501 Orchard Road · Singapore 238880
The mall under the glass cone
Wheelock Place stands at the western head of Orchard Road, seven retail levels wrapped around Kisho Kurokawa’s conical atrium. This is an independent, continuously updated guide to every shop, restaurant, clinic and service inside it — with floor plans, unit numbers, transport, parking and where to stay nearby.
Orientation
A compact mall at the quiet end of a very loud street
Orchard Road runs roughly two and a half kilometres from Tanglin in the west to Dhoby Ghaut in the east, and for most of that length it is a wall of shopping centres. Wheelock Place occupies the western corner of the busiest junction on the strip, where Orchard Road meets Scotts Road and Paterson Road. It faces ION Orchard across the road, sits shoulder to shoulder with Shaw House and Liat Towers, and looks across to Tang Plaza and the Singapore Marriott. If you arrive on Orchard Road from the Botanic Gardens or Tanglin direction, Wheelock Place is the first real mall you meet.
The building has two distinct halves. The lower seven levels, from Basement 2 up to Level 5, are retail. Above them rises a 21-storey office tower occupied by multinational tenants, which is why the pavement outside fills with office workers at lunchtime and empties again by mid-evening. The retail podium is arranged around a central void with escalators running up one side, so the whole mall reads as a single vertical space rather than a maze of corridors. You can stand on Level 1 and see most of the way to the top.
That compactness is the point. Around ninety tenants share the seven levels, against several hundred in the giants further east. Nothing is more than a few minutes from anything else, and the crowd density is noticeably lower than at ION Orchard or Ngee Ann City on a Saturday afternoon. Regular visitors treat it as a destination for specific errands: a Marks & Spencer food shop, a shirt fitting, a dental appointment, a quiet Japanese lunch, a facial, a bookshop afternoon.
images/wheelock-outdoor.jpgShop by category
Everything inside Wheelock Place, sorted
The mall’s tenants fall into five broad groups. Food and drink is spread across almost every floor, fashion concentrates in the basements and lower levels, and the top two floors are given over almost entirely to clinics, aesthetics and wellbeing. Each category page below lists every shop we know of with its unit number and floor.
Food & Drink
Japanese dining, Middle Eastern grills, Vietnamese noodles, Taiwanese tea, bakeries, specialty coffee and dessert counters across six levels.
Browse food & drink → 20 listingsFashion
Menswear tailoring, homegrown womenswear labels, footwear, underwear and eyewear frames, concentrated on Basement 2, Level 2 and Level 3.
Browse fashion → 32 listingsBeauty
Medical aesthetics, facial and skin studios, brow bars, hair salons, barbers, nail rooms and day spas, clustered on Levels 3, 4 and 5.
Browse beauty → 22 listingsServices
Dental surgeries, an eye centre, health screening, endodontics and physiotherapy, mostly on the two uppermost retail levels.
Browse services → 17 listingsSpecialty
Marks & Spencer, Zall Bookstore, optical shops, lifestyle and homeware, a pet store, golf equipment and a Pilates studio.
Browse specialty →Cross-section
Seven levels, floor by floor
Wheelock Place stacks its uses in a way that is unusually easy to read. Transport and quick food sit in the basements, anchor retail and books on Level 1, browsing on Level 2 and 3, and the clinics climb to the top where rents are lower and privacy is higher. Pick a level to see everything on it.
Level 5
The top retail floor is Wheelock Place’s specialist medical and wellbeing deck. Dental surgeries, an endodontic practice, an eye centre, aesthetic doctors and a Pilates studio share a quiet, low-traffic corridor that feels closer to a private clinic building than a shopping mall. Appointments are the norm here rather than walk-ins.
Level 4
Level 4 is the aesthetics and skincare floor, and it is the single densest cluster of clinics and treatment rooms in the building. Medical spas, laser and skin clinics, hair-science labs, a nail and body medispa and a Jurlique day spa sit side by side. Expect calm lighting, reception counters rather than shopfronts, and treatment rooms set back from the corridor.
