Singapore street art guide: Kampong Gelam
Last updated September 29th, 2025
Kampong Glam or Kampong Gelam is the heritage Arab/Muslim quarter in Singapore and home to the beautiful Sultan Mosque and famous for a mishmash of Middle Eastern restaurants and hipster shops, it’s also one of the first places where you could find street art in Singapore. I put together this guide to street art in Kampong Gelam to show you where my favourites are around this historical neighbourhood.
Kampong Gelam is one of my favourite neighbourhoods in Singapore. The office of my first job was located here and I spent many days walking up and down these streets, so I will always be fond of it even though I think it’s gentrified a lot in recent years and I’m not as fond of the current shop mix in recent years.
I first wrote this post way back in 2014 when street art hadn’t quite become popular yet, so I’ve also seen the murals and street art scene here evolve. Kampong Gelam has always been one of the favourite spots for Singapore’s pioneering street artists when the area was considered more underground, so I’ll include both current artworks and some of the older works that have since been removed for posterity.
Where is Kampong Gelam?
I first knew this place as Kampong Glam (Say ‘Glum’ and not glam like glamorous), but in recent years they’re moving back to calling it by its proper name Kampong Gelam, which stems from the Malay word Gelam, a reference to the Gelam trees that once grew abundantly in this area and gave this place its name.
The closest MRT stations to Kampong Gelam are Bugis (East-West, Downtown Line) or Nicoll Highway (Circle Line) and about 5-10mins walk away.
I’ve split this guide into 4 major areas where you can check out street art works. Use the map to help you navigate. I update this guide when I can, but street art is ephemeral by nature so it’s always changing, don’t be too surprised if you can’t find it.
For a self-guided audio tour, check out Kampong Gelam Street Art tour on Voicemap that I curated and recorded.
Victoria Street
This stretch between Victoria Street and North Bridge Road is where you’ll find most of the commissioned street art works by Ernest Zacharevic in Singapore – he’s the guy whose works help make Penang’s Georgetown a street art destination – but also in recent years more murals from other shops in the area.
Arab Street
Alleyway off 122 Arab Street
This work is one of Didier Jaba Mathieu‘s newer works put up in January 2020 and showcases more of his signature portraits that can also be seen in his works at Piedra Negra on Haji Lane (see below). You can see a face through the archway if you approach from North Bridge Road, and it’s a nice surprise when you realise that he’s actually painted most of the wall in this really narrow back alleyway.
Jalan Pinang
9 Jalan Pinang, Hotel NuVe entrance
Jalang Pinang is home to YipYC‘s Satay Club and Kampong Gelam murals painted in 2016 for budget Hotel Nuve. These heritage murals reference a popular area for eating satay that used to be on nearby beach road as well as the Gelam trees that Kampong Gelam was named for – you can read more about that here.
Jalan Kledek
8C/D Jalan Kledek, side of Camera Museum facing Victoria Street
A little further down from the Lion Cub mural is the Vintage Camera’s Museum with an exterior shaped like a camera. The wall facing Victoria Street has had various murals on the side by local Singaporean artist Ceno2 who has a pretty distinct portrait style.
The current version features Team Singapore, several Singaporean sportspeople who have performed well and medalled in recent years: Yip Pin Xiu (Para Swimming), Loh Kean Yew (Badminton), Maximillian Maeder (Kitesurfing), Shanti Pereira (Track) and Nur Syahidah Binte Alim (Para Archery).
Click to see what the original work by Ceno2 looked like
749 North Bridge Road, side facing Jalan Kledek
This mural was done in 2021 but I never got around to checking it out. It was commissioned by Cuban Bar La Boca which has since moved out, but the mural has been left there. No artist tag though so I’m not sure who created this work.
Jalan Klapa
Walls between Jalan Klapa and Jalan Sultan, facing Victoria Street
Further down Victoria Street and you can see more of Ernest Zacharevic’s commissioned works from his time in Singapore in 2013. These kids in supermarket trolleys attracts a lot of people taking photos because of the actual supermarket cart attached to it, you’re likely to see lots of ridiculous photos in action here.
A little further down on the side of the AMC building is this giant exclamation mark with two kids that was revamped in 2020 as a collaborative mural involving a bevy of young local creatives. Artists include Tobyato, DPLMT who also did the Merlion mural at Haji Lane, Kezia, Kezia, IAMUGGLEE, Delaphy and Garry.
Here’s how it used to look like before:
Click to see what the original Ernest Zacharevic version looked like
Go around the side of the building to the back alley to see another version of the mural.
