wander too far off as we’re here to see the houses and we’ve not done that yet!
As shown, the area seems to be quite patriotic as there were a good number of flags in sight when I visited (close to National Day.)The terrace houses on this end have narrower frontages than the ones we saw previously.As I mentioned, there isn’t a great deal of street parking available in the estate. I think I took the last available spot.Many houses are still in vintage condition, with only a few newer houses that have been built higher to maximise the plot ratio.Some terrace properties have a very big driveway, which can fit several cars. (One thing I noticed about this small estate is that the houses are not very uniform: some are leasehold whilst others are freehold, some are wide whilst others are narrow, some can only park one car whilst others can fit more than one…)Part of the reason why there’s not much space to park on the street is the markings: much of the roads are marked with a single white line or a double yellow line. The residents here appear to be quite good at following the rules too. (Not the case in many other neighbourhoods that I’ve been to, where I can see hordes of cars parking in no-parking-allowed areas.)See what I mean?The houses were mostly 2-storey properties.This is the border of Yio Chu Kang Gardens and one of the surrounding HDB estates. As you can see there’s a decent gap between the two.One thing about this estate is the large number of single-loading houses i.e. houses which do not open directly into another house. (They’re separated by a road or sometimes a canal and are usually thought to have better light, privacy and ventilation.) There are 3 rows of single-loading houses here.Standing on the road to take this photo, so you get a better sense of how much space there is in between the HDB blocks and the houses. As you can see, there is a basketball court here which I guess residents of the landed houses can use too.Dustbins are being used to reserve parking space.This end of the estate borders the low-rise condo, The Calrose.I didn’t actually see any litter on the streets.Nice pavement landscaping.This house was very interesting. It looks like it has a tower!Walked around the corner to see if I could get a better look at it.First time I’ve seen a house with such grills!
To be honest, when I see something like this, I wonder if there’s a burglary issue in the neighbourhood. But I didn’t see any notices about break-ins and there was no news about theft here when I googled. (This was also the only property with so many grills!)
A closer look at the cool house with the tower. This is the street by the cool house.Let’s head towards those HDB blocks.One of the perpendicular streets we pass on the way. Here, we see two rows of houses which are set on land of different heights. (Remember how I mentioned the land is sloping when we were at the playground?)
Initially, I thought that the residents of the houses on the higher ground were lucky but not the ones of the properties on the lower level.
However, the houses on the lower level enjoy a “private” road, and have a lot of empty space in front of them, so there are advantages to both actually.
I can’t decide which I prefer: higher ground but less space or lower ground with an open view.
How about you?
More houses to my right.These are super private: there are only 4 or so houses here.Closer view of the houses.To the right of the houses shown above is a small path. Let’s follow it to see where it leads. (There are a few stairs to climb.)Ah, it brings us back to where we started: the playground! However, we’ve already seen this, so let’s backtrack back to that row of houses on the lower-lying land.Ok, we’re back down again and in front of the terrace houses now.
As I mentioned, they enjoy an almost private road. (You can see the houses at the left edge of this photo. In front of them is a road, then this stretch of greenery, and another road again, as shown on the right above. It’s rare to have so much open space in front of a landed terrace house in Singapore.)
Here’s what the houses look like. The residents have put the green space to good use.First time I’ve seen such a large pot in a private home! Does anyone know what kind of plant that is? One of the few, massive, rebuilt properties in this ended enclave. It’s quite a short road.Reached the end where it intersects another road. Let’s turn back and have a look.This is what we see (basically The Calrose.) Also captures how sloping the area is.We’re next to the main road here, but elevated above it.Let’s head down to see where it takes us. This flight of stairs is a little steep and, alas, no ramp here for those who are mobility-challenged.At the bottom of the stairs is an entrance to an HDB car park, where your visitors can park if they can’t get street parking, as well as a covered walkway.There are a few commercial units over at that block but not many.Turned around so you can see the stairs for yourself.Walked over to the commercial units I pointed out to you previously. There’s a dentist and a mini-mart but both were closed when I visited. (Didn’t see any eateries here but over at Block 603 are Girlhood Mains, Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak and Chelabela Korean Food)Let’s continue walking and see if we can find a hawker centre or market. (The best part about living next to an HDB estate, in my opinion.)We pass a bus stop. If you walk to Block 604, you can also take buses 138, 265, 269, 652, and 860. (About 5 minutes away.) Bus 860 will bring you to Yio Chu Kang MRT whilst 256 and 269 go to Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange and MRT.This is actually a very nice walk to find food. You’re surrounded by lush greenery on both sides, and the plants help buffer you from the road.We cross the road in search of food.MANY more shops in this HDB estate, though some are not open either.There’s a covered shelter in between the blocks. I didn’t find a hawker centre or market – the closest is Ang Mo Kio 628 Market which is about 10 minutes away I believe. However, I did see a few kopitiams, one with apparently one of the “5 best Bak Chor Mee in Town.” I was pleasantly surprised as I wasn’t expecting to find any famous food options here. The plating even reminds me a bit of a French restaurant: big bowls, little food.
We’ve seen the HDB estate now, so it’s time to head back!
Took a better photo on the way back to show you exactly how nice the walk is. (It also didn’t feel too hot as we were shaded by the plants.)Back at the bottom row of houses: this is what they look like from across the street.And here we are at the playground where we started our walk!
So, how did you find today’s tour? I enjoyed how low-density the landed estate was. However, I think the thing that stood out the most was its large and spacious playground! Let me know if there are any other estates that you would prefer to see on these walkabouts!
TJ
10 min read
The 628 market is literally just across the road (Ave 4) from the flight of stairs down to the carpark.