The area that is bounded by River Valley Road and Havelock Road was once the site of at least two Prisoner-Of-War (POW) camps during the Japanese Occupation. Named after these two roads, the Havelock Road and River Valley Road Camps were believed to have been referred to interchangeably.
Prior to the Japanese invasion, the location was a swamp where the British constructed makeshift huts that could easily be evacuated in the event of aerial bombing. By the time the Japanese took control of Singapore in 1942, some accounts noted that the two camps were only separated by a small river or canal with a bridge built across it.
Once containing up to a total of 5,000 POWs, these camps acted as despatch sites for POW work parties. Their tasks involved the cleaning up and repairing of war-torn parts of the city and the badly bombed Chinatown area. POWs who were allowed to remain at either of these camps were often from Changi Camp and still fit to work.
The POWs lived in dilapidated attap huts about a hundred feet long with wooden sleeping platforms that could accommodate up to 150 POWs. There was once a Roman Catholic Chapel and also a small library consisting of books collected from some of the houses near the camps. Unknown to the Japanese, there was a radio secretly hidden by the POWs on the grounds, which provided them with news from the outside world.
Interestingly, in contrast to some reports, it was also noted that POWs here received the most humane treatment from their Japanese captors and were given a significant amount of privileges not found elsewhere. Havelock Road and River Valley Road Camps also had the unusual distinction of running a Masonic Lodge but this ended when numerous POWs were sent to the infamous Burmese "Death Railway".
After the war, the Fraser and Neave Company occupied a portion of the site until the latter half of the 20th Century. It is now re-occupied by a commercial complex known as Valley Point. Another significant structure that was built on a stretch of open ground around the site was the former Straits Times building.