Emerald Hill, Singapore

A Peranakan enclave off Orchard Road. Emerald Hill is a heritage residential street tucked just behind the bustle of Orchard Road, Singapore's main shopping boulevard. Once a nutmeg plantation, the hill was subdivided in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and built up with terrace houses commissioned largely by wealthy Straits Chinese, or Peranakan, families, giving it one of the city's finest concentrations of the style.

Architecture worth slowing down for. The gently rising lane is lined with two- and three-storey terrace houses displaying elaborate facades: pastel walls, ornate plaster mouldings, carved timber doors, decorative ceramic tiles and shuttered windows framed by pilasters. Styles blend Chinese, Malay and European elements into the eclectic look associated with Peranakan Singapore. The street is a gazetted conservation area, and its houses remain private homes, protected from redevelopment.

A quiet contrast to the malls. Where Orchard Road roars with retail, Emerald Hill only steps away is calm and residential, its beauty in the details of individual houses rather than any single monument. At the foot of the hill, a cluster of restored shophouses known as Peranakan Place holds bars and cafes set within period buildings, marking the transition between the shopping belt and the historic lane. Original features such as swinging pintu pagar half-doors, coloured floor tiles and carved timber fanlights survive on many of the houses for those who look closely.

Visiting. Emerald Hill is a two-minute walk from Somerset MRT station. There is no admission, as it is a living street; visitors are asked to respect residents' privacy and view the houses from the public roadway. It is a rewarding short detour for anyone interested in architecture and the Peranakan heritage of the city, best appreciated on foot in the cooler morning or late-afternoon light.