Limited Edition State Property Pin Giveaway

[Giveaway]

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Do you have a special memory of any State properties? Or perhaps a recommendation for the next Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets #SLASecretSpaces tour?

Share photos of your favourite State property¹ with an accompanying caption on Instagram with the hashtag #SLAStateProperty. Every week, 3 lucky winners – with the most eye-catching photos – will receive a limited edition SLA State Property pin.

To take part, tag @singaporelandauthority and @jeronimoloco in your posts and set your Instagram profile to public. Submit your entries by 2359 hours every Thursday³. The giveaway is opened only to Singapore residents. Winners will be notified via Instagram.

The first pin design for the giveaway, one of the former Kinloss House.

The eight different designs – one from each of the State Properties visits made in 2017.

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Notes:
¹State Property currently managed by the Singapore Land Authority.
²There are a total of 8 different pin designs. Pins of one design will given out each week.
³ The qualifying period for each week’s giveaway will be from Friday to Thursday (Singapore Time), commencing on Friday 6 April 2018.

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Examples of State Property managed by SLA

(State Property managed by SLA can be identified via ‘Land Query’ option on OneMap)

The former Singapore Turf Club (now re-purposed as The Grandstand).

The Johore Battery site at  27 Cosford Rd.

The former Bukit Timah Fire Station.

Command House at Kheam Hock Road, a National Monument.

Old Changi Hospital, built originally as barrack buildings for the Royal Engineers stationed at Changi Garrison. It was converted into a RAF hospital in 1947.

The former Pasir Panjang ‘A’ Power Station – Singapore’s second power station.

The former Alkaff Mansion at Mount Washington.

Block 450 in the former Seletar Air Base, built as a barrack block for RAF Seletar.

A conserved row at Orchard Road, one of which was the former Malayan Motors showroom.

Thow Kwang Dragon Kiln, one of two surviving Teochew kilns.

Bukit Timah Saddle Club.

Old Admiralty House, built as a residence for the Commander of the Naval Base.

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A voice from View Road’s past

A voice from the former View Road Hospital’s past: an ex-resident Roszelan Mohd Yusof from the days when it was the Naval Base Police Asian Quarters, revisits the units in which he lived from the 1960s up to 1972 (see video below).

Best known as a former mental hospital (used as a rehabilitation centre from 1975 to 2001 for long-term schizophrenia patients as well as to allow them to work, reintegrate and return to society), the building had prior to that been used as a quarters for Asian Naval Base Policemen and their families.

A large proportion of the residents of the quarters were Sikhs and Malays. There was also a Pakistani family, and a Bangladeshi family living there, as well as one Nepali family.  The lower floor of the north wing, which  housed the Chart Depot, was out of bounds to the residents, as well as the observation tower and the bomb-proof office.

The last Naval Base Police Force residents were allowed to vacate their flats in 1972, following the disbandment of the Naval Base Police Force a month after the British Pull-out.  More of what is known on the building’s history is also seen in the video.

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More on the former View Road Hospital and the visit that was organised to it:

• Rooms with more than a view
• Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets : Visit to View Road Lodge

 

Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets: A chance to take a peek into Adam Park’s Black and White beauties

Registration is closed as all spaces have been taken up as of 3.15 pm, 21 October 2017.

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Visit #8 – the last of the Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets series of State Property Visits, which the Singapore Land Authority is supporting, takes participants to Adam Park. A quiet estate of 1920s vintage with its cluster of Black and White houses, Adam Park was the scene of some of the last battles fought in the lead up to the Fall of Singapore in February 1942. It was also where a POW camp was established in the early part of the occupation when the Japanese moved POWs to the area for the construction of the Syonan Jinja at nearby MacRitchie Reservoir from March 1942 to January 1943.

The visit presents a rare opportunity to visit five of the Black and White Property, including no. 11 at which a chapel was established by the POWs. (do note that the wall on which the remnant of the mural mention has been concealed by a panel for its protection, so that cannot be seen).

The details of the visit are as follows:

Date : 4 November 2017
Time : 10 to 11.45 am
Address: 7 Adam Park Singapore 289926 (Registration / Meeting Point)

Participants should be of age 18 and above.

