Singapore Street Art: Joo Chiat and Katong
Last updated March 9th, 2026
The bulk of Singapore‘s tourist sights are located in the downtown heritage areas, but for a district with a unique history and strong food culture, head east to Tanjong Katong and Joo Chiat. This area is best known to locals as a stronghold for the Peranakans – a culture resulting from the intermarriage of immigrants and locals unique to this region – you’ll find that Peranakan heritage reflected in the architecture, shops and cuisine around here today.
The Joo Chiat area was once mostly plantations in Singapore’s early days, but in the 90s gained a bit of a reputation as a shady area because of the many seedy karoke pubs here. Once those were kicked out, the area has gentrified a little in recent years but still has a rather unique mix of retailers that include pet shops, hipster cafes, Vietnamese restaurants and lifestyle shops. Murals in this area have also been on the uptick in recent years, so here’s my guide on where to find street art in Joo Chiat and Katong.
How to get to Tanjong Katong-Joo Chiat
Joo Chiat Road
Most of the murals in this area are located along Joo Chiat Road. One option is to start from the end close to Paya Lebar MRT Station (EW8/CC9) on the East-West/Circle Line. Linked to PLQ Mall, it’s a short 5-10min walk away towards one end of Joo Chiat Road along Geylang Road/Changi Road.
Alternatively, take the Thomson-East Coast Line to Marine Parade Station (TE26) and walk towards East Coast Road and I12 Shopping Mall.
Tanjong Katong
For the Tanjong Katong Road works, you can start from Mountbatten MRT (CC7) on the Circle Line. Walk south along Mountbatten Road towards Goodman Arts Centre. From there, you can follow the Geylang River Park Connector eastwards to the next work at Dakota Crescent.
Alternatively, start from Dakota MRT (CC8) on the Circle Line to see that work at Dakota Crescent, then walk along Dunman Road to Tanjong Katong Road which has more of the Brilliant Corners works, and then walk south towards Mountbatten Road.
Joo Chiat Road
Joo Chiat Road is arguably the centre of this district and where you’ll find the bulk of murals and shops. It’s a nice long stretch that’s good for a stroll with plenty of options to stop by for a drink or just to cool down.
You can start from either end, but for this guide I’ll start from the East Coast Road end.
East Coast Road
Location: 150 East Coast Road – Side alley beside Yong’s Teochew Kueh, directly opposite Mount Pleasant Vet Centre
Beach Vibes by local street artist SONG is a super colourful and vibrant mural that pays tribute to the fact that this location was actually the beach once upon a time – that’s why the road is named East Coast Road after all. The colours are hip but also bring to mind the colourful Peranakan palate, while the coconut trees are a callback to the old coconut tree plantations once found here.
This mural was created for ArtWalk Festival in 2024. More about this mural on SONG’s IG. I love his overall style which is urban and vibrant.
There used to be a different mural on this wall which I really liked. That older mural also paid tribute to how the area was named Tanjong Katong. Also, walk down this dead end road to see some really interesting little raised bungalows. Very pretty and also a hint to the high tides that this area used to experience.
No longer there: Turtle Cape by Ink and Clog
Turtle Cape by Ink and Clog (known separately as Inkten and Clogtwo) shows a large turtle swimming on a blue wall. It’s actually a callback to the name of the area Tanjong Katong, which translates into Turtle Cape.
Also, this actually used to be a coastline before land reclamation, and turtles would lay their eggs on the shore here. If you take a stroll further down this road, that’s the reason why these colourful old-style houses here are also slightly raised to protect against the rising tides.
Location: 125 East Coast Road, side alley behind AlibabaR Hawker Bar near the cross junction
This mural completed in late 2025 isn’t quite your typical mural. Created by an architectural firm OMG Atelier, Blueprint of a Shophouse showcases the cross section diagram of a shophouse – something you might find in architectural drawings, but made more fun with the addition of people, life and other scenes drawn from this neighbourhood.
