GAZETTED national monument Lau Pa Sat has shut for a facelift, as part of plans to rejuvenate the 119-year-old food centre’s physical structure and offerings.
Singapore’s The Sunday Times reported that the S$4 million (US$3.1 million) makeover will result in better ventilation, a new internal walkway, a stage for live performances, a repaired clock tower, while leaving Lau Pa Sat’s Victorian-era cast-iron structure intact. It will reopen in November.
The shakeup also extends to the food centre’s tenant mix and numbers. New restaurants will make their debut and offer diners more al fresco seating, while the total number of tenants will be reduced to create more space.
However, Boon Tat Street’s seafood restaurants and satay street’s hawkers will remain.
Alden Tan, managing director of Kopitiam, which owns Lau Pa Sat, was reported as saying that local food would continue to account for 80 per cent of the fare served there.
The company is also looking into having more pushcarts to hawk a greater variety of street food.