Kindly register only if you are able to make the visit by filling the form in below.

Registrations will close when the event limit of 60 registrants has been reached or on 28 October 2017 at 2359 hours, whichever comes first.

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Further information on the series / highlights of selected visits:

• Guided tours of best kept secrets in S’pore (Sunday Times, 23 July 2017)
• Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets (LAND – SLA Newsletter, September 2017)
• Old Changi Hospital Visit on 9 September 2017
• Former View Road Hospital Visit on 21 October 2017
• Former Beach Road Police Station visit on 7 October 2017

Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets : Visit to View Road Lodge

See aslo : A Voice from View Road’s Past

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The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has kindly granted permission for a series of guided State Property visits, “Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets”, the seventh of which will be to the former View Road Lodge – best known perhaps for its time as the View Road (Mental) Hospital.

View Road Lodge in January 2011.

As a branch of Woodbridge Hospital (now the Institute of Mental Health) that operated from 1975 to 2001, View Road Hospital was used to house and treat recovering patients from Woodbridge. Many of View Road’s patients were in fact well enough to find work in day jobs outside of the hospital, which also operated a laundry, a cafe and a day-care centre with patients’ help.

Thought to have been completed just prior to the outbreak of war in late 1941, it is also known that the building was put to use as accommodation for Asian policemen (with the Naval Base Police Force) and their families from the end of the 1950s to around 1972. During this time, the Gurdwara Sabha Naval Police – a Sikh temple, operated on the grounds. As View Road Lodge, the building was re-purposed on two occasions as a foreign workers dormitory.

The visit will also include a rare opportunity to have a look at an above ground bomb-shelter that had been constructed as part of the complex in 1941.

Rimau “Bomb-Proof” Office, 1941 (National Archives UK).

The details of the visit are as follows:

Date : 21 October 2017
Time : 10 am to 12 noon
Address: 10 View Road Singapore 757918

Participants should be of age 18 and above.

Kindly register only if you are able to make the visit by filling the form in below.

Registrations will close when the event limit of 30 registrants has been reached or on 14 October 2017 at 2359 hours, whichever comes first.

More on the property : Rooms with more than a view

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Further information on the series / highlights of selected visits:

• Guided tours of best kept secrets in S’pore (Sunday Times, 23 July 2017)
• Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets (LAND – SLA Newsletter, September 2017)
• Old Changi Hospital Visit on 9 September 2017
• Former Beach Road Police Station visit on 7 October 2017

Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets: Visit a former power station

Registration for the event has closed as of 1800 hours, 14 July 2017, as all slots have been taken up. Do look out for the next visit in the series, which will be to a gem of a former boarding house scheduled for 12 August 2017 at 4 to 6 pm. More details will be out two weeks before the visit.

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There are some gems of spaces and structures that belong to the State. Locked away behind locked gates and with “No Trespassing” signs prominently displayed, they are hidden away from most of us. That is of course for a very good reason, but what it also means is that many will never get to appreciate the beauty found in these spaces and structures. Thanks to the support of the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), the agency under the Ministry of Law that manages State Property, an arrangement has been made to have some of these otherwise secretive sites opened up for a supervised group visit.

The first property that will feature in this series of State Property visits, will be the former Pasir Panjang ‘A’ Power Station on 29 July 2017. The former station building, which is still in excellent condition, features a red-bricked face typical of utilitarian architecture of the era it was built in. It has two spacious halls, supported by frames of steel, are well lit by natural light coming in through the building’s generous openings. Now cleared of its boilers and turbines, it is a joy for a photographer. More about the building and the former station’s history can be found at: Beautiful in its abandonment: the red-brick power station at Pasir Panjang.

Pre-registration will be required for the visit, which is scheduled for 10 am to 12 noon, as there are limited spaces. The visit will also be limited to those of ages 18 and above due to safety considerations.

To register, please visit https://goo.gl/forms/fVfkDckml3CKznBi2.

Registration will close on 22 July 11:59 pm or when the limit for participants has been reached. Do also keep a lookout for visits being organised to other State Property in the weeks and months ahead.