Wallich Street was named after Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich (1785-1854) in 1899. Wallich was instrumental in setting up the first botanical garden in Singapore, located on the slopes of Fort Canning, where the Spice Garden is located today. He also worked on classifying the local plantlife.
In honour of his contribution to Singapore, Raffles also had Mount Wallich named after him. The hill was eventually flattened when its soil was used in the 1907 Telok Ayer Reclamation Scheme that created the Shenton Way area.