Street Art in Bras Basah Bugis: Where to Find Murals in the Museum District

Last updated September 15th, 2026

Bras Basah.Bugis precinct is one of Singapore‘s best neighbourhoods for arts and culture. This historic district was the former European quarter of Singapore, and now the home of its premier museums, galleries, cultural institutions and art schools. But if you prefer seeing your art outside the gallery, there are plenty of very cool murals and public artwork hidden amidst its streets and alleyways.

Anybody attending a major art festival or checking out a popular art exhibition will find themselves in the Bras Basah Bugis area, so I’ve come here a lot for work, to check out the museums and to attend festivals. As a Singapore tour guide, it’s an area I like to bring visitors to as well because it’s one of the oldest neighbourhoods with plenty of historical buildings, and lots of interesting museums and galleries to check out.

The mural scene in the Bras Basah Bugis area has changed quite drastically as the district evolved – this post has undergone quite a lot of revamp over the years as the murals come and go. I’ve tried my best to keep it as updated as possible along with all the rest of my Singapore street art posts.

Where is Bras Basah.Bugis?

Bras Basah and Bugis are actually two different place names in Singapore, but they’ve been combined together to encompass what Singapore calls its art and heritage district or stylised as Bras Basah.Bugis (BBB).

There isn’t really an official delineation of the areas, but very broadly for most Singaporeans:

Bras Basah refers to the areas on either side of Bras Basah Road around Fort Canning and Waterloo Street. Bras Basah (Malay for ‘wet rice’) is a reference to the cargo boats that used to ply the rivers that flowed through this area and the drying of rice that got wet along the banks.

Bugis is usually understood as the area around Middle Road and Rochor Road. Bugis is named for the Bugis people of Sulawesi (then Celebes) who were sea nomads and had their settlement around this area.

Read more at the BBB website.

Where to Find Street Art in Bras Basah Bugis

There are murals spared across this district, but I’ve broken them down into general clusters to help you navigate the area, especially if you’re short on time and can’t see everything you want:

• Armenian Street: this pedestrianised stretch of road at the foot of Fort Canning Hill has a lovely work amid its museums
• Waterloo Street: the streets running parallel and adjacent to Waterloo Street have some cool murals amidst an unusual mix of religious buildings and arts housing
• Bras Basah Complex: Singapore’s ‘Book City’ is an old-school shopping complex with several murals on its walls
• Bugis Street: the cheapest of the Bugis malls, there are some fun murals around these alleys

More details below, here’s a Google map I made to help you navigate:

Armenian Street

Armenian Street is a small pedestrianised road at the foot of historic Fort Canning Hill that stretches between Coleman Street and Stamford Street, there are a number of prominent cultural institutions here, like the Peranakan Museum, the Children’s Museum and the National Archives. This is one of the major event hubs for BBB’s cultural festivals like the Singapore Night Festival.

Location: Side wall facing SMU / Stamford Road where Le Bistrot du Sommelier is located

When Armenian Street was pedestrianised and reopened in 2019, local art studio LABSIXFIVE was commissioned to do this piece called Rasa Sayang (translated roughly to ‘feeling of love’) to reveal a stylised interior of a traditional Peranakan shophouse. They’ve worked the windows into the design, and you can see the traditional majolica tiles as well. I love the fun plants and the hip pink and and green colour scheme which calls back to traditional Peranakan colours in a modern way.

No longer there: The Substation

The former Substation was Singapore’s first independent contemporary arts centre and occasionally has some pretty avant-garde performances or exhibitions on show, and its back and side walls used to be covered with interesting murals. Sadly in 2021, the arts company had to move out as the space was revamped so you can no longer see these walls anymore, but I saved some of the more memorable pieces here:

No longer there: Low carpark wall

This artwork was a collaborative effort by the RSCLS crew that was commissioned by the National Heritage Board in celebration of their 20th Anniversary in 2013. Located in front of the carpark right next to the Peranakan Museum, the low wall is emblazoned with a rainbow coloured artwork depicting the cultural flavour of the Bugis Bras Basah district. The little mosaic pieces depicting famous buildings in the area amidst the artwork remind me of Invader.