Level 3
Level 3 mixes sit-down dining with grooming and independent fashion. It is where you will find the mall’s best-known Japanese restaurant and its all-day bakery cafe, along with brow bars, hair salons, facial studios, eyewear specialists and a run of smaller womenswear and footwear labels.
Level 2
Level 2 is the busiest browsing floor: menswear and womenswear boutiques, footwear, eyewear, lifestyle goods, a specialty coffee roaster and a cluster of casual restaurants and dessert counters. It is the floor most visitors wander first after coming up from the Marks & Spencer entrance.
Level 1
Level 1 is the Orchard Road frontage. Marks & Spencer anchors this level and runs through to the upper floor, Zall Bookstore occupies a large Chinese-language reading space with its own cafe, and the kiosks by the entrance are where people meet before heading out along the shopping belt.
Basement 1
Basement 1 is the coffee-and-quick-bite level, and it is the floor most connected to the rest of Orchard. Starbucks, a Taiwanese tea specialist, a kaisendon counter and a juice bar sit alongside optical and wellness retail, with the underground link out towards ION Orchard and the MRT.
Basement 2
Basement 2 is the transit floor. Bakery and kopi counters, a Vietnamese noodle bar, underwear and sportswear labels and a footwear shop are arranged around the pedestrian route that feeds into Orchard MRT station and the Paterson Link underpass.
Reading a Singapore unit number. A unit written as #03-15 means Level 3, unit 15. Anything beginning #B1 or #B2 is a basement level. A letter suffix such as #04-10A is a subdivided unit, and #01-K1 denotes a kiosk on Level 1 rather than an enclosed shop.
Food & drink
Where to eat at Wheelock Place
Dining at Wheelock Place is best understood as three separate offers on three different rhythms. The basements are built for speed: Starbucks, CHICHA San Chen for Taiwanese tea, Kei Kaisendon for rice bowls, BreadTalk and Toast Box for bread and kopi, and NamNam Noodle Bar for a bowl of pho. This is the level that catches office workers coming up from the MRT and shoppers who want twenty minutes and a seat.
Level 2 is the casual restaurant floor. Pistachio serves Middle Eastern and Mediterranean grills, Uya specialises in Japanese unagi, Café Bakeaholic and The Humble Pie & The Ugly Cake Shop handle pastry and dessert, and Gumption Coffee roasts and pours for people who care about the bean. Level 3 is where you go when you want to sit down properly: Sun with Moon Japanese Dining & Café has been a fixture of the mall for years and remains its best-known restaurant, while Cedele All Day Dining covers wholesome bakery-cafe fare from breakfast through dinner.
On Level 1, M&S Café sits alongside the Marks & Spencer food hall, Privé runs a kiosk at the frontage, and the cafe inside Zall Bookstore lets you read and eat in the same seat. Because the mall is small, the lunch peak between 12.00 and 1.30pm is sharp; arriving before noon or after 1.30pm usually means walking straight to a table.
images/wheelock-food.jpg
images/wheelock-fashion.jpgFashion
Tailoring, footwear and homegrown labels
Wheelock Place does not chase fast fashion. Its clothing mix leans towards menswear tailoring, independent Singaporean labels and specialist footwear, which is a deliberate contrast with the high-street brands opposite at ION Orchard. Benjamin Barker and The Shirt Bar both cover shirting and suiting on Level 2, with made-to-measure and alteration services that draw the office crowd from the tower above.
Basement 2 carries the recognisable international names: Calvin Klein Underwear and Calvin Klein Performance sit near Superga and Melissa, making that level the quickest stop for shoes and basics on the way to or from the MRT. Level 2 adds Dr. Martens, the eyewear house Lafont, Y21, G R A Y E and Tessellate.Co. Level 3 runs to smaller boutiques and comfort footwear — Arch Angel, BENNO, Gordon Max, Mazzario, Rustic Room, mimi mono and Fly Flot among them.
