Raffles Place was the place to go for the larger and more established department stores back in the 1960s. Robinsons was there until the fire that destroyed the building in 1972, as was John Littles. A large underground car park with a garden on the roof was the main feature of Raffles Place. I was particularly fond of Raffles Place as the large toy department at Robinsons was my favourite place and the source of many of my toys. There was also a cafe around the corner on Battery Road that my mother used to bring me for my favourite chicken pies.
Raffles Place, 1966
Raffles Place, 1966
Raffles Place as it used to be (Source: http://www.singas.co.uk/sits8/Raffles_Place.jpg)
Raffles Place today
Raffles Place today
The Long and Winding Road 
[…] Raffles Place […]
Hello:
I lived in Singapore from 1947 through 1954 (with a six-month leave to England after 1950). My father was stationed at the British Naval Base and for the first tour we lived on the base – Kenya Crescent was the address and the house is still there as part of “Old Singapore”. For the second tour we lived nearer to Singapore in a rented house on Whitley Road near the Police Barracks. I believe it was off the Bukit Timah Road or Thompson Road. I went to several schools in Singapore, including the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus for a brief time in 1947, later to a school on the Naval Base, then shortly to the Methodist Girls School and finally ending up for the last 3 years of my education at St. Margaret’sCEZM. I have never returned to Singapore although my father was there in 1972. Both of my parents are now deceased and were in their late ‘nineties when they died within the past three years. I am a citizen of the United States and have three children and six grand-children. My mother, for a time, worked as a cosmetics buyer at Whiteways. I also remember Robinsons very well. And, Raffles Place, the Magnolia cafes for icecream, the Cold Storage, the Cathay Cinema, various night-clubs, swimming clubs, festivals of all kinds. I had a great time growing up in Singapore.
Thanks for the memories.
Diana Lauder Sacks
Thanks for sharing all that Diana! š Kenya Crescent is just a stone’s throw from where I live! To think that you lived there all those years back! Wow! I’m glad you had a great time growing up in Singapore – I did too, albeit at a different time … you would be in my parents generation – and what you would have seen of Singapore – would have been very much the Singapore that they grew up in … So much has changed today – and it is always nice to know that there are pockets of Singapore – like Kenya Crescent that are still around … would you happen to have any old photographs of the area? Jerome.