Jalan Sultan
133 Jalan Sultan, wall at cross junction facing Victoria Street
Keep walking down Victoria Street to the junction of Jalan Sultan is this impressive wall by Russian artist Julia Volchkova – I first spotted her works when I was in Penang way back in 2016 – her earliest international street art murals can be found in Georgetown and Balik Pulau, so it’s nice that she’s finally made her way to Singapore for this mural for the Aparthotel Heritage Collections on Victoria. She created this work in a rather rainy week in early September 2025.
I do enjoy her mural’s monochromatic style and portraits of local people. There is a symbol between the children that I knew was a Malay symbol – it turned out to be a Wau bulan or traditional Malay kite which does call back to the area’s Malay roots.
Click to see the old work by Ernest Zacharevic
Aliwal Street – Sultan Gate
Most of the works at Aliwal Street can be found at the Aliwal Arts Centre which houses many different arts groups, including one of Singapore’s more popular street art crews RSCLS (say Rascals) on its second level. These walls are unusual because the works here change pretty often, a rarity as most walls in Singapore are commissioned fixed projects. Read more about what Singapore’s street art scene is like.
Weave Suites – Midtown
33 Jalan Sultan, side facing Pahang Street
I drove past this work and was immediately struck by how it looked like another piece I remembered seeing in Armenian Street, and it turns out I was right, it is the same artists LABSIXFIVE. This is a commissioned piece for Weave Suites Midtown, a co-living space. There’s a hint of a Peranakan theme in the sarong kebaya and tiffin in the mural, but I love that you can see Sultan Mosque through the window.
Cuturi Gallery
Alleyway between 65-67 Aliwal Street on side of Cuturi Gallery
This work by Jaba was commissioned by the Cuturi Gallery in Jan 2021 and I was actually pretty lucky to actually see him working on this! He took about 2 weeks just to paint this and it’s pretty impressive. It’s an interesting mix of history and futurism – shipbuilding was quite a flourishing trade by the early Bugis community who were seafaring folk and settled around the Kampong Gelam area though I’m sure the boats weren’t flying back then.
Go around the corner and you’ll see more of Singapore’s wildlife that’s quite cleverly hidden by the wall angle, perhaps a commentary about how that’s true in real life as well. I recognised some of the animals like the pangolin and colugo!
Aliwal Arts Centre
20 Aliwal Street
This is actually the wall next to the Aliwal Arts Centre, but it is at the entrance that leads to the side and back alleys. This colourful piece is Singaporean artist Slacsatu called AlphaBatik for Aliwal Urban Arts Festival 2019 that’s based on traditional Indonesian Batik prints. I really love the colours and vibrancy though it’s gotten a bit faded – you’ll see various renditions of this work all over Kampong Gelam.
Head around the side and back alleys to see the artwork – the side alley is where motorcycles are parked, and the back alley is a very large wall that usually has some quite impressive works. These works change often, so I’m just showing you some works that I have seen in the past.
These walls above are all at mostly standing/ladder height, but there is also a section of wall higher up that requires a boom lift. This section of wall typically changes in January when RSCLS and their collaborators create something during Aliwal’s Urban Art Festival.
There used to be a tiny work by Italian artist Alice Pasquini in this alleyway
Sultan Arts Village
71 Sultan Gate (in front of entrance to Malay Heritage Centre)
This rather obscure little building is easy to miss, a tiny arts enclave just a few roads down from Aliwal Arts Centre and in front of the entrance to the Malay Heritage Centre. It is home to The Black Book, a shop run by local graffiti crew ZincNiteCrew (aka ZNC), which sells spray paints and apparel. They also run the occasional graffiti battle here, so keep checking out their practice walls. There is art on the walls all around Sultan Arts Village building.
The front of Sultan Arts Centre where most of the shops have their entrances has a painted sign on the wall. No idea who painted it though.
Click to see what this work looked like before
If you go around to the side of the building that faces Pahang/Baghdad Street, you can see this female Malay dancer – has been there for awhile and I don’t know who did it either. The batik is all Slac, though in this version you can actually make out distinct objects. Curious to what those objects are? They are traditional Malay instruments! I think I can spot a Gedombak and Gendang, as well as the brass chimes of the Gamelan. They actually show what used to be on the wall before – scroll down to see.
Click to see the original version before Slac’s Alphabatik style
My favourite Alphabatik piece by Slac was on the other side of SAC before it was painted over
Baghdad Street
Baghdad Street cuts across Kampong Gelam connecting Aliwal Street to Arab Street and Haji Lane – this is where they sometimes hold weekend car-free events and block off the roads. Now you can find several works in the lanes and alleys off this stretch of road.