Because the boutiques are small and independently run, stock turns over quickly and sizes are limited. If you see something you want, it is usually worth buying it there and then rather than planning to return the following weekend.
Beauty & wellness
One of Orchard’s densest aesthetics clusters
If Wheelock Place has a genuine speciality, it is skin. Levels 3, 4 and 5 hold an unusually deep concentration of medical aesthetic clinics, facial studios, hair and scalp specialists, brow bars and day spas — more than 32 listings in total, which is a remarkable number for a mall of this size. The reason is structural: the podium’s upper floors have low footfall and quiet corridors, which suits treatment rooms far better than shopfront retail.
Level 3 handles grooming and quick treatments. Browhaus and THE salon, Spa Esprit, mtm labo, Snails, Jet Concepts and Hanbang Skin Solutions all sit within a short walk of each other. Level 4 is the medical aesthetics floor proper, with SkinLab The Medical Spa, Nature’s Spa by Jurlique, Vedure, VIDASKIN, Cove, Ageless, Fusion Medical, PHS Hairscience LAB and Kenaris Hair Salon. Level 5 adds Illumia Therapeutics, Yakson House, AUBE, Strip Buddy, O Medical Clinic and The Chelsea Clinic.
Almost everything on these floors runs by appointment. Walk-in availability is limited, weekday afternoons are the easiest slots to get, and most clinics ask for a consultation before a first treatment. Prices are typically quoted per session with package rates available, and it is normal and expected to ask about total cost before committing.
images/wheelock-beauty.jpg
images/wheelock-services.jpgServices
Dental, eye and medical practices
The services tenants are what keep Wheelock Place busy on weekday mornings when the shops are quiet. Level 5 holds the heaviest concentration: Nuffield Dental Jewel, L.C. Lien Dental Clinic, Simply Endodontics for root canal work, and Shinagawa Eye Centre, long associated with the building for laser vision correction. Level 4 adds AOMS Japanese Dental, Tooth Art Dental Centre and Calvin Chan Aesthetics, while Fusion Medical combines health screening with aesthetic treatments.
PULSE on Level 3 covers physiotherapy and recovery. Several practices on Levels 4 and 5 straddle the line between medical and cosmetic, offering both doctor-led treatments and spa-style services, which is why many of them appear under both Beauty and Services in the directory.
Practical notes for visitors: most practices here take appointments rather than walk-ins, several accept international patients and offer consultations in more than one language, and parking redemption is sometimes available for longer appointments — ask at reception before you pay at the machine.
Specialty
Marks & Spencer, books, optics and everything else
The specialty category collects the tenants that do not sit neatly under clothing, food or treatment rooms — and it includes the mall’s two largest spaces. Marks & Spencer at #01-01 is the anchor, running across Level 1 with clothing, homeware and the food hall that many residents of the Orchard and Tanglin area treat as their local grocer for British imports.
Zall Bookstore, which opened in 2021 across #01-02/03 and #02-18, restored a bookshop to a building that had been strongly identified with one for two decades. Borders ran its Singapore flagship here until 2011, and its closure left a hole that regulars still mention. Zall’s focus is Chinese-language titles, with an in-store cafe and long reading tables.
Beyond those two, the specialty list runs to optical retail at W Optics, Tanaka Optical and Atlantic Optical; lifestyle and homeware at IUIGA; golf equipment at Honma; children’s ergonomic furniture at Ergokid; pet supplies at Woof Living; wellbeing retail at Therapy Market and The Palm Press; and Options Pilates Studio on Level 5.
images/wheelock-specialty.jpgHistory & architecture
From Lane Crawford Place to Wheelock Place
The building was designed by the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, a founding figure of the Metabolist movement, and completed in 1994. It opened not as Wheelock Place but as Lane Crawford Place, built to house a five-floor Singapore outpost of the Hong Kong luxury department store Lane Crawford. The store installed Singapore’s first curved escalators, echoing the world’s first public curved escalators that Lane Crawford had put into Times Square in Hong Kong the year before.
