Kallang Travel Guide

Kallang, Singapore (26 July 2017)

The Kallang Planning Area (Simplified Chinese: 加冷, Traditional Chinese: 加冷, Pinyin: Jiā Lěng, Malay: Kallang, Tamil: கல்லாங்) is located in the Central Region of Singapore. Covering 9.17 square kilometres, Kallang had a residential population of around 110,000 in 2020¹. The planning area is best known for the Singapore Sports Hub, Kallang Basin, and its rich mix of housing estates, from public housing to upscale condominiums. It lies mainly within Postal Districts 12, 13, and 14.

History of Kallang

The name “Kallang” is believed to derive from the Malay word “kelang,” meaning “mill” or “factory.” Some historians suggest it may also come from the orang kallang, a group of early sea nomads who lived along the Kallang River. In the 19th century, Kallang was home to boat builders, sawmills, and industries along the riverbanks. During the 20th century, it became well known for the old National Stadium, which hosted countless sports and cultural events until its demolition in 2010. Today, Kallang is a modern residential and recreational hub.

Name and Pronunciation

“Kallang” is pronounced as Kah-lung, with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription /ˈkɑː.lʌŋ/.

Geography and Boundaries

Kallang is located just northeast of the Downtown Core. It is bounded by the Rochor Planning Area to the west, Geylang to the east, Toa Payoh to the north, and the Kallang Basin to the south. The planning area includes the Singapore Sports Hub, Kampong Bugis, Lavender, and Bendemeer neighbourhoods.

Transport and Accessibility

Kallang benefits from excellent connectivity via expressways and MRT lines. The Pan Island Expressway (PIE), Kallang–Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE), and Nicoll Highway run through the area, linking it to the rest of Singapore.

MRT Connectivity

Kallang is well served by MRT lines, making it one of the most accessible planning areas in the Central Region. Key stations include:

East West Line (EWL): Kallang, Lavender, Aljunied stations.
North East Line (NEL): Stadium station.
Circle Line (CCL): Stadium, Mountbatten, Dakota stations.
Downtown Line (DTL): Bendemeer and Geylang Bahru stations.

Residential Real Estate

Kallang has a diverse real estate market, offering both HDB and private housing. As of 2025:

HDB 4-room flats: SGD 650,000–850,000, with premium pricing near MRT nodes.
Private condominiums: SGD 1,800–2,500 per square foot, with newer launches closer to the Kallang River commanding higher premiums.
Monthly rental: HDB flats average SGD 2,800–3,500; condominiums SGD 4,000–6,000².

Kallang’s proximity to the city centre makes it a highly desirable location for both locals and expatriates.

Landmarks and Attractions

Kallang is home to many iconic venues and recreational spots. Highlights include:

Singapore Sports Hub: Including the National Stadium, OCBC Arena, and Aquatic Centre.
Kallang Basin: A waterfront area popular for kayaking and water sports.
Golden Mile Complex: A historic modernist building once known as “Little Thailand.”
Kampong Bugis: A riverside precinct earmarked for future mixed-use development.
Kallang Riverside Park: Green spaces along the river for leisure and exercise.

Community and Lifestyle

Kallang blends old and new, with historic estates like Bendemeer coexisting with new condominiums along the waterfront. The Singapore Sports Hub has established Kallang as the nation’s sporting heart, hosting concerts, international matches, and cultural festivals. With its central location and strong MRT coverage, the area appeals to professionals, families, and sports enthusiasts alike.

Where to Stay

Kallang is one of the more convenient planning areas in Singapore for visitors looking for reasonably priced accommodation close to the city centre. The planning area has a substantial concentration of hotels, particularly around Lavender, Jalan Besar, Kallang Road and the Stadium area. It is also well served by the MRT, making it possible to stay in Kallang while reaching Marina Bay, Orchard Road, Chinatown and other central districts relatively quickly.

V Hotel Lavender is one of the most convenient choices. Located at Jellicoe Road, it is directly beside Lavender MRT Station on the East West Line and has an outdoor swimming pool and fitness facilities. Current 2026 accommodation listings showed rooms from around S$95 per night on selected dates, although prices vary considerably according to the date and room type. The hotel is particularly suitable for visitors who place a high priority on transport convenience.

