Sim Lim Square Singapore: An Electronics Time Capsule 📻

Sim Lim Square does not look especially exciting from outside. Inside, I start imagining myself as a Soviet merchant seaman sent ashore to find a Sharp cassette recorder.

I would not be surprised to find the recorder.

The building has six floors of electronics shops. On my visits, I have seen used computers, old game consoles, audio equipment, phones and things I could not immediately identify. There is a lot to look at even when I have no intention of buying anything.

One of my photographs shows an old white iMac with a flat screen on an adjustable arm and a round base. It is sitting among folders, packaging and other ordinary shop supplies. The design still looks futuristic. The shelf around it does not.

That is the part of Sim Lim I enjoy. New and old technology sit close enough together to make the passage of time slightly uncomfortable. Online shopping is convenient when I know exactly what I need. Here, I can spend quite a while looking at things I had forgotten existed.

These are working shops, not museum exhibits. Someone may still have a perfectly practical use for the object that has just made me nostalgic. The mall’s own website is a good place to check which shops are there before a specific purchase.

The imaginary sailor has a much clearer shopping list than I do.