How the word Geylang came about

It is said that the Malays of Singapore originally lived in kampong of houses built on stilts and the first kampong was at the mouth of Singapore River and was called Kampong Busong. (Busong is a Malay word for sand dune.)

Most of the floating villages had to give away when the British pursuit of trade forced the sea population to stay clear of the sea lanes. The Malays then moved inland in the nineteenth century as the British used Chinese and Indians as their source of labour. Some of the Malay families established the nucleus of Kampong Melayu in Geylang by settling down on river banks. Geylang in the nineteenth and early twentieth century was known as Geylang Kelapa, in view of the many coconut plantations there.

With the cultivation of lemon grass, Geylang became known as Geylang Serai. (Serai means lemon grass.) There was a factory called the Citronella Press near the river bank which was a processing centre for the farm produce from Geylang. It is said that the word “Geylang” is from the word ‘kilang’ meaning ‘factory’. The distortion of ‘k’ into ‘g’ have Geylang its name.

According to early topographical maps, Geylang showed a marsh and coconut plantation.

One possible etymological link in the stock vocabulary of the Malay is ‘geylanggan’ meaning to ‘twist’ or ‘crush’ a reference to the process of extracting the coconut meat and milk used by the locals to thicken curries in Malay-Chinese (Peranakan) cuisine. 
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References:

http://www.hsse.nie.edu.sg/staff/blackburn/ChanginglandscapesGeylangserai.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geylang