I love the colours and the detail of this mural, the only pity is that because of the very narrow alleyway it’s situated in, it’s quite hard to take in all the detail easily or even get a good photograph, but if you have the time, it’s worth craning your neck for a better look.
More about Blueprint of a Shophouse on OMG Atelier’s IG and on the OMG Atelier website
Location: 113 East Coast Road – Back alley behind Rumah Bebe
If you walk along the back alley past the OMG mural, you’ll find another mural on the back of the shophouses. This one features a row of dancing ladies (known as Nyonyas) wearing the traditional Nyonya Kebaya (Traditional Peranakan women’s wear consisting of a sheer fitted top paired with a colourful floral batik sarong wrap skirt.) There are also some other traditional motifs often used in Peranakan decor, like the peony flower and the Chinese-style lion.
This mural is located on the back wall of the Rumah Bebe shop and apparently painted by the owner herself. Pop around the front along East Coast Road to enter the Rumah Bebe shop and buy Peranakan wares.
Location: 111 East Coast Road – Back alley behind Kim Choo Kueh Chang
Next to Rumah Bebe is this work called Peranakan Culture by Singaporean artist Dyn. This mural shows a girl dressed in the Sarong Kebaya holding up some balloon dumplings, a nod to the owners of this wall, the Kim Choo Kueh Chang store. It’s simple and whimsical and really stands out against the white wall.
I do recommend going around the front to buy some actual kueh chang to eat from Kim Choo Kueh Chang, and a whole range of Perakanan-inspired food and souvenirs to purchase.
Location: Alleyway way between 103 and 107 East Coast Road
In a very narrow alleyway between shophouses is MedleyAlley created for the Katong Joo Chiat Art Circuit. It features bright and cheery yellow walls covered with mosaic tiles in the shape of a pair of wings. The tiles here are a nod to to the Majolica tiles you find in old Peranakan-style shophouses in Singapore and again covered with Peranakan motifs.
It’s hard to photograph because it’s another very narrow alleyway, but I like how they tried to optimise this rather awkward alleyway – the walls are not parallel so it’s narrower on one end – so you can look a little like you have wings if you’re standing on the right spot.
Here’s a timelapse of the painting by one of the artists Nicia Lam and more pix on her website.
Joo Chiat Road
Location: 439 Joo Chiat Road
Across the road from the Blueprint of a Shophouse mural is this beautiful piece. It’s hard to tell what you’re looking at in this work – a lion? mountain? The artist Wayward Clouds aka Soph O did this colourful abstract mural called Anatomical Reverberations: Recollections of you from a distance for Artwalk 2023 in an intentionally abstract way as a reflection of how facts and memories blend together into an amorphous story blob.
I love the bright colours, it is very pretty but I only got what she was going for after reading the artist statement… still pretty though. Here’s a timelapse of cars going by this mural on Wayward Cloud’s IG and more photos on her website.
Location: 405 Joo Chiat Road, Joo Chiat Community Centre
Right by the entrance of the Joo Chiat Community Centre is this tall illustration-style mural on the wall. Katong Joo Chiat Mingle is a community style mural commissioned by the National Heritage Board, the People’s Association and Katong Culture, and painted by artists for Mural Lingo who do a lot of community-based murals.
There are various references to the history and colour of this area, from the Koon Seng Road shophouses to the turtles and coconut trees. Something a little different is the lady in red in the centre who references the Eurasian heritage – they come from the early European immigrants like the Dutch and Portuguese intermarrying with the local people, similar to the Peranakans but with their own distinct practices.
Here are more pix on the Mural Lingo IG and some WIP documentation.
There used to be murals hidden behind Katong Point Building and Joo Chiat Community Centre. Click below if you’re curious.