The department store lasted barely two years. Lane Crawford withdrew in 1996 and the building was renamed after its owner, Wheelock Properties (Singapore), part of the Hong Kong group Wheelock and Co. The retail podium was reworked into a multi-tenant mall, and the ownership entity has since been renamed Wharf Estates Singapore.
For most Singaporeans, the defining chapter came next. Borders opened its Singapore flagship here and, for over a decade, Wheelock Place effectively was the Borders building — a place people met, browsed and read for hours. The store closed in 2011 as the chain collapsed globally, and Marks & Spencer took over as the principal anchor. A bookshop returned in 2021 in the form of Zall Bookstore.
What has never changed is the cone. Kurokawa capped the entrance with a tall conical glass structure that pulls daylight down into the atrium and gives the mall the most legible silhouette on the western half of Orchard Road. It reads as a lantern at night and as a prism during the day, and it is the reason people give directions by saying “the one with the glass cone” rather than by name.
The other quietly important piece of design is underground. Wheelock Place connects by underpass to Shaw House and, under Orchard Road, to ION Orchard and Orchard MRT station. The at-grade pedestrian crossing between Wheelock Place and ION Orchard was closed in 2009 to move foot traffic below the road, so the basement link is now the normal route between the two malls.
- 1994 — completed as Lane Crawford Place; first curved escalators in Singapore.
- 1996 — Lane Crawford exits; building renamed Wheelock Place.
- 2009 — surface crossing to ION Orchard closed; traffic moves to the underpass.
- 2011 — Borders flagship closes after the chain’s collapse.
- 2021 — Zall Bookstore opens, returning a bookshop to Level 1.
Location
Wheelock Place on the map
The mall sits at latitude 1.304528, longitude 103.830639, on the north-western corner of the Orchard Road and Scotts Road junction. Switch to the 3D satellite layer to see the glass cone, the office tower footprint, the Angullia Park car park approach and how close the building sits to ION Orchard, Shaw House and Tang Plaza.
Satellite imagery loads from Google Maps. Use the buttons to switch between the tilted 3D satellite layer, the labelled hybrid layer and the flat street map. On the 3D layer you can see the glass cone, the Angullia Park car park ramp and the Orchard Road frontage from above.
Getting here
Trains, buses, taxis and the underpass
By MRT. Orchard station is the closest, served by the North South Line (NS22) and the Thomson–East Coast Line (TE14). Follow the underground signage towards Wheelock Place or ION Orchard; Exit E leads to the Paterson Link underpass, which brings you straight into the mall’s basement without crossing a road or stepping into the heat. Allow about five minutes from platform to shopfront.
By bus. The nearest stops are outside the Royal Thai Embassy on Orchard Road, at Tang Plaza on the opposite corner, and directly at Orchard MRT station. Dozens of services run along Orchard Road; almost anything heading towards Tanglin or Napier will put you within a two-minute walk.
By taxi or ride-hailing. Ask for “501 Orchard Road, Wheelock Place”. There is a drop-off point at the building. During the evening peak on Orchard Road, being set down on the Angullia Park side is often faster than waiting in the main-road queue.
images/wheelock-mrt-link.jpgCar park rates at a glance
| Period | Typical published rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| First hour, Monday to Sunday | Around S$3.00 | Charged from entry |
| Each subsequent half hour | Around S$1.50 | Or part thereof |
| Lunchtime surcharge | Around S$1.07 | Roughly 12.00pm to 2.30pm |
| Evening and overnight | Around S$4.50 per entry | Roughly 6.00pm to 8.00am |
| Entrance | Via Angullia Park | Basement car park, no motorcycle lots |
Rates shown are the figures most commonly published for this car park and are indicative only. The operator’s signage at the entrance is the authority. See our full parking guide.