Off Bussorah Street
This long mural in an alleyway off Bussorah Street is by RSCLS, though you wouldn’t know it because it doesn’t look street-style at all. The RSCLS folk said in a street art tour that I took that this is an independent project that they work on it when they can, though after several years it hasn’t changed one bit so I assume this is the finished look. You can see lots of things from around the neighbourhood – there’s a bunch of fishing shops, the teh tarik man, chickens running around and the shophouse with the r was once found along Aliwal Street.
Click to see another work that used to be in this alleyway by Slacsatu
Right opposite the work is this mural by Slacsatu for Juggernaut Fight Club’s back entrance grills. The quote reads “It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep on moving forward!”
Alleyway
Alleyway off 12-14 Baghdad Street near junction of Arab Street
This small alley between shops along Baghdad street now has a bunch of new works. This piece by TraseOne is titled Bejeweled: An Homage to Kampung Intan and was commissioned for the Singapore Heritage Festival in March 2019 – check out his very cool timelapse of painting this work in just 36 hours!
The artwork was apparently inspired by the fact that Baghdad Street (once known as Kampung Intan) was once a popular trading spot for jewels and precious stones – Intan means Diamond and you could find Intan jewellery makers and goldsmiths around the area as well.
There used to be some other works in the alleyway, click to see what it looked like.
Back of 58 Arab Street
Right across the road from Ts1’s piece is an artwork by Yip Yew Chong called Kampong Glam Basket Shop. There actually was a shop that was full of wicker baskets at that corner for a long time, but they closed down during COVID, so the new owner requested for the mural to commemorate this old shop.
In a departure from his usual hidden cats, this one has a very prominent large grumpy cat sitting up high amidst the wicker baskets, though if you look to the bottom left corner (blocked in my photo by the people), there is a cat down there too!
Muscat Street
There are two alleyways, one on either side of the mosque. These are the back alleys of the shops along Arab Street – Bussorah Street, and Bussorah Street – Kandahar Street. Google has both these streets listed as Muscat Street.
In July 2019, Gelam Gallery was created along 2 streets on either side the pedestrianised Bussorah Street that leads to the mosque.These lanes used to just be back alleys and where the dustbins are located, but has since been transformed into what they are calling Singapore’s first outdoor art gallery, and it’s a little different from your usual street art and murals as there are little artist plaques at the side of each work.
Gelam Gallery was set up by The Admin (now defunct), the same people who used to run the weekend market in this same area. When I checked with them before, they mentioned that they may refresh these works but not on a frequent basis though since they’re no longer around, it does’t seem like anyone cares for these works so they’ve been left to weather the conditions or some just get painted over or removed by new tenants.
There are a mix of artists here, from known street art names like SlacSatu to up-and-coming artists fresh from local art schools like LaSalle and NAFA. I’m not putting up all the works here because there are too many, just some of my favourites:
Click to see what the ship work by Slacsatu here looked like
Junction of Arab Street and Muscat Street (where Oman arch and panels are located)
This lovely large mural is yet another work by Yip Yew Chong called The Kampong Gelam Mural and it’s pretty details and tells a number of stories that make up the area’s history. On the left are old buildings including the Istana Kampong Gelam and the first version of Sultan Mosque that looked like Malay style village houses and not the current Indo-saracenic version.
To the right is the cross section of a shophouse with a Malay family living there, and you can even see a comparison of old vs new Kampong Gelam maps!
Haji Lane
This lane is more famous for its hipster shops and attracts photographers looking for a colourful yet traditional shophouse backdrop; it is one of the spots in Singapore which had street art and murals before it was the hip thing to do. You’ll see more works by ZNC here, and quite a lot by JabaOne concentrated at the buildings on the Beach Road end leading up to the alleyway linking Arab Street and Haji Lane. Some of the other shops have got into the act as well, with artwork on their shopfronts, it’s definitely a visually exciting place and always quite bustling.
Arab Street-Haji Lane Linkway
Alleyway linking Arab Street and Haji Lane (opposite junction of Arab Street and Baghdad Street)
This alleyway used to have some pretty iconic works that have sadly been removed. Currently the only one up is this mural by DPLMT featuring Ultraman and a reimagined Merlion which was part of a Singapore Tourism Board campaign in 2022 to mark the 50th birthday of the Merlion (and 55th year of Ultraman!) – it’s the reason why you still see some random Ultraman characters in some other murals around Singapore!
