Singapore River & Clarke Quay

From the early 19th century the river was the heart of Singapore's trade. Boat Quay, on the south bank, was the busiest part of the old port, handling around three-quarters of its shipping business in the 1860s, and lighters carried goods upstream to warehouses at Clarke Quay. The quay takes its name from Sir Andrew Clarke, Governor of the Straits Settlements from 1873 to 1875.

As port activity moved elsewhere and the river grew badly polluted, the government launched a major clean-up in 1977, relocating riverside squatters and hawkers, dredging the riverbed and moving the lighters out to Pasir Panjang. Clarke Quay was designated a conservation area in 1989 and reopened as a dining and entertainment district in the early 1990s, while Boat Quay's shophouses were gazetted for conservation on 7 July 1989 and restored. The Marina Barrage, completed in 2008, turned the lower river into fresh water.

The river is a place where Singapore's past and present meet: older residents remember the crowded lighters and godowns, while today office workers from the financial district meet by the water after work. The riverside is also a venue for festivals and light displays, and the clean-up of the 1970s and 1980s is remembered as one of the country's landmark environmental projects; otters and monitor lizards are now sometimes seen along the banks.