Opening hours
When Wheelock Place is open
The mall building generally trades from 10.00am to 10.00pm daily, but the useful answer depends on which floor you are heading to. Retail, restaurants and clinics all keep different rhythms.
Seasonal exceptions. Hours extend through the Christmas and New Year period, when Orchard Road runs its light-up and the whole street stays busy late. Several clinics and a number of independent boutiques close for two to four days over Chinese New Year. Read the full breakdown on the opening hours page.
Staying overnight
Hotels near Wheelock Place
Wheelock Place sits at the western head of Orchard Road, which is one of the densest hotel clusters in Singapore. Around a dozen four- and five-star properties are within a ten-minute walk of the front doors, and several are close enough that you can drop your bags and be back on the shop floor in five minutes.
2 min walk
Directly across the junction
The Orchard–Scotts crossroads outside Wheelock Place is ringed by large hotels. Staying here means you can walk to the mall without crossing a major road more than once, which matters in the afternoon heat and during the November–January rain season.
5–8 min walk
Along Orchard and Scotts Road
Walking east along Orchard Road or north up Scotts Road brings you past a long run of business and leisure hotels. Most connect back to Orchard MRT, so you can reach Wheelock Place through the air-conditioned basement network without ever stepping outside.
10–15 min walk
Tanglin, Claymore and River Valley
Just west and south of the mall the streets turn quieter and greener. Rates here are often lower than the main shopping strip while still leaving you inside a comfortable walk of Wheelock Place, the Botanic Gardens and Dempsey.
Compare live prices for stays near Wheelock Place
See what is available for your dates, with room rates, guest ratings and walking distances from 501 Orchard Road. Prices update in real time and free-cancellation rooms are usually available on most properties.
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Around the corner
What else is within five minutes
Wheelock Place is a good starting point precisely because it is surrounded. The junction outside is the densest cluster of malls in Singapore, and the green edge of the city begins a short walk to the west.
ION Orchard
Directly across Orchard Road, reached by the basement underpass. Luxury flagships and the ION Sky viewing gallery.
Shaw House & Lido
Immediately adjacent, linked by underpass. Cinemas and Isetan Scotts.
Tang Plaza & Liat Towers
Opposite corners of the same junction, both a single crossing away.
Singapore Botanic Gardens
A short bus or taxi ride west along Napier Road; a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Answers
Wheelock Place: frequently asked questions
The questions visitors ask most often about the mall, its shops, its hours and getting there.
What is Wheelock Place?
Wheelock Place is a seven-level shopping mall sitting beneath a 21-storey office tower at 501 Orchard Road, at the western end of Singapore’s main shopping belt. It opened in 1994 as Lane Crawford Place and was renamed Wheelock Place after the Lane Crawford department store closed in 1996. The building is owned and managed by Wharf Estates Singapore, formerly Wheelock Properties (Singapore), and is instantly recognisable from the street by the tall glass cone over its entrance.
Unlike the mega-malls further east along Orchard Road, Wheelock Place is deliberately compact. It holds roughly ninety shops rather than several hundred, which makes it quick to walk end to end and popular with people who want a specific shop, restaurant or clinic rather than an afternoon of browsing.
What are the opening hours of Wheelock Place?
The mall building is generally open daily from around 10.00am to 10.00pm. Individual tenants set their own hours within that window. Restaurants and cafes commonly run 11.00am to 9.30pm or 10.00pm, retail shops typically 11.00am to 8.00pm or 9.00pm, and the clinics on Levels 4 and 5 usually operate shorter weekday hours with reduced Saturday opening and Sunday closures.
Hours are extended in the run-up to Christmas and Chinese New Year, and several clinics close entirely over the Chinese New Year period. If your visit depends on one particular shop, phone ahead.
How do I get to Wheelock Place by MRT?