Studio Moonchild’s old murals
This mural is hidden behind Katong Point building – there’s a small alleyway between Katong Point and Joo Chiat Community Centre that leads around the back and where these walls are. These walls seem to be commissioned by Mox Coworking space and change periodically, though now that the company has left the building, who knows what will happen next?
The artists are Anacathie and Freakyfir who work together as Studio Moonchild and have a very distinct Japanese anime style that you can easily spot around Singapore – quite often you’ll see their stuff on Kampong Glam’s Black Book graffiti walls. Anacathie’s the one doing the anime ladies while Freakyfir does the mecha. I love the vibrant colours and distinctive style!
Location: 357 Joo Chiat Road, side of Astons Specialities, wall at public carpark entrance
Right at the entrance of the public carpark, is a mural by Didier Jaba Mathieu aka Jaba, the guy responsible for the iconic Aztec murals in Kampong Gelam. This piece was for Artwalk 2022 edition called Jalan Jalan (Jalan means ‘walk’ in Malay) shows a sassy cat gang taking a stroll. The funky colours were inspired by Peranakan style ceramics.
More pix on Jaba’s IG.
Location: 341 Joo Chiat Road, Scanteak showroom, wall at public carpark entrance
Facing the Jalan Jalan mural is a slightly older work from 2019. Located on the side of the Scanteak showroom at the entrance of the public carpark, this mural is by design house Tell Your Children. Titled ‘A History of Healing‘, it actually tells the history of this building which used to be a maternal and child health clinic to deal with high infant mortality in Singapore’s early days – I never knew that this building existed until I read up about this mural.
I love the vibe and that it shows quite a different side of this neighbourhood other than the Peranakan culture it’s known for. Unfortunately the mural was looking a little bit weathered when I went by in 2026, with some peeling strips down the centre, but it’s still on the wall.
More pix of the mural on on TYC website
Location: 333 Joo Chiat Road, side of Braseiro
I came across this particular mural by Ink & Clog quite by accident in Oct 2021 while walking down Joo Chiat Road and couldn’t quite make head or tail of it. Was it finished? Why are the Peranakan lady’s eyes in white? Is The Ferryman some new cafe?
Turns out that this is part of a promo of an iQiyi series called The Ferryman: Legends of Nanyang which involves a guy who can see spirits – the mural directly references episode 3 where there is a Peranakan lady spirit (Taiwanese actress Kate Kinney), and the 2 local guys (Qi Yuwu and Lawrence Wong) are the main characters on the show.
Ink & Clog are Inkten and ClogTwo, both well-known Singaporean street artists who are together in life and work. More from Ink & Clog on their IG.
Location: 328 Joo Chiat Road, wall in front of East Treasure Specialty Prawn Noodle
Tom & Jerry is a commission celebrating the launch of the Cartoon Network Asia Tom and Jerry episodes set in Singapore by Singaporean artist and designer Dem. This is a pretty cute work and features the titular characters in hijinks with lots of popular Singaporean items around them. Besides typical Singaporean icons like the durian and orchids, they’ve also thrown in some Peranakan clothing and pottery as a nod to this neighbourhood.
Location: 321 Joo Chiat Road, narrow alleyway beside Theong Teng rattan funiture
The Phoenix was created for Artwalk 2022 by local street artist Boon and features the phoenix, peonies and is also quite visibly inspired by Peranakan crockery. I love how he’s made it look quite 3D by having the piece look like a shard on the wall. Lovely bright and colourful piece! I actually caught Jaba and Boon’s painting in progress in late 2021 while walking around the area.
Unfortunately as of 2026, it is also looking a tad faded, but this is one of my favourite pieces in the area.
Location: 290a Joo Chiat Road
This work by Zero (leader of RSCLS based in Kampong Gelam) for Artwalk 2023 is called Dekat di Mata, Jauh di Hati, Malay for Close to the Eyes but Far from the Heart and addresses how we try to preserve heritage mostly by clinging to its physical form.
