Flea market Singapore: Antiques, vintage and garbage
The best shopping in Singapore isn’t found in air-conditioned malls. Travelers looking for a unique and thirilling shopping experience in Singapore, should venture into one of the flea markets the city has to offer, and get their hands dirty.
Sungei Road Thieve’s Market (discontinued)
Famously named because of its history for being the place where not only second-hand goods but also contraband items are being sold, Sungei Road Thieve’s Market is the oldest and one of the largest flea markets in Singapore. It is located at Sungei Road, literally River Road as it runs along Rochor Canal. Sungei Road offers a shopping experience under the open sky, worlds away from Singapore’s cosmopolitan hub of glittering glass walls, marble-tiled floors and state-of-the-art, quality service-staffed shopping centres. The line between trash and treasure becomes minutely blurred once you step into this street lined with stalls that are actually barely stalls but road spaces marked as store territory as big as each seller’s mat size.
The products they offer are a mixture of garbage and gem, ranging from cool retro watches, shades, typewriters to old mobile phones, used snickers, Russian Dolls and Disco balls. Ultimately, Sungei Road Thieve’s Market is a carnival of noise, bargain and unaffected vintage goodness, where the fun lays in sifting out those little gems among an obstacle course of less desirable products.
When: discontinued
Where: Along Jalan Besar near Sungei Road, between Kelantan Road and Weld Road
China Square Central Weekend Flea Market
A veteran of the flea market scene in Singapore, the China Square Central Weekend Flea Market is held every Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. This air-conditioned Weekend Flea Market with more than 60 vendors, is a reliable place to score antiques and collectibles, including records, vintage toys, watches, 80s posters and gramophone records. Look harder and you can snap up hard-to-find items for a few dollars each. Comic junkies should head to Level 2 for the latest issues and action figure collectibles.
Price range: $5-$30
China Square Central Level 1 & 2, 18 Cross Street
www.chinasquarecentral.com
