Singapore Heritage Festival 2024: paying homage to the building blocks of our nation

Difficult as it may now be to imagine, but the sea once washed right up to Telok Ayer Street which today has the largest concentration of National Monuments in Singapore. It was along the street that some of the first waves of settlers to the new East India Company factory of Singapore came ashore. Feeling great relief at completing a journey filled with fear and uncertainty, many would have felt the necessity to offer a prayer of gratitude at the shrines and altars set up by those who came before them. Most in the collection of monuments that we see today, house or housed the religious institutions that these places of prayer grew into.

Telok Ayer or Water Bay, before reclamation, c. 1870 (Sachtler & Co).
The three towers of the Nagore Dargah, the roofs of the Thian Hock Keng and the 1850s pagodas of the Keng Teck Whay and Chong Wen Ge are visible.

One monument that stands out because of its location at the corner of Boon Tat and Telok Ayer Streets in is the former Nagore Dargah, which has a fascinating tale to tell. It was where immigrants arriving from Nagapattinam – one of the major ports of embarkation in Tamil Nadu offered prayers of thanks to the Sufi saint and protector of seafarers, Shahul Hameed.

The former Nagore Dargah. Its three towers feature niches in which oil lamps could be lit.

The former dargah or shrine is modelled after another in Nagore near Nagapattinam, which was erected around the burial site of the saint. The dargah in Nagore would have been where would be travellers stopped at before making their sea journeys, attracting both Muslims and Hindus. Today, the dargah has become the Nagore Dargah Indian Muslim Heritage Centre, a showcase of Indian Muslim history.

Festivities at the Thian Hock Keng

For many of the Chinese coming ashore, it was to Mazu, that prayers would have been offered to. Also known as Tian Hou — the Queen of Heaven, Mazu has a wide following amongst members of China’s coastal communities, who revere her as the protector of seafarers and fishermen, and by extension, the protector of to those embarking on sea journeys. The old waterfront in way of Telok Ayer boasts of two temples dedicated to Mazu, erected by two of the largest communities of Chinese in Singapore, the Hokkiens and the Teochews.

Thian Hock Keng during the Mazu Festival

The two temples, the Thian Hock Keng and the Wak Hai Cheng Bio or Yueh Hai Ching, are the oldest temples of the respective communities, as well as a point of focus. They are where the traditions of the immigrants are kept alive, and are filled with colour and celebration during festive occasions. One occasion that they both share is of course the birthday of Mazu, which falls on the 23^rd day of the the 3^rd Chinese lunar month – 1^st May this year, 2024. A photograph of the celebration on 1^st May at the Thian Hock Keng featuring the Mazu Excursion for Peace, is shown below.

Mazu birthday celebrations at Thian Hock Keng

The monuments along Telok Ayer Street, are an important link to Singapore’s past and established who we are today. This year’s Singapore Heritage Festival (2024)with its focus on built heritage celebrates them and many others. The festival also offers an opportunity to learn more about these monuments and much more through the Hop-On, Hop-Off (HOHO) Bus Experience and site specific tours such as Secret Singapore Pathways, Telok Ayer Trail of Faith, Nagore Dargah – The Endearing Icon of Telok Ayer, Remembering Singapore’s Old Waterfront, and Thian Hock Keng: Discover & Marvel. I am myself involved in two sets of tours, Cashin House Heritage Tour, A Journey through Time, and the mysterious Undisclosed.

Hop-On Hop Off, which in the frrst weekend, takes us to Chinatown, Kampong Gelam and Little India.

There are many other interesting programmes and installations, two of which are highlighted below. For a full list of programmes for Singapore Heritage Festival 2024, which runs from 1st to 26th May, kindly visit https://www.sgheritagefest.gov.sg/.

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HOMEGROUND: We Built This City
Also, held in conjunction with the festival is the Homeground installation, HOMEGROUND: We Built
This City. This year, it is laid out on the lawn of the National Museum of Singapore and coveS the themes of Nature, Commerce, Community, Residential and Governance. The installation features five displays that detail the evolution of Singapore’s public housing, and a landmark of Singapore’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Singapore Botanic Garden s’ bandstand gazebo and also features the whimsical artwork of Cheryl Teo.

Festival Director David Chew with artist Cheryl Teo at HOMEGROUND: We Built
This City.

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A Rare Opportunity to visit a Living Architectural Conservation Laboratory in a 1880s Shophouse, and get some hands on!

• ArClab: Heritage in Motion Tour
• ArClab: Decorative Tiles Hands-on Cleaning Workshop
• ArClab: 3D Laser Scanning in Heritage Conservation

NUS ArClab @ 141 Neil Road

A showcase of jiǎn nián, the traditional decorative technique using ceramics that are fired and deliberately broken

Art-noveau decorative tiles, which were imported and were often used to display the status of a house’s occupants – get a chance to learn to clean them!

3-D scanning workshop.

More on ArClab:

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Homage to the goddess of the sea

The view from a reimagined sea … to an earthly abode of the goddess of the sea.

It may be difficult to imagine it now, but there was a time when the sea washed right up to Telok Ayer Street.

Those were times when the street was a landing point. Many who came ashore here would have left home and family to embark on a journey that was filled as much with hope and promise, as it would have been with apprehension and uncertainty.

Coming ashore having survived a passage across tempestuous seas, the newly arrived had much to be grateful for. Shrines placed so homage could be paid to the heavenly beings whose powers of protection had been called upon were a necessary first stop. As the communities grew, in both numbers and wealth, these shrines of gratitude were made more elaborate, and serving as focal points for the communities that erected them.

One such shrine turned elaborate place of worship was the Thian Hock Keng, a focal point for the Hokkien community and the subject of the photograph. Dedicated to the protector of seafarers, Mazu, the temple is a joy to photograph in its various moods.

More on the temple, its activities, and Telok Ayer Street can be found in these posts:

• A bay of plenty from which we came
• Lost in the rising sea at Telok Ayer
• The eighth night

The final piece in the refurbishment of the Portuguese Church

The Church of St Joseph at Victoria Street was established by the Portuguese Mission to serve the spiritual needs of the Portuguese / Portuguese Eurasian community in Singapore. Having maintained its ties with Portugal through the colonies of Goa and then Macau, up to 1999 (it came under the jurisdiction of the respective Dioceses until 1981, with the Bishop of Macau making clerical appointments until 1999), it is still where some of the religious traditions of the Iberian peninsula are practiced to this very day.

A procession for the Feast of St Joseph on 19 Mar 2024.

One very visible tradition is the religious procession, which takes place at least once a month and on special occasions. The largest of these processions (in terms of attendance), takes place on Good Friday. That is when the grounds of the church is transformed into a sea of candlelight.

His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, blessing Parochial House.

One procession that took place this week, was held in honour of St Joseph, to whom the church is dedicated to. It was an especially happy occasion for the church as it also coincided with the blessing of Parochial House, which together with the church itself, was closed some 7 years ago for refurbishment. The blessing of the house, the mass and procession that followed was graced by His Eminence Cardinal Willam SC Goh, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore.

The refurbished Parochial House received its TOP over the weekend.

More on Parochial House can be found at this post: A look into the Portuguese Church’s beautiful Parochial House.

Other posts on the church:

The beautiful Portuguese Church in a new light

A one hundred year old beauty (about the church)

Giving the Sacred Heart a right heart (about the restoration of the church’s stained glass in 2014)

Good Friday at the Portuguese Church (about the annual Good Friday procession)

Identifying the house that Taylor Swift’s mum grew up in

Singapore was caught up in Taylor Swift fever with the American pop sensation in town for a six-concert Singapore leg of her sixth tour. There was also much excitement over Swift’s Singapore connection with the revelation that her grandmother, soprano Majorie Finlay, “spent a lot of time in Singapore”, and that her mother Andrea, “grew up here”. Screen grabs from Swift’s music video “majorie”, a song Swift wrote in tribute to her grandmother, showing glimpses of her grandmother’s Singapore residence were widely circulated, leading to much speculation as to where the house was and if it was still standing. Without much to go on except for the screen grabs, it would have been looking for a needle in a haystack.