Location: 245 Joo Chiat Road
Soph O or Wayward Clouds has her second mural in this area, this time in what has become Singapore’s longest painted pathway, the 91m long Tones & Tales 细水长流. This used to be an uncovered drain but has since been covered over and now links Joo Chiat Road to Tembeling Road. Soph O took her abstract colours and this inspiration of flowing water and the changing histories of the area to the pathway in early 2026, with the help of volunteers around the neighbourhood.
More about the artwork on Wayward Clouds IG.
Nearer the Tembeling Road end is Kopi Khoo, a home-based coffee window that opens up onto the laneway. There’s also a cat mural here by Amanda Ong aka Barelydada – I thought it was a bit random at first but I kinda like the symmetry and the Creation of Adam vibe, and I did run into a cat on the pathway when I visited. Also the callback to the area with the Peranakan-style flower in the centre.
Location: 201 Joo Chiat Road
Walking further down Joo Chiat Road is the very striking Radiance (鳳凰來義) by Eunice Hannah, completed in Dec 2025. She’s the same artist who painted the vibrant cows in Little India , but she’s come a long way in terms of artistic skill to create these lovely pair of phoenixes. Similar to Boon’s work, phoenixes are key imagery in Peranakan culture, and the background also calls back to the floor tiles of Peranakan shophouses. I love the detail and colours!
More about this mural on Eunice Hannah’s IG or on her website.
Koon Seng Road
Location: 341 Joo Chiat Road, Scanteak showroom, wall at public carpark entrance
Just off Joo Chiat Road are the famous Koon Seng Road heritage shophouses, a colourful row of pre-war houses that showcase classic Peranakan or ornate Chinese-style architecture and feature very heavily on tourism literature. While they are occupied by residents, lots of people come here to take photos because they are so pretty, kinda like our own version of San Francisco’s Painted Ladies.
In a back alley just before the shophouses is a long orange wall with a work by Hélène Le Chatelier. It actually starts from inside the alleyway and takes the form of visual poem, using text written by local poet and resident of the area Christine Chia. The work references the high tides and flooding that happened quite often in this area, as well as pink mempat trees that are rapidly disappearing from Singapore.
Everitt Road
Location: 95 Joo Chiat Road, Kway Guan Huat Popiah storefront
Popiah is a Fujian-style spring roll which sees whole bunch of vegetables and some meat wrapped in a thin skin. The Kway Guan Huat Popiah Stall is a long-standing icon in the community having been in business since 1938! The murals here by Jaxton Su (who also did the Race Course Road mural in Little India) depict the traditional way of hand-making popiahs that the family still follows today. Unfortunately the stall was closed when I visited…
Location: Junction of Joo Chiat Terrace and Everitt Road, facing Joo Chiat Terrace Park
This work was actually done back in 2013 by Ernest Zacharevic as a private commission by local residents – his other works in Kampong Glam are more well-known because this particular one is a bit out of the way in a private housing estate. Style Wars shows two children having an imaginary battle on painted steeds and battling with a paint roller and mop. I love how big and whimsical it is.
I actually saw this work way back in 2014 and took a shot then before finally returning in 2020. The work has definitely faded a fair bit since then but is still relatively intact.
Joo Chiat Complex
Location: Wall near Joo Chiat Complex Food Court
This work by artist couple Ink & Clog is supposed to be the cross section of the inside of a shophouse. Honestly it’s not like you can really tell, but the 2 kitties and the overall decor does look pretty nice. They also had kids from the Jamiyah’s Children Home help paint this mural.
Location: Wall near Lorong 101 Changi
This particular work I came across completely by accident when I was looking for Ink & Clog’s work. Nearby is an alleyway where the smokers go, and I found this Kampung scene on the wall. No idea who it belongs to though because I couldn’t find a tag, anybody know the artist?
Tanjong Katong Road
Most of the Tanjong Katong works can be found along Tanjong Katong Road, but you can also find some murals in Goodman Arts Centre as well as at Dakota Crescent.
