5 Mildly Interesting Facts About Orchard Road You Probably Didn’t Know – A new perspective on the retail hub

Well, since Orchard Road is quite popular as an evening hang out, you would naturally expect to see a crowd of human beings on the streets here. But the strange thing is that there is another animal on the streets that outnumbers people. Yes, it's the birds! Orchard Road is teaming with birds like crows, Asian Glossy Starling, rock pigeon and the Javan Myna. They appear in the evenings in major flocks and create quite the cacophony with all their tweeting. But the noise isn't the real problem here, the poop is! The Director of Orchard Road states that about 3000 litres of water is used every night to pressure clean the roads.

Orchard Road...shouldn't be difficult to guess how the name came about. You thought right! Orchard Road was once an actual orchard. The early 1800s, Gambier and Pepper plantations were spread out across this area. As the years went by it the land became a Fruit and Nutmeg orchard. There are rumours to say that "Mr Orchard" actually owned land somewhere around Scots Road, but there is no solid evidence to prove it was so.

The orchards flourished until a disease destroyed all the trees, and from then onwards, Orchard Road was home to 3 graveyards: a Sumatran cemetery, a Chinese cemetery and in the later years, a Jewish cemetery. As time went by, in the 1860s, there were quite a few private residences in this area. Towards the latter part of the 18th century, the King of Siam, King Chulalongkorn, bought out Hurricane House, which is now the Royal Thai Embassy, located down 370 Orchard Road.
In the early 1900s, this became a marketplace where vendors would set up at 5 pm and sell fresh produce as well as local street food. In the mid-1900s, the development that led to the present-day Orchard Road began with the opening of K Tang's Department Store.

As one would expect, Orchard Road today is filled with some of the most luxurious shopping malls. This includes Paragon which is the mall with the greatest number of branded stores. Certainly not the place for bargains! Orchard Central is the tallest mall around here and is a great place to check out. If you are looking for Orchard Road hotels, there are plenty to choose from. Grand Park Orchard is just one of many. You will find modern living spaces idea for city life enthusiasts.

If you think of this place as just a retail hub with a bunch of malls, that's not the actual case! There are a few aesthetically appealing activities to explore here as well. For example, you could unleash your creativity while indulging in an art jam at Istana Park. Look out on a lovely green patch and challenge yourself to get in all the details. You can also try your hand at planting at Comcrop or escape the hustle and bustle at Level 6 at Delfi Orchard with a session of Pilates or Yoga.