Plan of Singapore Town and Adjoining Districts (1846), by John Turnbull Thomson, Government Surveyor, is the first large map of Singapore grounded in modern surveys. At a moment when the settlement surged under British administration, Thomson fixes the town’s mercantile heart around the Singapore River and Boat Quay, while delineating the administrative spine along High Street and North and South Bridge Roads. As a city map, it is remarkable for pairing meticulous urban detail—streets, government compounds, ecclesiastical sites—with color-coded land uses that pull the surrounding districts into the narrative. The decorative cartouche announces a work of official precision and aesthetic ambition, making this not only a definitive portrait of mid‑nineteenth‑century Singapore, but a touchstone for understanding how the city’s fabric took form.

Within the compact town, Thomson’s plan isolates civic authority and commerce with unusual clarity. Government buildings anchor the precincts near High Street and St. Andrew’s Road, where the English Church rises, complemented by the Catholic Church on Bras Basah Road and a Mahomedan Mosque and Chinese temple that signal the settlement’s plural character. Victoria Street, Hill Street, and North Bridge Road knit these districts to the bustling quays, while Cantonment Road and Tanjong Pagar Road serve the harbor’s labor and warehousing quarter. Clearly marked Malay and Chinese burying grounds fringe the built-up core, mapping the cultural geography as faithfully as the physical streets. As urban cartography, the sheet excels: it inventories institutions, differentiates residential and governmental spaces, and reveals a working colonial town in the act of organizing itself.

Beyond the civic grid, the map unfolds a living agrarian landscape. Color-coded parcels distinguish sugar plantations from coconut groves, and individual icons flag Nutmeg Trees and Coconut Trees that once underwrote Singapore’s export economy. Orchard Road and River Valley Road thread through estates where spice and fruit cultivation thrived; Bukit Timah Road and Dunearn Road trace inland routes to upland farms, while Upper Serangoon Road and East Coast Road connect coastal kampongs and fields to the town markets. The damp flats around Kallang Road and Rochor Road read as productive margins, their waterways feeding cultivation and transport. Even the offshore margins are alive with detail: coral reefs stipple the southern approaches, and Blakan Mati Island is noted, situating the urban experiment within a precise maritime and ecological frame.

Thomson’s authority is everywhere in evidence. As Government Surveyor and an accomplished architect—later the designer of the Horsburgh Lighthouse—he fused accuracy with vision, deploying early modern survey techniques to measure, classify, and present a rapidly changing colony. His draughtsmanship renders topography with uncommon fineness, while the color-coding system translates land tenure and use into an intelligible urban atlas. Roads like Bukit Timah and Bras Basah appear as planned spines rather than mere tracks, testament to a surveyor who was also shaping the city’s future alignments. The decorative cartouche and carefully keyed symbols demonstrate official purpose, but also a sensitive eye for design, placing the work among the nineteenth century’s most sophisticated exercises in practical, policy‑driven cartography.

The Plan’s enduring power lies in its synthesis. It captures Singapore on the cusp—still edged by plantations and reefs, yet already articulated by streets, quays, and institutions that would define the metropolis. By enumerating government compounds, churches and mosques, Chinese and Malay burying grounds, and the workaday arteries of Boat Quay, South Bridge Road, and River Valley Road, Thomson offers more than a street plan: he records a social compact. As an early scientific city map, it underpinned governance, taxation, and infrastructure, and today it allows us to trace the emergence of neighborhoods from Bras Basah to Tanjong Pagar. For collectors and historians alike, it is an unusually rich, aesthetically compelling key to Singapore’s origins as a city of trade, faith, and careful survey.

Streets and roads on this map

• Anderson Road
• Boat Quay
• Bras Basah Road
• Cantonment Road
• East Coast Road
• Hill Street
• Hock Lee Avenue
• High Street
• Kallang Road
• Marina Boulevard
• North Bridge Road
• Orchard Road
• River Valley Road
• Rochor Road
• South Bridge Road
• St. Andrew’s Road
• Tanjong Pagar Road
• Upper Serangoon Road
• Victoria Street
• Waterloo Street
• Balestier Road
• Bukit Timah Road
• Dunearn Road
• Jln Besar
• Lornie Road
• Mandai Road
• Paya Lebar Road
• Thomson Road
• Yishun Avenue

Notable Features & Landmarks

• Agricultural areas including sugar plantations and coconut groves.
• Bio-geographical features like Nutmeg Trees, Coconut Trees, and Coral Reefs.
• Public buildings including an English Church, Catholic Church, Chinese temple, and a Mahomedan Mosque.
• Notable gravesites including Malay and Chinese burying grounds.
• Government buildings marked within the urban layout.

Historical and design context

• 1846 Plan of Singapore Town and Adjoining Districts by John Turnbull Thomson, Government Surveyor.
• First large map of Singapore based on modern surveys.
• Shows extensive detail of urban development and land use in Singapore and surrounding districts.
• Depicts building types, bio-geographical features, and agricultural areas.
• Marks important public and ecclesiastical buildings (Chinese temple, mosque, churches).
• Uses color-coding for land uses and highly detailed topography; features a decorative cartouche.
• Reflects rapid urbanization and growth following British colonization.
• Represents early modern survey techniques and 19th-century cartographic practices.
• Thomson had a significant role as a surveyor and architect in Singapore, including designing the Horsburgh Lighthouse.
• Mentions regions such as Blakan Mati Island within the Singapore context.

Looking for a particular place? Review the detailed images to confirm that the town, landmark or feature you have in mind appears on the map. If you are unsure, ask our workshop to check before you order.

Detailed maps are especially rewarding at larger sizes, where names, boundaries and decorative features have more room to be appreciated. Use the close-up preview and size guide to choose the right scale for your wall.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.

Where personalisation is available, you can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. See personalised map examples.

Every piece is printed to museum-grade archival standards using fade-resistant pigment inks on acid-free matte paper. Choose an unframed map print, framed map or canvas using the finish options above. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.

With its rich detail and strong sense of place, this map makes a considered gift for a new home, anniversary, retirement or anyone with a personal connection to the area shown. Still deciding? Explore our collection of rare old and vintage maps to discover another place, period or style.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.