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Discovering a “not quite central” Chinese bank headquarters
Designed by an architect who can be said to have left his mark in Singapore, the Art Deco building that we know today as The Quadrant was originally built as a headquarters for a Chinese bank. The main...
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Finding a lost Singapore in the images of Paul Piollet
Such is the pace at which change takes place that little exists of the Singapore those of my generation grew up with. It was one whose city streets and rural spaces, filled with life and colour, were...
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The “attractive” 1940 built public-housing block in Little India
I have long admired the building that houses The Great Madras, a boutique hotel on Madras Street. The edifice in its incarnations as a hotel has brought a touch of Miami to the shophouse lined streets...
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The STD hospital at Tanglin and a world renowned allergist
The relative isolation of Loewen by Dempsey Hill within the former Tanglin Barracks is a clue to how its buildings might originally have been used, as a military hospital that was known as Tanglin...
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Parting Glances: old Singapore’s last place of healing
Those familiar with Moulmein Road in the days of Moulmein Green would remember the old Middleton Hospital and its iconic gatehouse. The landmark entrance-way stood for over 70 years before “progress”...
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Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets is back for SG Heritage Fest
There will be three Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets guided visits to look forward to this March. Being held as part of Singapore Heritage Festival 2019, the visits will focus on sites used by...
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127 years old, but not over the hill
A last look at a 127 year old former “House on the Hill” a.k.a. “Tower House”, before it becomes part of a residential development known as “Haus on Handy”: Perched on the brow of the hill we know as...
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Golden Bell and the intended Anglo-Chinese College on Mount Faber
Much has been told of Golden Bell (mansion). Built in 1910 as Tan Boo Liat’s stately hilltop residence at Pender Road, an air of romance and some mystery perhaps, surrounds the place. It has quite a...
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The ghosts of Kallang’s past
Like ghosts, a familiar pair of figures from Kallang’s past have made a reappearance. The pair, fibreglass replicas of the Merdeka Bridge Monument lions, were unveiled this afternoon at Stadium Roar as...
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Going, going, gone … the tiger of Short and Selegie
A building that has long marked the corner of Short Street and Selegie Road, the former “Tiger Balm Building”1, is no more. Topped once by a tiger as a mark of its association with the Haw Par Brothers...
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Discovering 5 Kadayanallur Street (2019)
The 2019 edition of Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets, a series of State Property Visits that has been organised with the support of the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) starts this June with a...
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Discovering Old Changi Hospital (2019)
Update : Registration has closed as of 7.06 pm 1 July 2019. As pre-registration is required, no walk-ins will be permitted. More on the series: Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets The disused...
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Discovering the former View Road Hospital (2019)
More on the series, which is being organised in collaboration with the Singapore Land Authority (SLA): Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets. No. 10 View Road is perhaps best known as the former...
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Discovering the former CDC
Further information on the series, which is being organised in with the support of the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), can be found at this link: Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets. The move...
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By popular demand, a second opportunity to discover the former CDC
Update: Registration is now closed as the event is over-subscribed. Note: This visit is a repeat of the one held on 3 Aug 2019 and as such, opened only to those who were not provided with a place for...
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37 Emerald Hill Road to be conserved
It seems that three buildings of the former Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (SCGS) campus at 37 Emerald Hill Road is to be conserved. The campus, used in the interim by Chatsworth International School,...
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Gone-block: discarding Eunosville
A look back at Eunosville, seen in its final days about a year ago … The cranes and earth movers taking over Eunosville, a former HUDC estate built in the 1980s. The almost empty estate seen in August...
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A new garden of Silly Fun
Set in a 50-hectare area that once contained Han Wai Toon’s Silly Fun Garden – or “The Garden of Foolish Indulgences” as coined by Dr. Lai Chee Kien in an essay published in Global History, NParks’...
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Deporting the port
Change often seems the only constant in Singapore. Its relentless pace has altered its face, so much so that many in my generation feel that home is foreign place. Nothing seems sacred, places that we...
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Lost places: Woodlands Town Centre
The old Woodlands Town Centre, with its proximity to the checkpoint and the causeway, could have been thought of as a border post. It certainly felt like it, with scores of folks crossing the causeway...
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