Hotel Boss is another large hotel in Kallang, located along Jalan Sultan. It has a substantial number of rooms, an outdoor swimming pool and several dining options. Current 2026 listings showed selected rooms from around S$97 per night, making it one of the more affordable large hotels in the central area. It is within walking distance of Lavender MRT Station and Jalan Besar MRT Station.

Mercure Singapore Tyrwhitt is another good choice around the Lavender and Jalan Besar side of Kallang. The hotel has 270 rooms and is particularly attractive to visitors who want something a little more polished than a budget hotel while remaining close to the area's food and transport facilities.

ibis budget Singapore Imperial provides another relatively inexpensive option around Lavender. It is within walking distance of Lavender MRT Station and has a rooftop swimming pool. The hotel is particularly suitable for visitors who intend to spend most of their time sightseeing rather than using the hotel as a destination in itself.

For visitors wanting something more distinctive, The Vagabond Club, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel Singapore is situated near the Kampong Glam side of Kallang. It offers a much more boutique-style experience and is particularly attractive to travellers interested in historic neighbourhoods, restaurants and independent shops.

Kallang also works well for longer stays because of its location between the city centre and the eastern suburbs. The area has supermarkets, coffeeshops, restaurants and everyday services alongside its hotels. This makes it feel more like a functioning Singapore neighbourhood than a conventional hotel district.

For most visitors, I would recommend staying around Lavender MRT Station if transport convenience is the priority. The Stadium and Kallang MRT areas are better suited to visitors interested in sports, concerts and the Singapore Sports Hub, while Jalan Besar is particularly attractive to food lovers.

What to Eat

Food is one of Kallang's greatest attractions. The planning area contains several established hawker centres and is surrounded by some of Singapore's most interesting food districts, particularly Jalan Besar, Lavender, Kampong Glam and the Geylang fringe.

Bendemeer Market & Food Centre at 29 Bendemeer Road is one of the area's most useful traditional hawker destinations. It serves the surrounding residential estates and is known for inexpensive everyday food rather than tourist-oriented dining. Current 2026 food guides describe it as a neighbourhood dining destination with long-established stalls and prices generally in the S$1–10 range¹.

Upper Boon Keng Market & Food Centre at 17 Upper Boon Keng Road is another important destination. It is a busy neighbourhood hawker centre with stalls selling noodles, rice dishes, soups, kway chap, porridge, Malay food and other Singaporean favourites. It is particularly useful for visitors wanting to experience a traditional heartland food centre rather than a modern shopping-mall food court.

Geylang Bahru Market & Food Centre at 69 Geylang Bahru provides another strong selection of local food. It is especially good for visitors exploring the northern side of Kallang and is open from early morning until late at night, making it useful for breakfast, lunch and supper.

The Jalan Besar area is another major food destination. Its shophouses and coffeeshops contain Chinese, Malay, Indian-Muslim and international restaurants, while the streets around Lavender and Bendemeer provide numerous casual dining options. This is one of the reasons Kallang is particularly attractive to independent travellers: you can eat well without having to travel into the main tourist districts.

Kallang also has a strong halal food scene. Its proximity to Kampong Glam and the Malay-Muslim communities around Jalan Sultan and Geylang means that Muslim visitors have many choices, ranging from nasi padang and Indian-Muslim food to halal Japanese, Thai and Western restaurants.

The Singapore Sports Hub adds another dimension to Kallang's food scene. Kallang Wave Mall contains a number of restaurants and cafés, including halal choices, making it convenient for visitors attending a sporting event, concert or other activity at the National Stadium.