A house with a similar design to the house that the Finlays occupied (this is not the house but has the same typology, and has a plan that is a mirror image of the house that the Finlays lived in).

Identifying the house, however, proved to be less difficult, thanks to childhood friend’s and Singapore American School schoolmates of Andrea Finlay, including Julia Nickson (of Rambo: First Blood Part II fame) and Nancy MacIntyre Hollinshead, who runs “Singapore Childhood Remembered” on Facebook. They were able to provide leads, as well as confirm how the how looked like.

The leads included the house’s general location “off Whitley Road”, descriptions of the terrain walking up to the house from Whitley Road, as well as a photograph of Andrea with friends taken outside the house that provided vital visual cues. Unfortunately, all that can be said for reasons of privacy (of the current occupants), is that the house is part of Mount Pleasant government housing estate. It is also in a cluster of houses of the same design, with several distinctive features that match the images in the screen grabs and photograph mentioned. A positive identification of the house was made on Wednesday (6 Mar 2024).

See also: The Straits Times, March 122024, Taylor Swift, her mum’s family and a glimpse of a bygone era in Singapore

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Mount Pleasant estate

The government housing estate laid out with Mount Pleasant Road as a spine with several branch roads running off it, contains large residences that were built for senior government officers and their families in the 1930s. They accommodated the likes of the Director of Public Works and Director of Civil Aviation, Master Attendant, as well as members of the judiciary. Some of these houses were let out to non-government residents from the late 1950s.

The residences, which have been referred to as colonial bungalows or “black and white” houses, are of various designs and while given a white finish coat with black details, and perhaps have some features typical of black and white houses, many are not technically not black and white. Common features of these houses are designs to maximise natural ventilation such as generously sized openings, verandahs, pitched roofs with Marseille tiles and use of timber floorboards. The houses were also laid out on elevated grounds and given expansive gardens and today are surrounded by lush greenery.

Mount Pleasant and the Battle for Singapore:

Mount Pleasant Road, was where on of the last battle lines was drawn before the guns fell silent on 15 February 1942. Based on the work of battlefield archeologist Jon Cooper, we know that some of the houses along the road witnessed some very fierce battles on the night of the 14th and morning of the 15th of February. More information can be obtained on this in Jon Cooper’s Tigers in the Park.

Cashin House, “The Pier” reborn

The Pier, which was last the home of lawyer and sportsman Howard Cashin and his wife Lily in 2009, has been reborn.

Sensitively rebuilt with salvageable elements such as roof and floor tiles, bricks, timber fretwork and window frames, and an iron grille gate of the older house incorporated, Cashin House — as it is now known as, is a great joy to behold. Looking resplendent, the rebuilt house was unveiled by Minister for National Development, Mr Desmond Lee on 25 November during the 30th Anniversary celebrations of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and can now be visited through NParks through sign-ups for specially curated programmes and activities (it is otherwise closed to the public).

Cashin House reborn

Built originally in 1906 as a pier to transport rubber from Howard’s father Alexander Cashin’s Sungei Buloh Rubber Plantation, accommodation was added to it in the 1920s. The pier would become a seaside escape and on the evidence of aerial photographs, featured a bathing pagar at one point in time.

Contrasts and contradictions: a view from the mangrove lined NW coast of Singapore across the Selat Tebrau to the developed southern coast of Johor.

A landing site for during the Imperial Japanese Army’s invasion of Singapore on the night of 8 and early morning of 9 February 1942, the grounds of the house was a place of interest for both IJA war veterans and surviving Australian defenders who were known to have dropped by when the house was expanded and turned into a home for Howard Cashin and his then wife Gillian in the early 1960s. It was also during this time that the house was visited a number of times by the late Sultan Ismail of Johor (grandfather of the reigning Sultan).

The Pier remained in the hands of Howard Cashin until just after his death in 2009. In 2013 it was announced that the house was to be a gateway to and expanded Sungei Buloh Nature Park. In 2020, NParks announced the expanded section would be known as Lim Chu Kang Nature Park within a greater Sungei Buloh Nature Park Network that would include the Kranji Marshes and also extend eastwards to include the Kranji Mangroves and the Mandai Mangroves.

The house brings one close to nature.

The house on the pier is one of two sea pavilions left in Singapore. It was also rebuilt to provide for its safe and long term use. In a setting that is unlike anywhere else in Singapore, the house is not just a marker of history, but also of a world and a way of life that has long been forgotten. More on the house and its history can be found in the Instagram reel below and in these posts:

• A Lost World in Lim Chu Kang
• Cashin’s Pier, lost and found

With Minister Desmond Lee, NParks CEO and Director of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, senior officers of URA, and Sungei Buloh volunteer Adriane Lee at the unveiling of Cashin House on 25 Nov 2023
(Photo: Minister Desmond Lee’s Facebook post)

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More view in and out of the sensitively rebuilt house:

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  The original grille gate.

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  The Cashins cabinet, which was used as a bookshelf. It is now used to display bricks, roof and floor tiles used in the original house.

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  Then and Now

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  One of a pair of lamps on loan from Mrs Cashin.

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A lone tomb, a memory of Syonan Shipyard, and their links to Keppel House

Much has been made about the “mysterious” solitary Japanese tomb sitting on the southern slopes of Mount Faber. The tomb, which could be thought of as a memorial to a painful time in Singapore’s history, contains the remains of a member of staff of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ (MHI) Kobe shipyard, a naval architect by the name of Komoto Ekasa (or Omoto Egasa). Komoto was among an group of 94 MHI staff who had been sent from Kobe to Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in January 1942 in anticipation of the Fall of Singapore. Arriving in Singapore on 2 March 1942, the MHI employees’ immediate task had been to revive the damaged Singapore Harbour Board (SHB) repair facilities at Keppel Harbour to the point that it could be put in operation to support the war effort.

The solitary tomb on the slopes of Mount Faber.

Enlisting the help of former executives and workers of SHB, MHI’s team was able to rapidly restore three of SHB’s graving docks at Keppel Harbour in a matter of weeks. By the third week of March, emergency repairs could be carried on the Imperial Japanese Navy oiler Tsurumi, which had been hit by a Dutch torpedo in the waters of the East Indies early that same month. By June, much of the repair facilities had been fully restored and was subsequently run as the No. 1 yard of MHI’s Syonan Shipyard (Syonan Shipyard’s No. 2 Yard was at Tanjong Rhu). Unfortunately for the hardworking Komoto, who had been appointed as the shipyard’s manager, he fell ill and passed on the 18th day of July 1942.

Singapore Harbour Board Repair Facilities included graving docks at Keppel Harbour and Tanjong Pagar.

Komoto’s efforts would however not be in vain. While MHI’s Syonan Shipyard may have been unable to support the Japanese shipbuilding efforts due to material and machinery shortages as was intended, it proved to be a great asset to the Japanese fleet as a repair yard. Some 2364 ships were repaired by the shipyard from March 1942 to August 1945 even if only a handful of ships were built. The yard was also able to provide employment to local workers, with the number of local employees exceeding 3000 at the peak of its activities. The facilities would however suffer from shortages of spares, a lack of maintenance, and also damage from Allied bombing in 1944 and 1945. By the time of the Japanese surrender in August 1945, much was left in a state of disrepair. Extensive rehabilitation work and expense was required after the war to restore the facilities.

The cellar of the much storied Keppel House. There has even been speculation that Yamashita’s gold is buried beyond the walls at the far end.

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About Komoto Ekasa (小本江笠) and his link to Keppel House

Born in March 1895, Komoto was a graduate of Department of Marine Engineering of Tokyo Imperial University and joined MHI’s Kobe Shipyard and Machinery Works soon after his graduation in 1920. His death and place of burial was apparently not forgotten and several members of the naval architect’s family have paid visits to the grave over the years. A participant during a recent tour I conducted to Keppel House mentioned that a granddaughter of the naval architect had been in contact with her and had revealed that Omoto along with several other Syonan Shipyard staff members were residents of house (which the site of the grave had once been on the grounds of) during their time here. More on Keppel House can be found at: A house on which Singapore’s modern port was built.