Bencoolen Street and surroundings

This area is where the art schools and institutions are located, and there are a number of arts housing and studios here as well. Lots of murals are hidden on these walls.

NAFA Campus

Location: NAFA Campus 3, 171 Bencoolen Street, alleyway between buildings

This particular mural is a part of the series that 8EyedSpud, illustrator duo Jackie and Nat, was commissioned to create for Bugis Bras Basah Precinct in 2021. This one is a little out of the way compared to the rest – look for it in an alleyway between the buildings Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA)‘s campus 3.

Titled Art School and showing different types of artists at work, it’s a reference both to the many schools that were historically located in this area, and the many current art colleges (La Salle and SOTA) that are located nearby.

Location: NAFA Main Campus near junction of Middle Road and Bencoolen Street

This wall was a bit of a surprise for me to stumble upon when I was searching for the NAFA theatre. You can access it from the driveway at the NAFA building, or walk behind the Objectifs Gallery. I’m assuming that NAFA owns this wall as the works change ever so often, so these images below might not be what you see when you are there.

No longer there: Old works on the wall

Waterloo Street

Location: The Theatre Practice, 58 Waterloo Street

Waterloo Street is home to a number of smaller arts institutions. This particular mural can be found at the entrance to The Theatre Practice (TTP) and is based on the Chinese idiom 青出于蓝而胜于蓝, which basically translates into it’s rather unwieldy english title Green is Born of Blue, but Outshines Blue. The green lines form the logo of TTP – this work is meant to pay tribute to the fact that TTP is the longest running bilingual theatre institution.

No longer there: Jesus portrait for Catholic Centre

This striking face of Jesus was painted in late 2021 to celebrate the Catholic Church’s 200th year anniversary. The artist is Andrew Paton, and the work was painted by Boy’s Town and Assumption English School students.

Location: Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO), 96 Waterloo Street

[Photo pending]

Ignition by Eunice Hannah aka E.nuf was created in 2024. I’ve seen this mural in passing but haven’t had the chance to photograph it yet. More pix on Eunice’s website. Eunice has works in other parts of Singapore, notably her magnificent phoenixes in Joo Chiat and colour cattle in Little India.

No longer there: plant mural

There used to be a plant-inspired mural at its entrance. I couldn’t find exactly who painted it though.

Waterloo Link

Location: Alleyway between 222 Queen Street and Hotel Oxford that connects Queen Street and Waterloo Street.

This wall is part of the Solidarity Project by noted Singaporean street art crew RSCLS, a mash-up of Singaporean and Thai artists from Bangkok that dates back to March 2015. Recognise any Thai artists by their works? Check out my Bangkok Street Art post and see if you can match any works – I spotted Alexface and Bon because of their distinct characters, other Thai artists involved were Bang, Bonus, Gong and Leo. On the Singapore side we had Antz, Demo 365, Hegira, Hastwo, Klax and SKL0.

In July 2014 it had a lovely feature by an all-female artist collab called the Rebel Daughters.

Middle Road

Location: Coliwoo Midtown, 141 Middle Road, side of building

This absolutely massive, colourful and impressive piece is titled Shared Responsibility and painted by skl0 aka Sam Lo for coliving space Coliwoo Midtown. Coliwoo has worked with Sam on several murals for their properties around Singapore (check out his IG feed for more), but this I feel is one of his most impressive works to date.

I actually got to see him paint this in person and he was a one man show who took 49 days over 3 months to finish this mural! So lovely and detailed – there’s a very strong environmental theme running through with lots of different natural habitats and animals featured, along with a DNA strand through the middle which shows that connection of humans and the living world.