Random note: I used to work around here so I’m pretty familiar with the area, and if you are into architecture there are some seriously big, glitzy and garish mansions in this estate, including one I call The Mausoleum.
Goodman Arts Centre
Location: 90 Goodman Road is accessible from a side gate along Mountbatten Road.
Goodman Arts Centre is housed in what used to be an old school complex with several blocks, and today is home largely to the National Arts Council office as well as many art studios and facilities. The grounds are usually open to the public during the day and if you wander around the place.
There used to be quite a lot more murals within the compound back when I worked there, but just a handful are left today. Regardless, you might still see some interesting installations or exhibitions while you’re there anyway.
Dunman Road
Location: Geylang Park Connector Underpass beneath Dunman Road, next to Blk 62 Dakota Crescent
Singaporeans might recognise the Arowana, an ornamental fish that can be quite large and cost a pretty penny as Chinese people consider it a lucky fish, but you’ve probably never seen it flying in the air like this! This whimsical work was created by Didier Jaba Mathieu, the Colombian artist who spent some time in Singapore and has some iconic works in Kampong Glam‘s Haji Lane as well as in Little India, after a conversation with local residents where he learned about the fish.
The location of the artwork is quite interesting, in an underpass that leads under Dunman Road – here’s a cool time lapse of the creation process. Those jogging along the Geylang River park connector will surely be surprised to come across this random fish taking flight.
Swanage Road / Wareham Road
Location: this work is in two parts: Part I is behind Danji Korean BBQ Buffet located at 188L Tanjong Katong Road, next to a door behind the restaurant facing Swanage Road
This work is in two parts and created by Kiat, also the curator of the Brilliant Corners project. The first artwork features the hummingbird, which I never knew actually doesn’t exist in the wild here in Singapore.
Location: Part II is a street away on the side of Teo Hin Tyres located at 190 Tanjong Katong Road, along the wall facing Wareham Road
One street away on the side of a tyre shop is a matching bird – this is the sunbird which you can find in the wild, and through conversations with the residents, Kiat realised that some people had mistaken the sunbirds for hummingbirds, which is why he decided to put both of them in his work.
I kinda like the contrast of the works – the sunbird with the surrounding foliage does look like the bird is in its natural habitat, while the hummingbird’s style hints more to the fact that it’s a bit of a myth here in Singapore.
Branksome Road
Location: Vets for Life Animal Clinic located at 330B Tanjong Katong Road, on the side of the wall facing Branksome Road
Aptly positioned outside a vet clinic, the animals featured here are based on actual pets of residents in the area, like the Netherland Dwarf rabbit, White Samoyed It’s just a bright, happy and feel-good piece.
Street art projects
Singapore’s street art and murals are never random surprises because of local regulations. Most of these murals are the result of some placemaking art projects to revitalise the area.
Katong Joo Chiat Art Circuit
Some of the earlier murals here are a result of the Katong Joo Chiat Art Circuit organised by The Admin SG – same folk who set up Gelam Gallery in the back alleys of Kampong Gelam – and commissioned by the Singapore Tourism Board to revitalise this area.
Brilliant Corners
Brilliant Corners was a project that involved 5 Singaporeans artists painting around the Mountbatten, Katong and Joo Chiat area as a part of the Arts in Your Neighbourhood initiative by the National Arts Council in Nov 2020. The artworks were a result of the artists’ conversations with the residents and even collaborating with some of the students. Besides murals, there are even curated playlists to listen to while you view the works.
Artwalk Festival
Artwalk Festival organised by LaSalle School of the Arts started out in 2015 as Artwalk Little India and is largely responsible for the proliferation of street art in Little India. In 2022, they expanded their borders and now also include Katong-Joo Chiat as one of their precincts and have created a number of murals here.
Looking for more street art in Singapore? Check out my other Singapore street art guides for more cool murals and artwork around Singapore.