Where to Eat

These are some of the places worth considering when exploring Kallang's food scene:

Bendemeer Market & Food Centre, 29 Bendemeer Road – One of the best places in Kallang for traditional neighbourhood hawker food. It is particularly good for breakfast and lunch and has numerous long-established stalls¹.
Yit Lim Hong Kong Soy Sauce Chicken Rice at Bendemeer – A stall worth seeking out for soy sauce chicken rice and related dishes. It represents the inexpensive, straightforward food for which Kallang's older neighbourhood hawker centres are known².
Bendemeer fishball noodles – The food centre is particularly noted by local diners for its fishball noodles, with the stall traditionally operating mainly in the morning and sometimes selling out early².
Upper Boon Keng Market & Food Centre, 17 Upper Boon Keng Road – A substantial neighbourhood hawker centre with a broad mixture of Chinese and Malay food. It is especially useful for visitors looking for traditional local dishes at modest prices.
Geylang Bahru Market & Food Centre, 69 Geylang Bahru – Another excellent everyday hawker centre. Popular choices include chilli pan mee, soy sauce chicken noodles and rice, soups and other traditional dishes².
Upper Boon Keng kway chup – Kway chup is one of the dishes worth seeking out around Upper Boon Keng. It consists of broad rice sheets served in a savoury dark soy-based broth with pork offal, tofu and other ingredients. It is a distinctly Singaporean hawker experience for adventurous diners.
Kallang Wave Mall – The shopping and dining complex beside the Singapore Sports Hub. It provides a convenient selection of restaurants and cafés, particularly useful before or after events at the National Stadium.
Chefs' Playground at Leisure Park Kallang – A casual restaurant serving a range of dishes in the Stadium area. It is conveniently located for visitors exploring the Singapore Sports Hub and Kallang Riverside.
Poulet at Kallang Wave Mall – A French restaurant specialising in roast chicken and other French-inspired dishes. It is a useful choice when visitors want a sit-down meal rather than hawker food.
Sanook Kitchen at Kallang Wave Mall – A casual Thai restaurant offering familiar Thai dishes. It is particularly convenient for families and groups who want a comfortable meal close to the National Stadium.
My Kampung at Kallang Wave Mall – A halal restaurant serving local and Malay-style dishes. It provides a convenient halal option for visitors attending an event at the Sports Hub.
Jinkura Izakaya, CT Hub @ Kallang – A Japanese restaurant and izakaya offering sushi, grilled dishes and Japanese-style meals. It is a good option for visitors staying around the Kallang industrial and commercial district.
Hainanese-style and Indian-Muslim eateries around Jalan Besar – The streets around Jalan Besar provide numerous independent restaurants and coffeeshops. Visitors should allow themselves time to explore rather than restricting themselves to a single famous restaurant.

If you have only one meal to spare in Kallang, I would recommend Bendemeer Market & Food Centre or Upper Boon Keng Market & Food Centre. These places give you a much better sense of everyday Singaporean food culture than the restaurants inside the large hotels.

For a more varied food excursion, explore Jalan Besar. The neighbourhood is particularly good for visitors who enjoy moving between small restaurants, coffeeshops and traditional food stalls. It also provides an interesting mixture of Singapore's Chinese, Malay, Indian and more recent international communities.

Muslim visitors will find Kallang particularly convenient. The area has a long association with Malay-Muslim Singapore, and halal food is available in hawker centres, restaurants and shopping malls. My Kampung at Kallang Wave Mall is useful around the Sports Hub, while the Jalan Sultan and Jalan Besar areas offer many more halal choices.

Kallang is also a good destination for late-night eating. Its position between Lavender, Jalan Besar and Geylang means that restaurants and coffeeshops serving supper are plentiful. This makes the area particularly suitable for travellers arriving late or attending an evening event at the National Stadium.

One of the most interesting aspects of Kallang's food culture is the contrast between its traditional hawker centres and the modern Singapore Sports Hub. Within the same planning area, visitors can eat a bowl of noodles at a decades-old neighbourhood food centre and later have dinner in a modern shopping complex beside the National Stadium.

For visitors attending a concert or sporting event, this also creates an excellent opportunity to eat before or after the event. Kallang Wave Mall and Leisure Park Kallang provide convenient dining, while the older hawker centres are better choices if you have enough time to venture slightly farther from the stadium.