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A Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets tour to Keppel House on 29 Oct 2023. The tour was conducted with the kind support of the Singapore Land Authority.

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A window into the past: W J Garcia and Singapore’s first piano factory

Photographs freeze moments in time, moments that may never again be seen, or even ones with a tale or two to tell. A photograph with a tale to tell is one that belongs to a collection of photographs taken by American photographer Harrison Forman. While the photograph has been dated to the 1950s, it does appear to be one of a multitude of photographs that Forman captured of pre-World Singapore in 1941, which also includes several taken on 35mm colour slide.

The photograph, taken with Amber Mansions along Orchard Road (where Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station is today) in it, also shows W J Garcia’s piano showroom. Garcia, who was a piano and organ dealer, and is now probably best known as the person behind the installation of what is now Singapore’s oldest pipe organ at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in 1912.

Garcia, was a well known personality, having been a pioneering Singapore piano maker. He ventured into the business of piano making in the 1920s, challenging the commonly-held belief that pianos could not be made in the tropics. Garcia’s motivation for venturing the piano making business had been the difficulties that existed in the postwar (First World War) period in obtaining good pianos at reasonable prices. Prior to setting the factory up in 1926, Garcia had his son W H Garcia learn the trade in London. Within Garcia’s teak piano cabinets, were sounding boards made of Romanian pine, imported iron frames, actions, keys and hammers.

Garcia’s factory, which was at Holland Road, had a machine shop measuring approximately 20 by10 metres in which teak was prepared and cut, a room 15 by 10 metres in which the teak was seasoned, and another 20 by10 metre room for assembly. The Second World War would bring Garcia’s venture to a tragic end, with Garcia, who was interned as a civilian during the Japanese Occupation, passing away at the age of 66 on 26 April 1942.

Chip Bee Gardens, privately developed to house military personnel

A destination whose attraction is its cool cafes and restaurants, and trendy boutiques, it is hard to tell that Chip Bee Gardens, when it was completed in the mid-1960s, served as an abode for British military personnel based in Pasir Panjang, Tanglin and Alexandra. Architecturally unique as a military residential estate, it wears the look and feel of a typical 1960s private housing development in Singapore and even parts of Malaysia, with its mix of residential and commercial properties.

Terrace houses at Chip Bee Gardens

Designed by Yang Tye Tai Architects, its developers, United Development and Finance Co, embarked on the development of Chip Bee as a private residential housing estate. Plans for it were announced in 1962. A year after construction started, the developer entered into an initial contract with the British military’s Services’ Lands Board for the sale of several housing units. A second contract was negotiated in 1965 that involved the sale of the bulk of the development to the board. Under the contract, a total of 603 units were to have been completed by 1967 for the board, comprising 349 three-bedroom terraced houses, 194 three-bedroom units in seven nine-storey apartment blocks, and 20 shop lots with 40 flats above.

Princess Margaret visiting Chip Bee Estate in October 1972 (via National Archives of Singapore).

The acquisition, which cost the Services’ Lands Board a reported $17 million, signalled a shift in the British military’s housing policy. The board had been renting civilian properties to address a housing shortfall with the expansion in the numbers of personnel being brought into Singapore and Malaya in the early 1960s. Parts of “Chip Bee Gardens Married Quarters Estate” would be ready for occupation by 1966.

The demolished apartment blocks would have been on the right.

While the acquisition of Chip Bee Gardens was carried out in anticipation of a long term British military presence in Singapore, circumstances would very quickly change and the estate had to be sold almost as soon as it was completed in 1968. Britain had then already announced its intention to withdraw its military forces from Singapore. The sale of the estate was negotiated with the Singapore government, who paid just over 40% of the price that Britain had invested in the estate with the understanding that British military families could stay on after the properties changed hands in 1970, up to the point of the British withdrawal in late 1971. Chip Bee Gardens’ function as a military estate however, went beyond the pull-out, with members of the Australian-led ANZUK Force occupying the estate until Australia’s 1975 withdrawal from the ANZUK arrangements. The Singapore government, through the Housing and Development Board, then put the properties up for rent. Shops and popular eateries snapped up the commercial spaces, but the take-up rate for residential units was poor.

Two blocks were built with 40 apartments above and 20 shop lots on the ground floor. The shop lots were used for communal facilities and to house amenities.

Through the years, several agencies have managed the properties. The Land Office took over the management in 1989 before handing it over to Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) in 2002. It was during the watch of the Land Office that the apartment blocks demolished in 1992 and the land sold to private developers. The Singapore Land Authority, the successor to the Land Office, has managed the properties since 2015.

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The origin of the name Chip Bee

“Chip Bee” is Hokkien for Jimei (集美), a village and district near Xiamen (Amoy) in Fujian province in China. It was from Chip Bee that the likes of rubber magnate Tan Kah Kee and his one-time employee and founder of Nanyang University, Tan Lark Sye, hailed from. Tan Lark Sye’s nephew, Tan Eng Joo, was thought to have owned the land on which Chip Bee Gardens was built and was a associate of Ko Teck Kin, then President of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the developer of Chip Bee Gardens, United Development and Finance Co.

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The information above has been based on research that I carried out for Uncommon Ground: the places you know, the stories you don’t.

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A Singapore in transition: SIT

Among American photo-journalist Harrison Forman’s vast collection of some 50,000 photographs, found in the American Geographical Society Library of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee are the wonderfully captured scenes of a Singapore in 1941. The photographs, which include a number of rare colour captures, provide a glimpse of the bustling colony that Singapore was, just as preparations were being made for a war that many felt would not come to its shores.

A view of Hong Lim Green and the so-called “Suicide Flats” built in the early 1950s by the SIT (photo: Harrison Forman Collection, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)

The collection also contains a number of photographs taken in the 1950s and 1960s that show a Singapore in transition, as Singapore went from colony to state, and eventually towards merger with Malaya and independence. One of these photographs, taken in the mid-1950s, is seen here. It captures the then newly erected 9-storey blocks of flats at Upper Pickering Street / Upper Hokkien Street (a plot now occupied by Parkroyal Collection Pickering) that was put up by the Singapore Improvement Trust or SIT (the block in the middle was in fact built to house the SIT’s HQ).

Completed in 1952, the blocks were Singapore’s tallest public housing blocks and the tallest buildings in Chinatown. As with many tall public housing blocks over the years, they had an unfortunate association with suicides and became known as the “suicide flats” almost as soon as it came up. The blocks of flats, also acquired a reputation for being haunted. This was not without reason as there were a number of reports of hauntings. An ex-resident —  a former colleague of mine, who lived on the top floor of one of the blocks, described how he had resisted a compulsion to jump from the balcony at the urging of “a group of children” who were calling to him from the ground. He told his parents about the encounter and was never allowed out on the balcony again.

The SIT, which was established to carry out town planning and later took on the role of providing public housing, built Tiong Bahru Estate and also put up estates such as Princess Elizabeth Estate and Old Kallang Airport Estate (where Dakota Crescent is) and set what then was the largest public housing programme at Queenstown in motion. They were also responsible for putting up several smaller clusters or individual public housing blocks such as the Princess Elizabeth flats at Farrer Park, blocks in the Bugis area and in Kampong Kapor. SIT made initial plans and carried out the early land acquisition for Toa Payoh and built the old Kim Keat Estate as a prelude to Toa Payoh before being disbanded in 1960 —  when the Housing and Development Board (HDB) was formed. The rest, as they say, is history. HDB became one of Singapore’s great success stories and built twice the number of public housing units that SIT had managed to put up in its three decades of existence in a matter of just three years.