Stamford Arts Centre

Location: Back wall of Stamford Arts Centre facing Queen Street open-air carpark

Update: ANTZ has just replaced this mural with a new work in 2026 – more pix on his IG but no pix here as I have yet to see it, so stay tuned! THis new piece is a community mural co-designed by the Yellow Ribbon Project and painted with the help of the community.

ANTZ of the RSCLS crew has a 29m long mural covering the back wall of Stamford Arts Centre which provides arts housing for traditional arts groups. RSCLS is housed in Aliwal Arts Centre in Kampong Gelam, but they are run by the same parent company (Arts House Group) so perhaps the collab isn’t too unusual, but the subject matter definitely strays away from ANTZ’s more typical urban roots and his monkey imagery. He did paint this entirely by himself though!

Bras Basah Complex

Bras Basah Complex is an older shopping centre where most people head to for cheaper and quick printing options. Among its more popular tenants are Art Friend for all your DIY art supplies, the largest Popular Bookstore outlet for all your stationery needs, as well as Basheer Graphic Books which carries design and visual arts publications.

There are a number of murals around Bras Basah Complex, largely from the Central Singapore CDC’s project ‘Painting Smiles’ initiative with NAFA students to create murals from 2018 onwards. I haven’t seen all of them as there are too many!

These are some other notable murals that are not part of the project above:

Location: Bras Basah Complex, next to Level 1 Toilets, 231 Bain Street

This particular artwork Rainbow Lands is part of a larger street art campaign called 50 Bridges, an initiative by the Australian Commission of Singapore in celebration of Singapore’s 50th year of independence which had 50 pieces of street artworks all across the island. Singaporean street artist Sheryo and Aussie partner Yok created a series of rather distinctively colourful artwork, and Bras Basah Complex was one of the locations.

Location: Outdoor atrium wall facing Victoria Street

For the 22m tall Gen XYZ mural, Eunice wanted the building and its tenants to speak for itself, so she went around to photograph the old storefronts and talk to the tenants of Bras Basah Complex and created this mural which reflects the many identities of this building – a city of books and a Xinyao (Chinese folk songs) hub. I prefer her bolder works, but I really admire the work she put in to talk to the tenants and create this meaningful piece.

Read more about Gen XYZ at Eunice’s website or at BBB.

Seah Street

This fun piece is located on the side of boutique hotel Naumi created by home-grown street artist Trase One – the alleyway that the artwork faces connects Seah Street and Purvis Street and is often the site of illegal parking, so this piece is a pretty good reminder to exercise caution while parking in that area!

I love Trase’s distinct style, and this is actually quite an old piece dating back to 2013 – not many works in Singapore have lasted so long, and it’s definitely a lot more faded these days, but still a great work.

Bugis Street

Bugis is named for the people who came from around what’s now known as Sulawesi in Indonesia. They were famously good with boats and many of them settled around this area. Bugis these days mostly has shopping centres, but back in the 1980s, it was a known place for trans people to hang out.

Cheng Yan Place

Location: Above Popeyes at 229 Victoria Street, facing Bugis+

Another 8EyedSpud work for Bras Basah.Bugis created in late 2021 – they painted this in about a week. This vibrant graphic piece is called River Trade and calls back to Singapore’s early trade days. The Bugis people were traders, bringing with them goods like coffee, ceramics and fabric. This area was where a lot of that trade happened.

Bugis Street Art Lane

Location: 3 New Bugis Street, back alley near the east entrance of Bugis Village

Bugis Village is where you can find a whole cluster of shops selling generally cheap stuff. It’s a bit too cramped for my liking but reminiscent of overseas street markets, which are actually not that common in Singapore as we mostly prefer shopping centres. It’s also where you can find these prettily coloured spiral fire escapes, and another mural from 8EyedSpud also for the BBB precinct. This work is called Diverse Neighbourhood and meant to showcase multiracial Singapore.

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Looking for more murals in Singapore Check out my street art in Singapore page which features other Singaporean neighbourhoods that I’ve explored.