Heritage Trails :: Fun on Foot - Little India :: Residence of Tan Teng Niah

This house is one of the last surviving Chinese Villas in Little India. Built in 1900, this eight-room villa was built for Tan Teng Niah’s wife. Mr Tan was a prominent Chinese businessman and owned a confectionery business and other smaller ones such as a few sweet-making factories along Serangoon Road and a rubber smokehouse in Kerbau Road. He was one of the non-Indian communities who prospered in Little India.

The villa has many interesting features such as a courtyard, gilded name plate with the calligraphic inscription “siew song” or Elegant Pine (the pine being a symbol of endurance), richly carved pintu pagar (decorative swinging doors), bamboo tiled roof and calligraphic scrolls hanging from the living room. The villa has been restored and has been leased for commercial use.