SIT built Tiong Bahru

While the blocks at Upper Pickering Street have been demolished, the legacy of the SIT can however still be found. The SIT built portion of Tiong Bahru has largely been conserved. There are also several blocks around Dakota Crescent that are being conserved following calls to keep the surviving part of the old estate. Beyond public housing, the back lanes behind shophouses, and the spiral staircases found behind them, could be thought of as another legacy of the SIT with the trust having been responsible for executing the scheme following their formation. There are also the estates that the SIT built and maintained that housed their senior staff. These are still very much with us and can be found at Adam Park and at Kay Siang Road.

The beautiful Portuguese Church in a new light

There’s no better time to have a look at the newly restored St Joseph Church than during the Singapore Night Festival. Beautifully illuminated for the festival, the church, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful churches in Singapore, is quite a sight to behold. What is especially wonderful during the night festival is that the church has been opened to the public for heritage tours and performances featuring the beautiful voice of Corrinne May and also the church’s Sacred Heart Choir.

To appreciate the beauty of the wonderfully restored interior of the church, it is also best to make a daytime visit on a sunny afternoon. That is when the church’s beautiful set of stained glass is best appreciated. The church, which closed for extensive repairs and renovation in August 2017, was reopened in time to celebrate its 110th anniversary. The second church to stand on the site, the current building was consecrated by the Bishop of Macau, Dom João Paulino Azevedo e Castro on the 30th of June 1912.

Established by the Portuguese Mission, the church catered to the Portuguese and Portuguese Eurasian community and continues to the the spiritual home of the Portuguese Eurasian community. The Portuguese Mission’s presence in Singapore can be traced back to 1825 and followed the arrival of Jose D’Almeida to Singapore on a permanent basis. Mass was initially held at Dr D’Almeida’s Beach Road house before a chapel was set up on Bras Basah Road in 1933. The mission then built a church on the current site in the 1850s. The church was for much of its history, administered by the Portuguese Diocese of Macau (and the Diocese of Goa before that). It was only in 1981, that it came under the Archdiocese of Singapore. The Bishop of Macau however, continued to appoint priests to the church until 1999.

Other posts related to St Joseph’s Church:

A one hundred year old beauty (about the church)

A look into the Portuguese Church’s beautiful Parochial House (about Parochial House, which is still being renovated)

Giving the Sacred Heart a right heart (about the restoration of the church’s stained glass in 2014)

Good Friday at the Portuguese Church (about the annual Good Friday procession)

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  Undergoing restoration in Sep 2017

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  Undergoing restoration in Mar 2021

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  Aug 2022

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  Aug 2022

Parting Glances: Farrer Park Swimming Complex

The rapid pace of change in Singapore’s robs many of places dear to them. These places, ones Singaporeans may have grown up with and made memories in, provides a connection to the country in a way that can never be replaced, and is what anchors people to a place and to a large extent is what makes home, home.

Farrer Park Swimming Complex

One place where memories for many in my generation were made, was Farrer Park, at which the last laps were swum at its 65-year-old swimming pool yesterday on 9 August 2022. From attending school sporting meets, to catching childhood football heroes “in action” and watching sports on a Sunday afternoon for free, Farrer Park seemed the go-to place for anything connected with sports. Its small (by the standards of today) swimming complex was also a popular spot to spend an especially warm day, being a lot more accessible than Singapore’s first public pool up on Mount Emily.

A swimming pool that played a big part in establishing the foundation on which the swimming career of Ang Peng Siong, once the “world’s fastest swimmer”.

Like Mount Emily, Farrer Park Swimming Pool was showing the signs of its age by the time I got to use it. Nevertheless, it was one of my favourites. It had that homely feel that seemed missing from the newer public swimming complexes, such as the one at Toa Payoh at which I would learn to swim.

Designed by City Architect, M E Crocker, Farrer Park’s swimming pool was built as Singapore’s third public pool (see: A Short History of Public Swimming Pools in Singapore) at the cost of $460,000. Officially opened on 22 February 1957 by the then Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock, it drew a huge crowd following day —  when it was opened to the public. A thousand pool users were reported to have used the pool that first day alone, with queues forming some two hours before its 7.30 am opening time.

A last look at Farrer Park Swimming Pool

Farrer Park would go on to become the “grounds” on which a one-time “world’s fastest swimmer”, Ang Peng Siong, was groomed. It was at the pool that Ang’s father, a supervisor at the pool, taught him to swim and provided him with his early training. In 1982, Ang became the “world’s fastest swimmer” when he recorded the world’s fastest time in the 50 metres freestyle. Ang would return to Farrer Park following its closure as a public pool in 2003, when the APS Swimming School which Ang founded in 1995, moved in 2004. The school has used the swimming complex since then until its closure this August.

The sun goes down on Farrer Park Swimming Pool

While a proposal was made to retain the swimming complex and refurbish it for future use in an area on which some 1,600 flats will be added, an announcement was made earlier this year that it would not be feasible to do so. The pool is now set to be demolished … to be replaced by a modern new-age integrated sporting complex in which new swimming facilities would be added, breaking yet another link that Farrer Park has to Singapore’s sporting history.

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Parting glances: Farrer Park Swimming Complex

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The former Police Coast Guard HQ at Kallang

Seemingly uninteresting and rather unexciting, the cluster of buildings that were used by the Police Coast Guard (PCG) to house their headquarters from 1970 to 2006, now hide an interesting secret. Repurposed as the National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI), the buildings have not only found a new life, but have been repurposed with a minimum of intervention and have retained much of the fabric of its past.

NYSI at Kallang, occupies a space that was used as a flying boat reception and maintenance facility and later by the PCG as its headquarters.

The former base, which was carved out of the former Kallang Airport’s flying boat reception and maintenance facilities (its ramp/slipway is still there, except it is part of the National Cadet Corp (Sea) facility next to NYSI), was turned into a base for what was then the Marine Police in 1970 at the cost of S$1 million. Having been based at the congested Singapore River by what is now the Asian Civilisations Museum, a new base with a maintenance facility was much needed to permit enable a swifter repair turnaround time for its boats, improve response and also accommodate the Marine Police’s expanding fleet.

A piece from its days as the flying boat facility.

Amongst the structures that were put up during the development of the Kallang Marine Poilce HQ, was a two storey building that served as its nerve centre, which is the same building that NYSI has operated out of since November 2015. The building and an annex, which once housed offices, interrogation rooms, an armoury and even a lock-up, is now home to gyms, sports laboratories, accommodation, recovery rooms counselling rooms, and even chill out spaces. While that may have been expected, what is unexpected is the manner in which the building has been redone in a way that not only allows it to keep many of its reminders of its days as a Marine Police base, but also with little need for light and ventilation other than that which occurs naturally. This rather intelligent, sustainable, no-frills and rather affordable approach is a breath of fresh air and should really be a model for many of our developments in which old spaces and building are repurposed. Most projects, quite unfortunately, have gone down the path of being flamboyant and gimmicky.

Decently exposed.

The Marine Police, morphed into the Police Coast Guard in 1993 and vacated the base in 2006 due to the intended closing up of Marina Bay through the construction of the Marina Barrage. It is now based in Pulau Brani.

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A walk around NYSI Kallang

Chin-up bars – a reminder of the past.

Inside the old electrical distribution box.

The former arms clearing station.

Recalling the armoury.

Exposing the dividing line between the main building and an annex.

A breath of fresh air, the non-air-conditioned gym.

Notice the manhole in the gym flooring (previously a wet space).

A performance lab.

Heaters to simulate hot dry conditions.

An “Endless Pool” for swimmers.

Another reminder of the past.

Maximising natural ventilation.

Dorms – a curtain separates the male and female sections.

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Common spaces

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The former lock-up

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Other views around the facility

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Elizabeth House, nurses’ quarters to part of a nursing home , or will that be just a mirage?

Developments around Singapore General Hospital in the last five years or so, have altered the complexion of its much storied surroundings. With that, a number of markers, which linked the area to its much storied past were permanently lost. Future developments threaten to do the same with old Alexandra Hospital, with plans to redevelop a part of its grounds as a nursing home for dementia patients recently announced. While it may seem to involve only a small part of the grounds, what it signals is the beginning of the end for the hospital campus and some of its historically significant sites as part of what will eventually be the “Alexandra Health Campus”. 

