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New heritage mural unveiled in Yishun

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Many may know the Goodlink Park area in Yishun for modern-day makan such as Chong Pang Nasi Lemak and Gin Thye Cake Shop, but the area's food heritage actually goes back several decades.

To capture that, Nee Soon South Community Club commissioned a mural showing an outdoor eatery, with stalls side by side and customers having meals on wooden tables and stools. It is located under a pavilion at Goodlink Park Playground, off Sembawang Road.

The 4m by 2m mural, which depicts Goodlink Park in the 1960s, also features the Chinese characters for "Yishun" scrawled on a sign board.

To commemorate yesterday's unveiling, MP for Nee Soon GRC Lee Bee Wah painted numbers on the registration plate of a car in the mural - S2018N, with S for Singapore, 2018 for the year of the mural's unveiling, and N for Nee Soon.

The mural is the third piece in Nee Soon South's public art initiative. Ms Lee told The Straits Times that the inspiration for the art trail came from Sheffield Town in Tasmania, Australia.

She said: "I hope that slowly, we can transform Yishun in the same way. All these murals will tell the story of Nee Soon South, and it can also attract visitors."

In 2016, a pineapple structure was installed at Block 850, Yishun Street 81, to commemorate the area's history as a pineapple plantation. Last year, a mural was painted at Block 776, Yishun Avenue 2, depicting a scene from Lee Teck Public School, which used to be located there.

About 150 people, including volunteers and residents of the constituency, were at the launch of the latest addition to the art trail. The Goodlink Park area used to be a kampung but was developed over the decades into a private housing estate. The Gin Thye Cake Shop has been operating in the area since 1964. It moved to its current location at Sembawang Road in 1978.

Mr Lawrence Lim, 44, second-generation owner of the shop, said in Mandarin: "I grew up in this area... This area has really changed so much in the last 40 years or so."

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