Kallang is therefore best approached as a food-and-neighbourhood destination rather than simply as the location of the National Stadium. Its hotels, hawker centres, shophouses, Malay heritage, sports facilities and excellent transport connections make it one of the more interesting planning areas for visitors who want to experience a different side of Singapore.

Accommodation and Food References

Fun Facts

Kallang was the site of Singapore’s first international airport, Kallang Airport, which operated from 1937 until 1955³.

Map of Kallang, Singapore

Subzones of Kallang, Singapore

Bendemeer
Boon Keng
Crawford
Geylang Bahru
Kampong Bugis
Kampong Java
Lavender
Tanjong Rhu

MRT stations in Kallang, Singapore

Bendemeer MRT Station (GPS: 1.31357, 103.86325)
Boon Keng MRT Station (GPS: 1.31948, 103.86208)
Geylang Bahru MRT Station (GPS: 1.32148, 103.8719)
Kallang MRT Station (GPS: 1.31137, 103.87131)
Katong Park MRT Station (GPS: 1.29767, 103.88577)
Lavender MRT Station (GPS: 1.30723, 103.86305)
Nicoll Highway MRT Station (GPS: 1.3002, 103.86347)
Stadium MRT Station (GPS: 1.30284, 103.87535)
Tanjong Rhu MRT Station (GPS: 1.29712, 103.87353)

Sights in Kallang, with categories in alphabetical order

Apartments, Condominiums and selected HDBs in Kallang, Singapore

Arina East Residences (GPS: 1.29956, 103.8842) 6d Tanjong Rhu Rd, S 436886
Aurea formerly Golden Mile Complex (GPS: 1.30225, 103.86251) 371 Beach Rd, S 199597
Eight Riversuites (GPS: 1.32144, 103.86443) 4 Whampoa E, Level 3 Club House, S 338518
Kallang Riverside Condominium (GPS: 1.307, 103.86716) 51 Kampong Bugis, S 338986
St Francis Court (GPS: 1.32437, 103.86384) 90 St Francis Rd, S 328071
St George's Towers HDB (GPS: 1.32437, 103.86384) 26A St George's Ln, S 321026; P: +65 9152 5210
Sturdee Residences (GPS: 1.31297, 103.85902) 10 Beatty Rd, S 209955
The Merlot (GPS: 1.31439, 103.84634) 101 Keng Lee Rd, S 219261
The Richmond (GPS: 1.32503, 103.86461) 7 St Michael's Rd, S 327950

Hospitals in Kallang, Singapore

KK Women's and Children's Hospital (GPS: 1.31055, 103.8468) 100 Bukit Timah Rd, S 229899; P: +65 6225 5554
Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital (GPS: 1.31728, 103.85932) 705 Serangoon Rd, S 328127

Hotels in Kallang, Singapore

ibis budget Singapore Imperial (GPS: 1.30949, 103.86238) 28 Penhas Rd, S 208187
Mercure Singapore Tyrwhitt (GPS: 1.31227, 103.86065) 165 Tyrwhitt Rd, S 207569
PARKROYAL on Beach Road (GPS: 1.30003, 103.86057) 7500 Beach Rd, S 199591

Markets, hawker centres and food courts in Kallang, Singapore

Bendemeer Market & Food Centre (GPS: 1.30601, 103.86612) 29 Bendemeer Rd, S 330029; P: +65 6225 5632
Golden Mile Food Centre (GPS: 1.30309, 103.86392) 505 Beach Rd, S 199583
Geylang Bahru Market & Food Court (GPS: 1.32149, 103.87008) 69 Geylang Bahru, S 330069
Gourmet Park Kampong Bugis (GPS: 1.30601, 103.86612) 66 Kampong Bugis, S 338987

Museums in Kallang, Singapore

Singapore Sports Museum (GPS: 1.30135, 103.87362) 6 Stadium Walk, S 397698

Office & commercial buildings in Kallang, Singapore

ARC 380 (GPS: 1.31307, 103.86012) 380 Jln Besar, S 209000
CT Hub (GPS: 1.31218, 103.86286) 2 Kallang Ave, S 339407
CT Hub 2 (GPS: 1.31146, 103.86362) 114 Lavender St, S 338729
Golden Mile Tower (GPS: 1.30196, 103.8641) 6001 Beach Rd, S 199589

