The Duxton Hill area sits on the former 13-hectares nutmeg plantation with 1,800 trees of Dr J. William Montgomerie (1797-1856), who first arrived in Singapore in 1819 and became an Assistant Surgeon in the service of the British colonial government.
Despite the notoriety of the street, many wealthy Straits Chinese families built and occupied lofty and exquisitely designed residences and shophouses on Duxton Hill.