Alexandra Military Hospital

It is good that three of the hospital’s existing buildings, ones that serve as the face of the hospital, are already protected for conservation. There is however a question of context in keeping older structures, especially when they are drowned or find themselves minimised by the scale that new developments are often given.  Given the history of the hospital and the significance of many of its structures and spaces, there must be more of the campus that deserves to be considered for conservation.

The spacious, green and quiet grounds of the hospital could be overtaken by the mess of concrete in the near future as there are plans to turn it into the Alexandra Health Campus.

Alexandra Hospital’s roots lie in its construction as Singapore’s main military hospital. This came at the tail end of an effort to turn Singapore into the “Gibraltar of the East”, and a naval outpost to which the British fleet could be sent to in event that its assets in the Far East could be defended. This brought new garrisons of troops to the island. With only the aging and glaringly inadequate Tanglin Military Hospital to serve the huge contingent of European soldiers on the island, there was a need for a large enough hospital. In July 1940, Alexandra opened as the British military establishment’s most modern hospital this side of the Suez and counted among the largest medical facilities that were built for the British army.

In Alexandra Hospital’s campus, there is a mix of pre and post World War II buildings.

Tragedy was to befall the hospital within a year and a half of its opening when on the eve of the Fall of Singapore, the hospital became the scene of a most horrendous of atrocities. In spite of the hospital being clearly marked and identified as a medical facility, Japanese troops entered the hospital late in the morning of 14 February 1942, allegedly in pursuit of British Indian Army soldiers who had fired on them. What followed was the wanton killing of staff and patients over the course of two days. Estimates of those killed in the course of the two days of savagery go as high as 300. More information on the massacre can be found in this link.

One of the hospital’s ward blocks not protected for conservation. This houses the auditorium, which was a chapel during the war and one of the points of entry of Japanese troops.

Two buildings, Blocks 18 and 19, are threatened by the development of the nursing home. Even if the signs seem to point to the buildings’ retention, how that will work could involve the buildings being incorporated as parts of larger structures. Block 19, also known as Elizabeth House, is the newer of the two blocks and is particularly unique. Having been constructed in two parts to house female nursing staff in 1949 and in 1958, what distinguishes the modernist blocks are exterior ventilation blocks that serve as privacy screens.

The former Elizabeth House, Block 19, with its older and newer sections and its privacy screens.

The construction of Elizabeth House came at a time when Britain was involved in the counter insurgency efforts against the communists in Malaya in a campaign known as the Malayan Emergency. With Alexandra Hospital, also known then as British Military Hospital Singapore, being Britain’s principal military facility in the Far East, it played a crucial role in supporting the effort. New buildings were built on the campus including Elizabeth House in support of the large amount of military personnel sent by Britain to Singapore and Malaya. Elizabeth House was closely associated with nurses with the then exclusively female Queen Alexandra Royal Army Nursing Corps or QARANC in short and known as tyhe “Garden Billet” to what were known as the QAs or nurses. Among the stories that have been told of the block was how its residents would sunbathe at the badminton court behind it.

Alexandra Hospital is a historical site with a plaque to recall its history placed in its gerden,

Based on what the Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced, as reported by the Straits Times on 26 June 2022, it is hard to see Elizabeth House surviving without substantial change or even demolition. While the sounds are for keeping the structure, there seems ample leeway given to the the successful tenderer (for consultancy services in regard to the nursing home development). What will be required of the tenderer is an assessment as to what opportunities there are to design the nursing home with respect to the heritage value of Blocks 18 and 19 — whatever that means. It seems quite possible that the option or a “documentation and heritage interpretation” route, with “elements of the blocks incorporated in the nursing home’s design” could be possible given the site’s constraints. If that is the case, Blocks 18 and 19 may just be a reinterpreted illusion. Without an actual form, and certainly without substance, we could just be left with a mirage that we in Singapore seem so fond of creating.

Block 18, built as the Commanding Officers’ residence.

Corridors of Block 19 – the former Elizabeth House.

A house on which Singapore’s modern port was built

There is little doubt that Singapore’s port has been a key driver of its success. The roots of the port as we know of it today were really laid by commercial dock companies established in the mid-1800s, chief amongst which were the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company and the Patent Slip and Dock Company (later the New Harbour Dock Company). Their possession of wharfage originally put up to support repair and resupply activities in the decade that preceded the opening of the Suez Canal, placed Singapore in an excellent position to meet the growth in shipping that followed and the advances in ship technology that had already been taking place.

Singapore Harbour Board Map, c. 1920s, showing location of Keppel House

Through consolidation, a duopoly was formed between the two dock companies before collaboration, first through a somewhat monopolistic joint-purse arrangement and eventually, through a merger saw to the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company emerging as a single big player in the provision of port and ship repair services in the final years of the nineteenth century. A direct result of this was the Straits Settlements government expropriation of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company and the formation of Tanjong Pagar Dock Board . As a state-controlled body run with the interests of Singapore in mind, the board which morphed into the Singapore Harbour Board (SHB) and from 1964, the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), was able to develop the port in a structured manner that was necessary to meet the challenges that were to follow.

Stairway to place of much mystery, 11 Keppel Hill was built to house a manager of the New Harbour Dock Company and is thought to have been completed around 1899. The house, which has invited much interest, has more than a tale or two to tell.

Today, all that seems left to tell the story of the port’s origins are a handful of historical assets and former graving docks that now enhance residential developments around Keppel Bay as water features. Among the artefacts are those that came into the possession of Mapletree during the corporatisation of PSA. These include a steam crane that can now be found outside the revamped and somewhat unfriendly former St James’ Power Station, now the Singapore headquarters of Dyson. What could be thought of as another piece in the jigsaw would the former residence of the Chairman of SHB. This sits somewhat forlornly in isolation, in a quiet corner on the southern slope of Mount Faber. What I find especially interesting about the mansion is that it stands to recall the original players in the port’s operations having been completed just as the ball on the eventual formation of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Board was set in motion and is thus a marker of a significant point in the port’s history.

Perched on the southern slope of Mount Faber, the house would have offered an wonderful view of Keppel Harbour when it was first built.

The house in question, lies close to the reservoir that was (allegedly) rediscovered in 2014, at 11 Keppel Hill. Completed in the final years of the 1800s and on land that was owned by the New Harbour Dock Company, it would have been erected to house the company’s most senior manager, being the largest of a cluster of new residences designed by Lermit and Westerhout that company had been in the process of erecting around and after 1897. While I have not come across plans for the house at 11 Keppel Hill, there seems to be several similarities in the plans developed by the architects for the other bungalows. This includes a central air and light well (if I can call it that) that is topped by a jack roof. A mention of what appears to be the house in question can also be found in a 1899 newspaper article. That describes a climb made by a party from the dock company from a reservoir it was constructing on the slopes of Mount Faber to the site of its “new house”. A description of its location of the house was also provided, with the house being “overlooked by the Mount Faber flagstaff”, and that it commanded a “splendid view of New Harbour and its surroundings.” The house, is the only one of the cluster of residences, one of which was Keppel Bungalow, that has been left standing.

An interesting feature of the house is a set of cast iron columns mounted on a concrete base. The rather incongruous overhang that the columns support would probably have been an upper floor verandah that someone saw fit to enclose.

With the amalgamation of the two dock companies, the house was named “Keppel House” and housed the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company’s Resident Civil Engineer, a position that was created in 1901 with the extensive construction works that the company had embarked on in mind. The first to hold the position was a Mr J Llewelyn Holmes, who left the position in June 1903. Holmes’ replacement, Mr Alan Railton, was known to have taken up residence at Keppel House.

Close up of the base of an iron column.

Having been left vacant following the expropriation, Keppel House was then put up for rent before becoming the official residence of the Chairman of the SHB some time around 1918. It was then already occupied by Mr Stanley Arthur Lane. Lane’s move into the house occured sometime around 1916. A civil engineer, once of Sir John Jackson and Company, Lane came to Singapore late in 1907 to take up the role of Assistant Manager with the Tanjong Pagar Dock Board. Often acting as the Chairman of the Singapore Harbour Board in the absence of his predecessor John Rumney Nicholson, Lane’s appointment as Chairman came in 1918.

