What does Singapore lose when the wrecking ball swings?

Tey Yong How remembers running along the shores of eastern Singapore as a child, the sea breeze mingling with the smell of sizzling seafood.

Birthday dinners here meant three or four tables pushed together, with cousins chasing each other between the chairs as the adults pulled apart succulent chilli crab.

“My childhood memories will linger there,” the 47-year-old said on a recent Wednesday evening of the seafood restaurants at East Coast Park. “Whatever may become of it in the future.”

Singapore’s National Parks Board has asked tenants of the East Coast Park seafood centre, which has operated since the 1980s, to vacate their premises before October, as part of plans to “rejuvenate the facility and surrounding areas”.

What exactly will replace it has not been disclosed. Plans would be “shared when ready”, the parks board said in a statement.

“It’s a pity to see things come to this for such an iconic venue,” said James Pang, 45, who visited the Jumbo restaurant at East Coast Park last month with his wife and children. “The East Coast experience is important … It’s coastal, and nothing like our typical indoor shopping mall experience.”