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The Class VIII Government quarters at Haig Road
Built as government housing by the Public Works Department (PWD) in 1951, the cluster of 42 simple two-storey houses off Haig Road in the news this week, are representative of the period of austerity...
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Lost Places: the park at the new cemetery
In a Singapore where spaces for the dead are often repurposed to meet the needs to the living, it will come as no surprise to find new life being welcomed on a site once devoted to eternal rest at KK...
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Orchard Road’s last shophouses
Built close to a century ago, the last of Orchard Road’s shophouses stand as a reminder of a time before Singapore’s shopping mile was mall-ed. Comprising four delightful structures at numbers 14 to...
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Celebrating France in Singapore
The contributions of the French to Singapore cannot be understated. Their connections go back to Raffles’ arrival in 1819. With him on the Indiana were two French nationals, Pierre-Médard Diard and...
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Maghrib at Kampong Gelam
There is no better time of day than maghrib, or sunset, to take in Kampong Gelam. The winding down of the day in Singapore’s old royal quarter is accompanied by an air of calm brought by the strains of...
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When the region’s naval ships were being built at Tanjong Rhu
Tanjong Rhu – the cape of casuarina trees and once known as “Sandy Point“, has had a long association with the boatbuilding and repair trade. Captain William Flint, Raffles’ brother-in-law as...
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The public bathing pagar at Katong Park
Katong Park is where a last bastion of a 1870s coastal defence fort, built quite foolishly on sand, can be found. Once fronting the sea, the former defensive position turned recreational space, was...
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“Lenin’s Tomb” at Raffles Place
Constructed in an effort to beautify the city, the “underground” car park topped with a roof garden that came to define the Raffles Place of post-independent Singapore, came in for some criticism as it...
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The second iteration of the Singapore Art Museum
A set of buildings in Singapore close to my heart are those that belong to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) on Bras Basah Road. I spent four memorable years at them at the end of the 1970s, when the...
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The war memorial at Bukit Batok
The Syonan Chureito (昭南忠霊塔) was a memorial to the fallen erected by the Japanese occupiers of Singapore built by Prisoners-of-War (POW) on Bukit Batok. While primarily intended to honour Japanese...
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The comfort station at Bukit Timah Fork
Many of us would have encountered these houses along Jalan Jurong Kechil shown in the photographs below, without realising their dark past as comfort houses or stations. The operation of comfort...
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The Eastern Extension Telegraph Company’s Estate on Mount Faber
Some of you would probably have read the news about the possibility of a heritage trail in the Pender Road area in the Straits Times over the weekend. The trail involves the estate containing five...
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The houses that the SIT’s architects built – for themselves!
Built for Singapore’s colonial administrators by the municipal commission, government and military, several hundred residences set in lush surroundings, stand today. Widely referred to as “black and...
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The Government Housing gems at Seton Close
Found around the fringes of the Municipality of Singapore are several government housing gems such as several that were built using blueprints developed by the Public Works Department (PWD) in the...
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Death of The President
A look back at Serangoon Plaza, which was built as President Shopping Centre at the end of the 1960s. Developed by South Union Co Ltd, the President began operations in 1970 – a hotel, which became...
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The Stallwood houses
In Singapore, Herbert Athill Stallwood is probably better known for his effort in documenting the Old Christian Cemetery on Fort Canning Hill. What perhaps is not as well known is the legacy that he...
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Singapore in 1941 from the Harrison Forman Collection
Singapore in 1941 seems a year that was well documented by the international media. We have seen an extensive set of photographs taken by Carl Mydans’ for LIFE magazine, which show both scenes in...
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Parting glances: the Siglap flats
A final look at the set of four Housing and Development Board (HDB) built blocks of flats that have long been a curious sight at the junction of Upper East Coast Road and Siglap Road. Each five-storeys...
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Parting glances: the last of the 1G overhead bridges
Singapore’s first pedestrian overhead bridge, a simple structure of steel tubing and timber plank decking, was installed over Collyer Quay in 1964. A dozen more with improved first generation...
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The Native American chief’s son who was buried at Bidadari
Joseph Thunderface was the son of Native American Chief MJ Thunderface. The elder Thunderface, a native American actor and circus performer, had come over to the East to perform in a rodeo show. The...
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