Stanley Lane, a resident of 11 Keppel Hill from around 1916 to 1923.

Keppel House most eventful years would come with the appointment of Mr George Trimmer —  Sir George Trimmer from 1937, as Chairman upon Lane’s retirement in 1923. Trimmer retired in 1938, having overseen a massive port expansion programme that added almost a kilometre of new wharfage to accommodate large ocean-going vessels and added a number of new transit godowns. Trimmer was known to be an excellent host. It was also during Trimmer’s tenure at Keppel House that the nearby reservoir doubled up as a private swimming pool for the house’s residents and its guests.

Sir George Trimmer, a long time resident of Keppel House.

An especially interesting event that took place during Trimmer’s stay in Keppel House was the successful transmission of both live and recorded music from it to a shortwave transmitter several miles away and then over the air. The experiment was conducted by an amateur radio broadcaster, who was also an employee of SHB, Robert Earle. Earle ran a radio station, V1SAB, with his wife for several years in the 1930s, broadcasting late in the evening twice a week.

The garage and the servants’ quarters. The house would have had stables originally.

Trimmer’s successor was Mr H K Rodgers, whose confirmation as Chairman and General Manager of the SHB was confirmed in August 1939 just as the dark clouds of war gathered over Europe. Rodgers would soon find himself caught up in the SHB’s own preparations for war. Keppel House would itself become a venue for events connect with the war in Europe and later, with the war’s arrival to Singapore’s shores. The performance of Dutch choir at a 1941 Christmas party thrown by Rodgers, saw guests, which reported numbered a hundred, join in the singing of Silent Night, Holy Night and Noel. Rodgers, would soon find himself organising an evacuation of SHB’s European staff, many of whom left Singapore on board the Bagan — a Penang ferry —  on 11 February 1942 with Singapore’s fall seemingly imminent. Rodgers, who saw to the organisation of the evacuation from his residence, would himself leave Singapore early on 14 February 1942 — a day before Singapore’s inglorious fall — on the Tenggaroh, a launch that belonged to the Sultan of Johor. Rodgers eventually found his way to Australia, having made his way to Sumatra on the Tenggaroh. He returned to Singapore in 1946 to take up the role of the Managing Director of United Engineers Limited, a firm which operated a shipyard at Tanjong Rhu.

Iron balustrades on the rear verandah.

The Japanese Occupation, saw the operation of SHB’s repair facilities as the Syonan Shipyard by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) with staff from MHI’s Kobe yard. The first batch of MHI employees arrived in Singapore in March 1942 and immediately set about the task of restoring the damaged facilities. The working conditions at the yard took their toll on the MHI staff. At the end of 1944, some 15% of MHI employees sent to Singapore had either perished or return home due to illness. Among those who died was an engineer whose tomb can be found near Keppel House. It is quite probably that the engineer, as well as other members of MHI’s Syonan Shipyard’s senior staff, were in residence at Keppel House during this time.

A view of the rear of the house.

After the war, the house reverted to being a residence for the SHB Chairman with Mr H B Basten being its first post-occupation resident. The arrangement would end in 1964 with the formation of PSA. The house found several uses over the years, becoming the PSA Central Training School in the 1970s, following which it was leased out as offices. Its tenants included a management consulting firm and an architectural firm who maintained flats on the upper floor for its staff. The house, which is currently vacant, was part of a group of houses on the southern ridges that were given conservation status in 2005.

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This visit to Keppel House was carried out with the kind permission of the Singapore Land Authority.

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Inside and around the house :

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one-north, a visual adventure: registration for Lyf one-north photowalk

Developed by JTC, one-north offers a visual spectacle of futuristic buildings, an abundance of greenery, former military structures and some rather quirky spaces. A place for work and for the flowering of ideas, one-north is also an exciting and vibrant place to live, play and learn in.

one-north, a visual adventure is a series of photowalks that is presented by Jerome Lim in collaboration with JTC to bring out one-north’s architectural beauty, and its fun and vibrant spaces. Two walks have been completed, whilst a third will be held on Saturday 16 July 2022. This will provide participants with an opportunity to take a walk through the hip, quirky, and quite instagrammable co-living and co-working space, Lyf one-north.

Details of Visit:
Date : 16 July 2022
Time : 9 am to 10.45 am

As it would not be possible to make replacements, kindly register only if you are able to make the visit by filling the form in this link (registration closed as of 11 am, 11 July 2022 as all spaces have been filled).

Registrations will close when the participant limit has been reached or on 13 July 2022 at 12 noon, whichever comes first.

For further information on the series, kindly visit: one-north, a visual adventure.

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one-north, a visual adventure is a series of photowalks that is presented by Jerome Lim in collaboration with JTC to uncover one-north’s architectural beauty and its vibrant spaces.

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The luck of Eden Hall

There is no better time to visit Eden Hall — the rather grand official residence of the British High Commissioner at Nassim Road, than on an occasion when a party is thrown. It provides an opportunity to view the house in all its splendour and indulge in some good old British fish and chips. Having received an invitation to Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebration by virtue of my appearance in a video in which I recalled Her Majesty’s visit to my Toa Payoh flat in 1972 that the High Commission had put together, I was able to do just that in early June. It was my second visit to the grand old residence, but one due to the significance of the occasion, was rather special.

Eden Hall on the occasion of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, June 2022.

Eden Hall has been an object of fascination for me ever since I learnt of its link to Ezekiel Saleh (E S) Manasseh. A wealthy Baghdadi Jew, Manasseh held a substantial fortune and together with a younger brother Rupert, ran the Singapore arm of a firm that together with four other brothers, had inherited from their father Saleh Manasseh of Calcutta. The firm had considerable success in the trade in opium, and later in jute, which was used for making gunny sacks . E S Manasseh, who was perhaps best known as being a co-founder of Goodwood Park Hotel, passed on in May 1944 as a civilian internee in Sime Road Camp (to which civilian internees were moved to from Changi prison that same month).

Her Excellency Kara Owen, the British High Commissioner to Singapore, speaking during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations.

Designed by R A J Bidwell of Swan and Maclaren and built for E S Manasseh, Eden Hall was set on a sprawling 1.8 ha site. The site was one carved out of the former Lady Hill estate and had been purchased in 1903 by business partner in the family firm, Saul Jacob Nathan. While the construction of the house dates back to 1904, Manasseh apparently only purchased the site outright in 1912. Manasseh had it named Eden Hall, relating it to a goblet on which a family’s fate depended, “The Luck of Eden Hall” — that was the subject of a poem of the same name that was known to Manasseh. A rather interesting feature that distinguishes Eden Hall from other mansions is its Wedgwood Jasperware-like sprig relief type patterns decorating its façade.

E S Manasseh

Through S Manasseh and Co, Eden Hall was initially let out to a Mrs Elizabeth Campbell, who ran a boarding house in it that might have been quite a rowdy place. Following his marriage to a widow, Elsie Trilby Bath in 1916, E S Manasseh moved in with his new wife and her children from a previous marriage. Also moving in in 1916 was another of E S Manasseh’s brothers, Alan, who had come to Singapore to replace Rupert as E S’ partner. Alan Manasseh, incidentally was the father of the renowned British architect Leonard Manasseh, who was actually born at Eden Hall in May 1916 not long after his parents had moved in.

Chole Manasseh, granddaughter of Leonard Manasseh, at Eden Hall in May 2019.

The mansion was reportedly used by the Japanese as an officers’ mess during the Japanese Occupation, and after the war and death of E S Manasseh, came into the hands of Vivian Bath, Manasseh’s stepson and one of Elsie Bath’s two children. Bath would sell it to the British Government in 1955 for £55,000 for use by its Commissioner General. At Bath’s insistence, a plaque with the words “May the Union Jack fly here forever” was fixed to the base of the flagpole flying the Union Jack. Eden Hall subsequently became the residence of the British Commissioner and then upon independence, the High Commissioner to Singapore.