Click to see the iconic works that used to be found in this alleyway
Haji Lane
Juice Clinic, 27 Haji Lane (cross junction of linkway and Haji Lane)
There are a whole bunch of works by Didier Jaba Mathieu or Jaba in this area commissioned by the owners of Piedra Negra and Blu Jaz. This area sees so many tourists and photographers, but it is one of the prettiest and most colourful parts of Kampong Gelam.
Sadly this bird by Jaba was painted over into a plain wall
Junction of Haji Lane and Beach Road, side of Piedra Negra restaurant facing Haji Lane
This particular Aztec piece from 2011 is pretty impressive and possibly the most iconic mural that people remember Haji Lane for. It’s quite impossible to photographin full because the alleyway is so narrow – check out Jaba’s photos for a montage of the full artwork. I love the vibrancy and the bold style.
Blu Jaz, 11 Bali Lane
Blu Jaz is a pretty popular drinking hole and has another Jaba work that he did in October 2024 named ‘Blu Jaz‘ – he has a nice reel with a close up view from the roof opposite. It features a French-speaking African singer-actress from Mali called Fatoumata Diawara singing with a jazz band around her.
He also redid the wall facing it that used to be a giant futuristic Aztec face on a yellow background, but I think he cleaned it up to match this new work better.
Ophir Road
Junction of Ophir Road and Beach Road, facing Ophir Road
Jaba has another giant futuristic Aztec wall called El Lio, this time facing Ophir Road. It was painted in phases and fully completed in May 2018, check out Jaba’s instagram for better pictures. This work was originally blocked by a lot of trees and foliage until the NOrth-South highway roadworks, and as of 2025 is still partially blocked by hoarding.
It was partially blocked by trees and currently blocked by all the road works in the area, but you really need to take a few steps back to appreciate the grandeur of this work. It’s reminiscent of the work further up Arab Street.
It used to be much simpler! I love how you can see the evolution of Jaba’s art style just through this particular mural.
Click to see what the wall looked like in 2016 and earlier
No Longer There
Here are some of the older street art works that I liked but have either been painted over or removed, thought I’d keep them here for posterity.
There’s been a lot of construction and road works happening along Ophir Road and a long stretch of hoarding was put up. Rather than leave it empty and boring, Singapore’s street artists came together to work with the One Kampong Gelam association to create the Southeast Asian Graffiti Hall of Fame – it’s basically a who’s who of works all along both sides of the hoarding. However, most of that hoarding is now gone as the construction progresses.
You can also check out my side project Singapore Street Art on instagram @singaporestreetart where I tried to document all past and present street art in Singapore, though I’ve gotten quite lazy in recent years. Hashtag #singaporestreetart if you find anything cool that should be featured here.
Looking for more street art? See the full list here or check out these other street art locations in Singapore.
A guide to Singapore Street Art in Bukit Merah
Where to find the huge Hougang HDB murals
Art in Ang Mo Kio: murals, sculptures and cool architecture
Singapore Street Art: Tanjong Katong & Joo Chiat
Where to find Street Art in Singapore: Jurong
Singapore Street Art: Where to find Street Art in Chinatown
Tracing the Evolution of Singapore’s Growing Street Art Scene
Where to find Street Art in Singapore: Bras Basah Bugis
hey there just wanted to leave a comment to recognise how fantastic this is. Thanks for doing this!
Thank you, Jaclynn, for your street art guides, which we definitely will be consulting when we visit Singapore from Manila. Is your VoiceMap self-guided tour of Kampong Glam art up to date? I read a TripAdvisor review from Oct. 2023 that reported that commencing the tour “outside a station with multiple exits, under a sign that no longer exists” threw her off for a while. So, should we just use your guide above?
Hi Marc, thanks for reading! The blogpost is probably more updated – there’s been quite a lot of construction going on along that stretch because of the new subway (MRT) line that they are building around there so roads have moved, so I am actually working on reworking that audio tour route now but it’s taking a bit more time because it involves rerecording some bits, thanks for letting me know! Drop me a note if you have any clarifications :)
The street art looks amazing!! Thanks for sharing:)
Thank you Jaclynn for these amazing guides – I love street art especially in Little India as they are so relevant to local Indian culture and based on your guides I have already discovered most… also Kampong Glam last weekend where I tried also Voicemap though in the end I got little lost from route when not following it exactly :D Heading to Chinatown next after finding some missing pieces in Little India this weekend that I have not managed to see yet
I think I might need to update the Voicemap guide a little, but thanks for the feedback! At which point did you get lost? So that I can take that into consideration when I review :)
Glad you found the guides useful, happy street art hunting!
