Century Garden
Century Garden (Malay: Taman Century) is one of the earliest housing development in Johor Bahru, the southern gateway city of Malaysia facing Singapore and Malaysia's second largest city. The housing ranges from expensive bungalow houses built at the top of the valley to older more modest single-storey terrace houses built in the 1960s. It was developed by a visionary and prominent Johor Bahru businessman, Yap Siew Cheng (1918–1970). Ambitious and daring at that time because its location was considered quite far out of Johor Bahru town and surrounded by rubber estates.
The Holiday Plaza shopping centre is in the estate. Its strategic location, close to the city's Central Business District makes it a sought after residential area with facilities and amenities and hotels close at hand. Holiday Plaza is also frequently visited by Singaporean tourists. A large number of retail shops also sell bootlegged CDs and DVDs.
It is also unique and notable for its neighbourhood watch program started in 1999 by long term resident, Suzie Yap. The ongoing neighbourhood watch program is manned and funded purely by the residents themselves on a voluntary basis and has succeeded in reducing crime in the area significantly. It was also noted that another old male resident helped to set up road blocks along Jalan Wijaya to control traffic inflow. However, such measures were ridiculed by some residents for there was already little automobiles travelling along Jalan Wijaya long before the road blocks were set up.
Jalan Dato Abdullah Tahir connects Tebrau Highway with Jalan Dato Suleiman, the estate's ring road. In addition to Holiday Plaza, other notable landmarks located in Taman Abad include Grand Continental Hotel, Metropolis Tower, Menara MAA, New York Hotel and DNP plaza, all of which are located along Jalan Dato Suleiman.
References
- Johor Bahru Street Directory, 1st edition, by Rimman publications
- Johor Bahru on the EMPORIS directory