The plaque with the words “May the Union Jack fly here forever”, seen during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Fears emerged in 1983 that the Union Jack’s perch atop the Nassim Road flagpole would be brought to an end by an austerity drive that targetted lavish diplomats homes. During that time, the fact that there were in fact calls for the Foreign Office to dispose Eden Hall since 1973. Fortunately for Eden Hall and Britains subsequent High Commissioners to Singapore, a decision was made to keep Eden Hall in 1984. The size of the land that surrounds the mansion has however been substantially reduced through sales of several plots. The first in April 2001, of a 1.01 ha plot to motoring tycoon Peter Kwee and “Popiah King” Sam Goi, netted just over $50 million. An exercise was also held to offer two additional plots totalling 0.31 ha in 2015. Though initially unsuccessful, the two sites would eventually be sold when their sale was relaunched the following year, with OUE paying a reported $56.6 million for the plots.

A clearer image of the plaque.

Eden Hall in 2019.

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Around Eden Hall, during the jubilee celebrations and in May 2019.

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A place of mystery and a place of discovery: Baroque House at Rowell Road

Old spaces made new often lose a certain level of their charm in the effort to refresh them in the way that the modern world demands. More often than not, their age-old fabric is discarded, and out with it goes the stories that the years and users of the space may have been woven into it. It was therefore with great delight that in rather quaint old space by the name of Baroque House, which has retained its fabric even with renewal, and along with it, a certain charm and mystery. Housed in a century-old shophouse, its name was inspired by the term “Chinese Baroque”, which is applied in Singapore to describe very ornately adorned shophouses. In Baroque House, one finds quite an unlikely setting for what it has become: a private kitchen, an event space, and most of all, a place to discover.

Ventilation blocks from the past inside Baroque House.

My journey of discovery began almost from the off, when I received an invitation from Sonia Ong, the proprietress of Baroque House. The invitation, laced with a tinge of mystery, promised a “secret garden” tour, and more importantly, the irresistible company of good “spirits” through Baroque House’s Bourbon Tasting Omakase dinner menu, which did not take any persuasion for me to agree to. So, armed with only a hint of what to expect and an address, I made my way down Rowell Road one Monday afternoon. Rowell Road is of course a street that is better known for the wrong reasons and I was just as curious as to what Baroque House was all about, as I was about why Rowell Road?

Inside Baroque House.

It wasn’t hard to identify the house in question, its closed pink timber doors and windows and its floral decor setting it apart from the other shophouses along the same row. The exterior was just about all about Baroque House that matched what I had imagined it would be. With the parting of the doors — which did not creak when they were opened as I might have expected them to, I was greeted by Sonia herself who on stepping aside, brought the somewhat oddly and somewhat spartanly furnished space into view. A large chandelier made the space all the more curious, as did the hall’s well worn decorative floor tiles. The cement tiles had age written all over them and that added to mysterious quality of the place. Written in the tiles was not just age but also faded-glory, as it was safe to say that they were laid for an occupant or owner who was rather well off. This set the tone for the visit and I found myself eager to discover more! Joyfully, through Sonia’s Baroque House Secret Garden Tour, I was very soon able to learn much more.

Doors that are apparently a century old, beyond which lies the rather intriguing old world that is Baroque House.

Sonia would reveal was that the house was one of a pair (Nos. 29 and 31), both of which were constructed circa 1919 for a Fong Sien Long. Fong, as it turns out, was a member of the nearby Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. A seemingly wealthy property owner, Fong’s portfolio extended to sites around MacKenzie Road, Jalan Besar, Queen Street and Koek Road. The Rowell Road houses were, quite interestingly, designed by well-known Eurasian architect J B Westerhout. Architectural works in Westerhout’s name include what is known today as the Temasek Shophouse, and the Stamford Arts Centre.

No 29 and 31 Rowell Road, which were a pair built for Mr Fong Sien Leong that were designed by J B W

From what I have dug out on my own, it would appear that the house may have exchanged hands in 1931 when N B Westerhout — J B’s elder brother and a lawyer was reported to have purchased 29 Rowell Road at a mortgagee’s tender. What Sonia has found out was that more recently, the house — built originally as a residential shophouse and used as a low-cost residential unit at some point in time, was used as a commercial space by Cheng Fong Signcraft. After the sign craft shop moved out, the unit remained unoccupied for a period of about five years before Sonia chanced upon it. It would seem that it is their stories that have been “etched” in patterns of wear on the floor tiles. What seems remarkable to me is that the tiles have not only survived all these years, but were also — save for the wear, very much intact and that Sonia made a conscious effort to retain the character of the shophouse by keeping them.

Worn decorative floor tiles.

For Sonia, creating Baroque House has been a labour of love. It was in a quest to fulfil a life-long dream of owning a shophouse that she stumbled upon this well-worn house in Little India — or as I prefer to call it, the Village of Lime (Soonambu Kambam). Drawn by its character and the stories of past glory that the shophouse’s well worn fabric seemed to tell, it was love at first sight for Sonia. She set about purchasing the house and as she puts it, “nursed it back” to its current condition. Intent to keep the sense of use and history of the house, Sonia ignored suggestions to have much of the shophouse’s fabric replaced, renewing and replacing only what was needed such as termite infested timbers. She was thus able to keep the character of the house as she first saw it and retain it as a veritable treasure trove of past memories.

The reception hall.

Necessary repairs, carried out on the roof, would reveal what has become one of the highlights of Sonia’s secret garden tour, a hidden secret that the shophouse must have held through the course of its one-hundred and more years! The secret, a decorated party wall that appears to have served as an end gable wall, had been kept well hidden behind the house’s ceiling boards. In the motifs of the plasterwork there is also much mystery and begged the question of what it represented or why it was put there. What Sonia speculates is that the decorative plasterwork, and perhaps the floor tiles on the ground floor, may be an indication that what would have been a vacant plot of land before 29 and 31 Rowell Road was built was some kind of yard for the house next door — which rather curiously is numbered No 21.

Mysterious plasterwork that remained hidden for a hundred years.

Sonia’s choices in decorating the house is in keeping with the baroque in its name. Beside the chandelier, ornate furniture pieces that include an exquisite antique Chinese conjugal bed, artwork by local artist Jeremy Hiah, an antique baby grand piano, and somewhat out-of-place but yet in-place skateboard decks decorated with the likeness of Paul Gauguin’s art are some of items that Sonia has brought in, giving the house a quirky and curious quality.

The dining room with the best table.

With the discovery of the house’s interior complete (I did not have enough and actually had a second look later), it was time for an equally intriguing dining experience, and not to forget of course, some bourbon! This was served in the dining room (at the best table) with dessert served in the hall and was experience in itself! The ornately decorated dining room does put one in the mood for food and conversation and that started with the serving of the first course, with which foie gras and pumpkin soup served with fig cracker was paired with a Wild Turkey Rare Breed. Next was a Maker’s Mark 46 — which I instantly took to, served with a meaty but tender and delicious main course of wood-fired Wagyu brisket, pulled pork, spare ribs and smoked chicken. Dessert was interestingly a banana and marshmallow pudding, which I could douse with a bit of Angel’s Envy bourbon before doing a DIY flambé of the assembly.

The first course of the Bourbon Tasting Omakase dinner menu.

The main course with Makers’ Mark 46.

DIY time.

In all, the experience was really quite unique and one that, especially if you are looking for something quite unique and laced with discovery, I highly recommend. The experiences are not confined to the Secret Garden Tour, or to private dining and Baroque House offers an array of other activities such as Bourbon Tasting, Murder of a Millionnaire Mystery Night (a live-action game along the lines of jubensha) which comes with props, facilitators, 3-course dinner and a glass of Prosecco,  Scones at Baroque House (for tea), Wine and Cheese Club, Special Rum Tasting, Sake Tasting, Champagne Tasting, Little India Marketing and Cooking Tour, Chinese Heritage Kueh cooking class, Tea Tasting sessions (and I am told unique tasting sessions such as Indian Mango tasting during the season). The house is also available for rent. For more information, please visit www.baroquehaus.com.