Parks & Recreation Areas in Kallang, Singapore

Jalan Besar Stadium (GPS: 1.30997, 103.86045) 100 Tyrwhitt Rd, S 207542, P: +65 6293 9058
Kallang Park Connector (GPS: 1.3221, 103.86765) 998 Bendemeer Rd, S 339945
Kallang Riverside Park (GPS: 1.30703, 103.86828) S 397732
Kampong Glam Park (GPS: 1.3026, 103.86302)
North Bridge Garden (GPS: 1.30421, 103.86217)
St Michael's Playground (GPS: 1.32619, 103.8649) 40 Jln Taman, S 328987
Stadium Riverside Walk (GPS: 1.30215, 103.87222)

Religious buildings in Kallang, Singapore

Canaan Church (GPS: 1.32416, 103.86336) 84 St Francis Rd, S 328069; P: +65 6292 8850
Masjid Hajjah Fatimah (GPS: 1.3026, 103.86302) 4001 Beach Rd, S 199584, P: +65 6297 2774
Renewal Christian Church (GPS: 1.32419, 103.86359) 88 St Francis Rd, S 328070; P: +65 6391 3010
Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple (GPS: 1.31472, 103.85694) 366 Race Course Rd, S 218638, P: +65 6294 0714
Sri Manmatha Karuneshvarar Temple (GPS: 1.30887, 103.86591) 226 Kallang Rd, S 339096, P: +65 6295 3743
Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple (GPS: 1.31327, 103.85607) 397 Serangoon Rd, S 218123, P: +65 6298 5771
Sri Vadapathira Kaliamman Temple (GPS: 1.31532, 103.85797) 555 Serangoon Rd, S 218174, P: +65 6298 5053
Tai Pei Buddhist Centre (GPS: 1.30922, 103.86446) 2 Lavender St, S 338823, P: +65 6298 3343

Schools in Kallang, Singapore

Bendemeer Primary School (GPS: 1.32219, 103.86508) 91 Bendemeer Rd, S 339948
Bendemeer Secondary School (GPS: 1.32451, 103.86059) 1 St Wilfred Rd, S 327919
Dunman High School (GPS: 1.30003, 103.86057) 10 Tanjong Rhu Rd, S 436895
Farrer Park Primary School (GPS: 1.31231, 103.85087) 2 Farrer Park Rd, S 217567

Shopping malls in Kallang, Singapore

Aperia Mall (GPS: 1.31045, 103.86416) 12 Kallang Ave, S 339511
City Gate (GPS: 1.30225, 103.86251) 371 Beach Rd, S 199597

Streets in Kallang, Singapore

Map of Kallang subzones, Singapore

List of the neighbourhoods (subzones) of Kallang

Quick Facts

Size: 9.17 sq km
Population: ~110,000 (2020)
Postal Districts: 12, 13, 14
Name Origin: From Malay “kelang” (mill) or orang kallang (river people)
Pronunciation: Kah-lung (/ˈkɑː.lʌŋ/)
Main MRT Stations: Kallang, Lavender, Stadium, Bendemeer
Main Expressways: PIE, KPE, Nicoll Highway
Key Landmarks: Singapore Sports Hub, Kallang Basin, Golden Mile Complex
Average Property Prices: HDB 4-room ~SGD 650k–850k; Condos ~SGD 1,800–2,500 psf

References

Page Details

This page was created on 8 September 2025. Hi, my name is Timothy and created it from my research, for my own entertainment, knowledge and to satisfy my curiosity. I am providing the information to you in good faith and hope it is useful. I try to get the details as accurate as possible. I also try to update the page whenever I stumble on new details. So this and all my other pages are perpetual work in progress. If you discover any error, please politely inform me, pointing out where the error lies, and I will correct it as soon as possible. Your helpfulness will keep this page accurate, relevant and helpful to those who need the information.

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