As with much of Singapore’s street scene and cityscape, this collonade serves 2 purposes – one practical and one colourful.
Who needs a covered walkway when you can have a colonnade?
In most other cities, a colonnade such as this one would probably be nothing more than a simple and basic “covered walkway,” erected solely to keep people dry. That is IF the city would even bother to build such a walkway.
Enhancing the cityscape, while keeping you dry
In Singapore, however, colonnades such as this serve not only to keep residents dry during the torrential monsoon downpours but also to beautify the cityscape.
The smoothly curved frame, the clean white ceiling, the radiant red posts, the green borders, and the block paving combine to enhance this little street scene (which leads to the Outram metro station just south of Chinatown) and make for a much more pleasant environment.
While cycling the length and breadth of Singapore, I found many such attractive collonades and walkways. In fact, some of them kept me dry when I was caught in sudden rainstorms. And if I didn’t have to stop for shelter, they all caught my eye as I cycled past them.