Singapore may be known as the “little red dot”, but we still have our cities, just not quite the cities you would think about.
In Singapore, cities are mostly used in the names of shopping centres, and these “cities” actually have quite the history.
Raffles City
Raffles City Shopping Centre.(Source/Raffles City)
One of Singapore’s best known shopping centres was actually home to Singapore’s oldest educational institution, Raffles Institution (RI).
In 1823, this plot of land at Bras Basah Road was designated for the construction of a school, and the building was completed in 1838.
Old Raffles Institution along Bras Basah Road. (Source/LubbyHistory)
The school remained there for over a century, and moved to Grange Road in March 1972. Construction of Raffles City began on the Bras Basah site in 1980, and was completed in 1986.
In 1990, RI moved from Grange Road to its current campus at Bishan, and the Grange Road campus is now the headquarters of the Ministry of Education’s Teachers Network.
Ngee Ann City Shopping Centre (Source/Asean News Network)
Affectionately known as “Taka”, an abbreviation of its anchor tenant, Takashimaya Department Store, this Orchard Road institution actually has an eerie past – a cemetery once stood on its grounds.
Yes, a cemetery.
The founders of Ngee Ann Kongsi, the organisation which owns Ngee Ann City, purchased the land from the Dutch East India Company for it to be used as a burial site. In fact, up till the 1950s, the parcel of land bounded by Orchard Road, Paterson Road and Grange Road was a burial site known as Tai Shan Ting.
A 10-storey Ngee Ann Building was later built on the site, but was demolished to make way for Ngee Ann City when the project was conceptualised in 1980.
Construction began in 1989, and Ngee Ann City was officially opened in September 1993.
Great World City
Ngee Ann City is not the only “city” that used to be a cemetery.
Great World City may be better known to the older generation as Great World Amusement Park, but back in the 1920s, it was a Chinese cemetery.
In the 1930s, it was turned into an amusement park, with rides, nightclubs and cinemas run by the Shaw brothers from Hong Kong.
However, the amusement park saw dark days during World War II, when it housed Australian prisoners-of-war.
The vibrancy of the park returned after the Japanese Occupation, and was at its most popular around the late 1950s. It welcomed international celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, who attended a movie premiere in 1957 at one of the cinemas in the amusement park.
Great World Amusement Park (Source/Rojak Boy)
By the 1960s, the park’s popularity dwindled, and was closed for good after being sold to a property developer in 1978.
Great World City Shopping Centre (Source/MsDemeanour)
Great World City opened in 1997, and the history of the park was brought to life again in 2011 movie It’s a Great, Great World, directed by Kelvin Tong.
City Square Mall
Another mall that used to be an amusement park is City Square Mall, located along Kitchener Road. In fact, it used to be one of Singapore’s most beloved – New World Amusement Park.
Opened in 1923, it drew crowds from as far as Malaysia. In the 1930s, Charlie Chaplin visited the amusement park, and was enthralled by the Chinese theatrical performances.
Like Great World Amusement Park, New World faced dark times during the Japanese Occupation. Renamed Shin Segal, or new world in Japanese, it became a gambling den and black market.
The park reopened after the Japanese surrender, but its popularity faded in the 1960s, and was closed in April 1987 after the site was sold to a property developer.
All that was left was the iconic entrance to the park, which fell into disrepair.
The entrance to New World Amusement Park in a state of disrepair. (Source/Wikipedia)
However, when the land was developed into City Square Mall, the gate was refurbished and became part of a park on the site.
Entrance to New World Amusement Park recreated at City Square Mall. (Source/Wikipedia)
The park was completed in 2009, and the gate now sits on the right entrance to the park, a reminder that it used to be a place that entertained people too, just in a different form.
Winston Chui
*The writer blogs at http://www.connexion.sg/