Peace Centre comes alive in its final hours as Singaporeans bid a bittersweet farewell

SINGAPORE — With less than 24 hours before Peace Centre shutters its doors forever, a party taking place over three levels of the mall raged on over the weekend. 

Around 1,500 people attended the PeaceOut festival that lasted till 4am on Sunday (Jan 28), partygoers dancing to rave tunes spun by DJs who had taken over several units at the mall.

The festival by the Bring The Roof Down collective was one of many creative endeavours breathing life to the mall on its final weekend.

Even as some tenants packed up their wares on Sunday, the last day the Peace Centre is open to the public, events ranging from a pro-wrestling show to a workshop on love and loss filled the space.

Therein lies the irony of Peace Centre's bustling final hours — the 47-year-old Sophia Road mall had long been run-down, until its planned demolition was postponed last year and it was transformed into a creative hub filled with graffiti-lined walls, social enterprises and trendy thrift stores. 

Peace Centre's closure was extended by six months following a pitch to its new developers by PlayPan, a social movement, to give the mall an extended lease for community-driven initiatives.

It all culminated in a boisterous final weekend.

A 'DREAM' FOR TENANTS  

Outgoing tenants fondly remember Peace Centre’s last few months as a space for experimental projects and budding entrepreneurial aspirations.

One such tenant is Thryft, a secondhand books and clothing store which took over six units, three of which were previously occupied by music store City Music. 

Like many of the mall’s short-term tenants, Thryft began as a predominantly online business and trialled new concepts in a brick and mortar outlet at Peace Centre.

Co-founder of Thryft Eddie Lim said the large units served as a “blueprint” for Thryft’s ideal retail space.

"We would have really loved for it to be longer, to be honest. This is something that we have always imagined that we would want to create and we're able to try it over here.

"There's a vintage and rare books room, there's a literature room, and there's a capsule wardrobe curation; those are special themed units that we wanted to create." 

For 19-year-old Isaac Loh, a business student at Temasek Polytechnic, the past four months have been a “dream” opportunity to run his first store: Vintage goods shop Resurrack.

The discounted rent and the mall being open only on Fridays and weekends allowed him to balance business and school with help from his mother and friends, to feature over 30 vendors selling items like vinyl records and vintage cameras. 

“I will miss all the people I met here. The small businesses in Peace Centre all have the same passion and same goal: We all just want a place to really share what we love,” said Mr Loh. 

Ms Siti Nur Azizah Rasani, who ran thrift store Bhabie’s Market, said she will miss the “cozy and homey” community of tenants, many of whom were curious about her choice to run a thrift shop full time.

NOSTALGIA FOR THE NEW

Visitors also pointed to PlayPan’s mall takeover as meeting a demand for new spaces that allow for creative expression. 

Mr Case Woo, one of Singapore's pioneer electronic music producers and who had once collaborated with Singapore singer Kit Chan, attended the PeaceOut festival to say goodbye to the mall.

It was here, at City Music, that his mother bought him his first electronic keyboard.

"I was in quite a shock when I first visited this place just a few months back after the transformation because this place used to be very sedate. It's just very quiet; people coming in for photocopying, for T-shirt printing and buying music instruments," the 53-year-old said.

"This is now just a wild festival. I think we need more of such things in Singapore because this allows our youth, our creatives, to be free and to express themselves, and this is just a fantastic way to do it."

For 19-year-old student Sky Soh, who visited Peace Centre on Friday with friends, the mall’s new creative look drew her to visit the place one last time. 

“It’s very nice because this is a really old mall, from our parent’s generation, and our generation made it become something youthful and artistic,” she said.

Mr Mohamed Khalifah, a 22-year-old student, said: “I saw this place slowly get more graffiti and the art absorbed this place… you can see everyone expressing themselves here freely. These kinds of places don’t come by often in Singapore, so it’s kind of sad that this will go.”

MAKING MEMORIES AND MOVING ON

Yet even as some tenants are uncertain on where their projects will be housed after the mall’s demolition, some approached its final days with a sense of closure. 

Ms Ooi Mae Hweei, a 25-year-old photographer, ran an interactive installation called We Leave in Peace under a creative residency documenting the mall titled A Piece of Peace Centre.

Participants were invited to leave trinkets they would like to “move on from”, which could be taken by another visitor. They could write a short post-it note describing the personal significance of the item they had taken or left.

Her personal favourite item exchange was from a music student who left the guitar pick he had on him, which was later taken by a participant who wanted to start learning the guitar again. 

While she has “mixed feelings” about the end of her project, Ms Ooi said that having a deadline for demolition was part of why experimentation flourished in Peace Centre.

“There’s always a case for trying to preserve and document everything, but on the flip side, I feel that sometimes it’s also okay to leave some things behind,” she said.

Agreeing, Mr Woo, who has over 40 years of “music-related memories” in the Peace Centre since his teens, said he is looking forward to what will come next after the mall closes for good.

“I’m thankful for the education, work experience; all the creative energy that has come from this space. I’m a musician and I’ve gotten inspiration from the people I've met here — just a lot of good memories,” he said.

“I don’t have to get emotional; it’s just a building. We’ll move on and I hope it will be developed into other better things.”