Alight at Orchard MRT station, which is served by the North South Line (NS22) and the Thomson–East Coast Line (TE14). From the station follow signs for Wheelock Place or ION Orchard and use the underground link; Exit E towards Paterson Link brings you into the mall’s basement levels without stepping outside. The walk from the platform takes roughly five minutes.
Above ground, the mall is directly opposite ION Orchard and beside Shaw House, so any bus stop serving that junction leaves you within a two-minute walk.
Is there parking at Wheelock Place and what does it cost?
Yes. The car park sits in the basement of the building and the entrance is reached from Angullia Park, the side road running down the western edge of the site. Published rates have generally been around S$3.00 for the first hour and S$1.50 for each subsequent half hour or part thereof, with a flat evening rate of about S$4.50 per entry from roughly 6.00pm to 8.00am and a small lunchtime surcharge in the middle of the day.
Rates change without much notice and the operator’s board at the entrance is always the authority. Some tenants offer parking redemption against a minimum spend, so keep your receipts.
What food is there at Wheelock Place?
Food and drink runs across every level. The best-known sit-down option is Sun with Moon Japanese Dining & Café on Level 3, alongside Cedele All Day Dining. Level 2 has Pistachio for Middle Eastern and Mediterranean grills, Uya for Japanese unagi, plus dessert and pie counters. Basement 1 and Basement 2 handle coffee, tea and quick meals with Starbucks, CHICHA San Chen, Kei Kaisendon, BreadTalk, Toast Box and NamNam Noodle Bar. Level 1 adds M&S Café, Privé and the cafe inside Zall Bookstore.
Is Wheelock Place connected to ION Orchard?
Yes, through the underground pedestrian network around Orchard MRT station. You can walk from Wheelock Place under Orchard Road into ION Orchard’s basement and on towards Wisma Atria and Ngee Ann City without going outside. The surface-level pedestrian crossing directly between the two malls was closed years ago, so the underpass is the intended route.
Does Wheelock Place still have Borders bookshop?
No. Borders operated its Singapore flagship store at Wheelock Place for many years and closed it in 2011. Marks & Spencer subsequently became the mall’s main anchor tenant. A different bookshop returned to the building in 2021 when Zall Bookstore opened a large Chinese-language store with its own cafe on Level 1, extending up to Level 2.
Is Wheelock Place worth visiting?
It depends what you want. If you are after flagship luxury boutiques, the malls further east along Orchard Road will serve you better. Wheelock Place is worth the stop if you want Marks & Spencer food and clothing, a calm sit-down meal away from the crowds, a specific homegrown label, or an aesthetics, dental or eye appointment. Many regulars also use it simply as the quietest air-conditioned entry point to the shopping belt, and as a less congested place to park.
Are there hotels within walking distance?
Yes, a great many. The Orchard–Scotts junction outside the mall is one of the densest hotel clusters in Singapore, with four- and five-star properties within two to ten minutes on foot in almost every direction, plus quieter and often cheaper options in Tanglin and Claymore just west of the mall. See our hotels near Wheelock Place page.
Is this the official Wheelock Place website?
No. thewheelockplace.com is an independent visitor guide. We are not owned by, operated by, endorsed by or affiliated with Wheelock Place, Wharf Estates Singapore, Wheelock Properties, Wheelock and Co. or any tenant listed here. We compile publicly available information about the mall so visitors can plan a trip. For official announcements, leasing enquiries or lost property, contact the mall directly.
About this guide. thewheelockplace.com is an independent directory and visitor guide. It is not the official website of Wheelock Place and has no affiliation with Wharf Estates Singapore, Wheelock Properties, Wheelock and Co. or any listed tenant. Shop lists, unit numbers, hours and rates are compiled from publicly available sources and reviewed periodically; they change without notice. Please verify anything critical directly with the mall or the shop before travelling. Corrections are welcome through our contact page.