Hey Jaclynn – Guess what? I ticked off Kampong Glam and Little India precinct today. Had a great time following your guided trail. Thank you. And I didn’t realise that it would be a great exercise too. Close to 20,000 steps . Can you guide me re artworks in Joo Chiat?? I live close by and would love to capture some artworks.
Thanks and warm regards
Girish
Glad you enjoyed yourself Girish! Well I’m not aware of any large clusters of work in Joo Chiat like you can find in Kampong Glam, but there is an Ernest Zacharevic jousting boys work there, so if you click on the Google Map and go to ‘East Side’, that’s where most of the relatively east-located works I know of can be found.
Nice post :) enjoyed it .. the Singapore graffiti scene does hosts events regularly where newer writers/artist participate with the more experienced guys. Thanks for the re-post of our crew’s piece on your instagram :) feel free to drop by any of the local graffiti events.
thank you, will try to pop by some time! :)
Hi again!
There is a new space that recently opened up at 369 Tanjong Katong road.
You should totally check it out to get some cool pics. It has been opened to artists over the past couple of months a collaboration with NAC and SLA. The building will be demolished in December 2017 if I’m not wrong.
I heard about it and have been seeing the pix, but never got around to it yet and didn’t realise it’s gonna be demolished, better get going soon then thanks for the tip!
Sure no worries.. it is locked so you would have to contact one of the artists who are going down to paint ot NAC to get access
good to know!
So glad I stumbled across your page before our trip, I will be sure to check out some nearby to where we are staying.
hope you find it useful! check out the Voicemap audio tour of the street art in the area as well for something a little different :)
Awesome find!
Thanks for the great streetart guides for Singapore. I’ll be there in a few weeks time and looking forward to using them. Has saved me a lot of research on Instagram.
Glad you found it helpful and I hope you have a great time! Check out instagram.com/singaporestreetart which is my side instagram account specifically for awesome street art works around Singapore :)
I’ve been following your streetart instagram account for a few months now but only just found the blog
There’s one in an alley off serangoon road between lavender street and 7eleven/shell. North side of serangoon street… The alley has a Chinese style gate.
It depicts a bar scene with a rock band.
I’ll look out for that! Thanks for the tip!
On the other side of serangoon road there is a corner restaurant ‘the French stall’ their shutters are in graffiti too, you’ll have to come before they open, though.
And I ran into Yip Yew Chong yesterday in Everton rd, there’s new work in progress. ;-)
i know there’s one in the east side he just did like a kampung house, gotta go exploring soon! :) thanks for all the tips!
There’s a pair of gold fish on one of the buildings along tiong bahru area…
I’ve heard! And the giant chickens too which I still haven’t seen yet >_<
Hi Jaclynn! Thanks for this article! I’m a huge fan of street art too and have started to notice recently that Singapore has had more street art murals popping up on obscure walls! This is a fantastic guide to start exploring with (:
Thank you! I’ve discovered quite a bit of Singapore just by hunting street art, now to put together more guides…
Big thanks for that! Going to SGP tomorrow for the 5th time or so and willing to explore smth different this time, you article is very helpful! :)
thanks emiwdrodze and have fun! you just might see some new stuff and if you do find new locations, so share, am happy to update my post accordingly! :)
awesome piece. i never knew Ernest did those pieces along victoria street!
Yes indeed Neil – it’s nice that we have some of his works on our streets too :)
He has another piece in Joo Chiat too!
Hello Joan,
My name is Richard Tassart,I’m French and live in Paris. You certainly know Paris is an important city of street art. I write in a local blog posts on street art. Like a critic I try to analyse the works.
Thanks for your blog ( my future daughter in law who lives in Singapore told me that street art does not exist in town.She gave me the link of your blog).
The blog I write is Canal street (I sign Richard)
My son and his wife will live in Songapore soon. I go in Singapore for the wedding on October.
Congratulations.
Richard.
Bonjour Richard and thanks for leaving a note, merci beaucoup! :)
I haven’t seen the street art in Paris, though that’s probably because I only got more interested in it recently.
Congratulations to your family and I hope you enjoy your time in Singapore
Wow, street art really really is quite hard to find in Singapore and I’m so glad that you’ve shared about these hidden gems!
thanks Joan! There are more spots emerging though, the harder I look! I hope that the new SingaporeStreetArt project makes it easier for people to stumble upon these gems :)