 

one-north, a visual adventure: “Sandcrawler” (Eclipse) photowalk

Developed by JTC, one-north offers a visual spectacle of buildings of the future nestled in the midst of an abundance of greenery. As much as it is a place for work and for the fruition of ideas and innovation, one-north is also exciting and vibrant as a place to live and learn in, as well as a lifestyle destination.

one-north, a visual adventure is a series of photowalks that is presented by Jerome Lim in collaboration with JTC to uncover one-north’s architectural beauty and its vibrant spaces. The first in this series of photowalks took participants to GSK Asia House in one-north’s Vista precinct, one of its eight clusters set in the rolling landscape of the Buona Vista area.

Please click on the image to register.

Next in the series of the walks, participants will get an opportunity to visit Eclipse, a building in the Fusionopolis district of one-north that takes it form from the Sandcrawler, a mobile fortress used on the desert planet of Tatooine in the epic Star Wars sci-fi series of movies. Having originally been built for Lucasfilm to serve as its regional headquarters, the building is not only shaped like the Star Wars vehicle, but also has interiors that have also been inspired by the sci-fi film series.

The walk, which will start with a look at one-north’s Hidden in Plain Sight photo exhibition, will also provide participants with the opportunity to take in a stunning perspective of one-north and Eclipse from above through a visit to the sky garden at Fusionopolis One. Details of the visit are as follows:

Date : 9 July 2022
Time : 9 am to 10.45 am
Meeting Point: Atrium at Fusionopolis One

Registration is required as participants will be gaining access to non-public areas of Eclipse. As it would not be possible to make replacements, kindly register only if you are able to make the photowalk by filling the form in this link.

[Update: registration has closed as of 10:19 4 July 2022].

Do note that each registration only admits one (1) person. A unique registration is required for each participant for entry purposes. Any duplicate registrations in the same name shall be considered as one registration.

Registrations will close when the participant limit has been reached or on 6 July 2022 at 12 noon, whichever comes first.

For further information on the series, kindly visit: one-north, a visual adventure.

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one-north, a visual adventure is a series of photowalks that is presented by Jerome Lim in collaboration with JTC to uncover one-north’s architectural beauty and its vibrant spaces.

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Postings related to the previous one-north, a visual adventure photowalk to GSK Asia House:

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Lost places: the police station at Singapore’s “little garden suburb”

The area around the fifth milestone of Aukang / Serangoon was once described as a “little garden suburb”. That was back in the 1930s, around the time when the area gained a degree of prominence as a rural centre with the opening of RAF Seletar just three miles up Yio Chu Kang Road. The period was indeed a busy period in terms of the development of the area with the construction of several of the area’s landmarks. This included the building of a new police station, which replaced an older station, a Municipal market at Lim Tua Tow Road which could be thought of as being the predecessor of the 1950s built market that many in my generation would know, and the older Paya Lebar Methodist Church (and the girls school).

Paya Lebar Police Station, 1958
(Charles Ralph Saunders, posted by Stewart Saunders on On a Little Street in Singapore)

The police station traced its history back to the 1870s, having been set up along what was essentially on of the first cross-island roads that led to Serangoon Harbour (Kangkar). The station building that most will remember was a replacement that was built around 1929; its construction comings as part of a decade-long modernisation effort that was initiated by Inspector General Harold Fairburn to bring greater professionalism the Straits Settlements Police Force. That station was also one built as a police division headquarters or HQ (Paya Lebar Division was initially named “G” Division before becoming “F” Division), and thus bore the characteristics of many of the some of the larger out-of-town stations of the era and also several buildings within the Old Police Academy. As with the main stations coming up back then, Paya Lebar’s was provided with low-rise barrack blocks to house the rank and file. Over the yeats, a nursery and orchard were added, along with a fish pond and an aviary. Prior to the station’s decommissioning, the practice of housing police officers and their families was stopped and the barracks were converted for use as police offices.

The fifth mile area in 1967. The police station can be seen top centre on the left and the older Paya Lebar Methodist Church top centre on the right of Upper Serangoon Road (photo: National Archives of Singapore)

What was interesting about the “F” Division was that it was the second largest in Singapore, covering an area of some 139 square kilometres. This extended to a part of Singapore that included two airports (Paya Lebar International Airport and Seletar Air Base), the area of the former Naval Base where the UNHCR maintained a refugee camp, and the notorious Tai Seng, Ang Mo Kio and Chong Pang areas, which were hotbed of secret society activity and the officers at the station certainly had their hands full.

The area before the Forest Woods development came up, dominated by the Upper Serangoon Viaduct (the former barracks can be seen on the left)

The division also served a population of almost 450,000 by the time the station was decommissioned in August 1987 following its move to Ang Mo Kio. This coincided with the completion of a new division HQ station and Paya Lebar Division morphing into the current Ang Mo Kio Police Division. Rapid urbanisation and redevelopment, including the development of the huge Ang Mo Kio New Town, and the need for modern infrastructure, made the move necessary. The former station’s buildings were then used by the 3rd Division SCDF from 1988 until a new Divisional HQ and fire station was completed in 2005 at Yishun Industrial Park A.

The widening of Upper Serangoon Road in way of its junction with Upper Paya Lebar and Boundary Roads to accommodate a flyover, saw to the demolition of the former station. The other reminders of the station, in the form of its former accommodation blocks, used in the interim as educational premises, were only demolished in late 2016 following the sale of the plot in late 2015 through a tender exercise for private residential development. The site, which was bought for some SGD321 million is now where Forest Woods, a condominium complex, now stands.

Harold Fairburn

Modernising the Straits Settlements Police Force (SSPF)

The effort to modernise the police force was an initiative of Harold Fairburn, Inspector General of the Straits Settlements Police Force (SSPF) from 1925 to 1935. It came during a period of time when the SSPF faced great challenges in dealing with a wave of criminal activity. Singapore, then also known as “Sin-galore”, had the reputation of being the “Chicago of the East”. An improvement in policing methods, in recruitment of personnel, and in the methods of training was sorely needed. A massive building programme was also initiated to improve facilities, and living conditions of police personnel and their families and out of this programme, came the Police Training Depot (old Police Academy), stations such as the “Police Skyscraper” or Hill Street Police Station, Maxwell Road Police Station and Beach Road Police Station, were built. Stations also featured barrack accommodation. Accommodation facilities for also provided for the Sikh contingent at Pearls Hill.

one-north, a visual adventure

Developed by JTC as a business park and as a centre of innovation and research to carry Singapore into the future, one-north is by no means a typical industrial or business park. one-north is as exciting and vibrant as a lifestyle destination, as it is a cool place to work in. The master planning for the estate, carried out by the renowned architecture firm Zaha Hadid, laid out a blueprint that saw to one-north’s blend of new-age structures, postwar residential units and lush green spaces. Set on the rolling landscape of a former military quarter, the business park is where the future meets the past, and where the idea of work-live-play-learn has been best put into place.

one-north is a much a place to work in, as it is an exciting lifestyle destination (aerial photograph courtesy of JTC)

I will be organising a series of photowalks this July in collaboration with JTC, one-north, a visual adventure, which I hope will uncover some one-north’s architectural beauty, as well as bring to light its vibrant spaces. The photowalks will provide access into some really cool spaces to work, live and play in and start on 2 July 2022 with a visit to GSK Asia House, designed as the Asian headquarters for GSK — a major player in the global pharmaceutical and healthcare business.

GSK Asia House, where past meets the present

Details of the first one-north, a visual adventure photowalk:
Date : 2 July 2022
Time : 9 am to 10.45 am
Address: GSK Asia House 23 Rochester Park, Singapore 139234

A link for registration will be posted here on 27 June 2022.

Inside GSK Asia House

Staircase inside GSK Asia House

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one-north, a visual adventure is a series of photowalks that is presented by Jerome Lim in collaboration with JTC to uncover one-north’s architectural beauty and its vibrant spaces.

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