Masjid Abdul Gaffoor, or Abdul Gaffoor Mosque, is located at 41 Dunlop Street in the Little India conservation district. It was named after its founder Shaik Abdul Gaffoor bin Shaik Hyder. Completed in 1910, the mosque was built to replace the former Al-Abrar Mosque ...

Abdul Ghani Abdul Hamid (b. 13 April 1933, Singapore–d. 13 April 2014, Singapore) was an award-winning writer, poet and artist. Writing primarily in Malay, A. Ghani Hamid, as he was commonly known, had hundreds of poems, short stories, essays, newspaper articles ...

Some of the earliest mentions of Adelphi Hotel can be found in newspaper advertisements published in 1850. The proprietor of the hotel, C. Goymour, announced in the 7 May 1850 issue of The Straits Times newspaper that the hotel had moved to High Street. Subsequently, ...

Al-Abrar Mosque is located at 192 Telok Ayer Street, in the historical Chinatown area. It was established in 1827 for the Chulias – Tamil Muslims from south India, and was thus also known as Masjid Chulia or Chulia Mosque. The present mosque building was built ...

Alexander S. Abisheganaden (b. 31 January 1926, Singapore–) is among the most prominent guitarists in Singapore. A recipient of the Cultural Medallion for music in 1988, Abisheganaden has dedicated much of his life to teaching and popularising guitar playing. Although ...

Alexandra Hospital officially opened in July 1940 as the British Military Hospital to provide medical facilities for British military personnel stationed in Singapore. During the Battle of Singapore in February 1942, many of the hospital’s staff and patients were ...

Alfian bin Sa’at (b. 18 July 1977, Singapore–), commonly known as Alfian Sa’at, is a prominent English- and Malay-language playwright, poet and short-story writer in Singapore and Malaysia. Known for his politically charged works, Alfian is notable for being the ...

Built in 1909 by the Alkaff family, one of three prominent Arab property owners in Singapore at the time, Alkaff Arcade was designed by Donald McLeod Craik of architectural firm Swan and MacLaren. Known for its unique Moorish style, particularly its two onion domes ...

Alkaff Kampung Melayu Mosque, previously known as Alkaff Mosque, was originally located at Jalan Abdul Manan. It officially opened at its present location, 200 Bedok Reservoir Road, on 29 July 1995.

Alkaff Mansion is a 19th century colonial bungalow located on a hill at 10 Telok Blangah Green. Built in 1918 by a member of the prominent Alkaff family as a weekend house, it became known for hosting high society parties in the 1930s. The mansion once served ...

Amanda Heng Liang Ngim (born 1951, Singapore), better known simply as Amanda Heng, is a contemporary artist known for her collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to art. Heng’s works typically explore real-world social issues in the context of Singapore’s ...

Amber Mansions, located along the curve between Orchard Road and Penang Road, was built in the 1920s and was owned by Joseph Aaron Elias, a prominent Jewish businessman. It was one of Singapore's first shopping centres. It was demolished in 1984 to make way for ...

Amber Road is an “L”-shaped road that connects the junction of Haig Road and Mountbatten Road to Tanjong Katong Road. The road name was linked to the family of Joseph Aaron Elias, a successful Jewish businessman in early 20th-century Singapore. A popular landmark ...

Amoy Street in Chinatown begins at the junction of McCallum Street, and Telok Ayer Street and ends at Pekin Street. Developed in the 1830s, the street was probably named after the migrants who came from Amoy in China.

Ang Chwee Chai (b. 1910–d. 1995, Singapore) was one of Singapore’s leading pioneers in photography. He received the Honorary Excellence Distinction from the Swiss-based International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP) in 1963 and was awarded the Honorary Fellowship ...

Ang Mo Kio Community Library was the fifth full-time branch library built by the National Library in its plans to bring library services nearer to the homes of the people. Located at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6, it provides lending and reference library services and reference ...

The angklung is a musical instrument of Javanese origin, made of bamboo.

Anita Sarawak (b. 23 March 1952, Singapore–) is a professional entertainer known for her showmanship, powerful vocals and energetic performances. A versatile and talented artiste, Anita has performed in film, television and on stage. She is one of the first Asian ...

Anson Road is located in the Tanjong Pagar area and begins near a carpark around Keppel Road, then bifurcates into two roads – one merges into Keppel Road while the other proceeds as a one-way road connecting to the junction of Robinson Road and Maxwell Road. It ...

Anthony Then (b. 16 June 1944, Singapore–d. 16 December 1995, Singapore), also known as Tony, was a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher who was instrumental in the professionalisation of dance in Singapore. Together with Goh Soo Khim, he founded the Singapore ...

The Armenian Apostolic Church of St Gregory the Illuminator is located at 60 Hill Street. Completed by March 1836, the Armenian Church is the oldest surviving church building in Singapore. It was designed and built by colonial architect G. D. Coleman in 1835, with ...

Armenian Street begins at the junction of Coleman Street and Stamford Road and ends at the point where Canning Rise and Coleman Street meet. The street has one bylane, Loke Yew Street, which connects Armenian Street to Hill Street. Named after the Armenian Church ...

Formal art and music education programmes in Singapore were established by the British colonial government in the 1920s and ’30s respectively. Private Chinese-medium schools also offered art education through courses run by professional artists. After Singapore ...

Folk singer-songwriter Art Fazil is often regarded as Singapore’s Bob Dylan. Like Dylan, he is known for singing socially conscious songs accompanied by the acoustic guitar and harmonica. Art writes and sings both Malay and English songs, and has written many songs ...

Art in Transit is a programme in which artworks are seamlessly integrated within the environs of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations. Approved by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in 1997, the programme was first unveiled to the public in 2003.

The Arts Theatre of Singapore (新加坡艺术剧场) is a Chinese-language theatre company whose beginnings can be traced to 1955 when it was established as the Singapore Amateur Players (SAP). In 1995, the SAP registered itself as a non-profit organisation, switched its focus ...

The ArtScience Museum is a key permanent attraction of the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort located at Bayfront Avenue. The largest private museum in Singapore, it focuses on the connections between art and science through hi-tech exhibits that push disciplinary ...

Audiovisual Services were first introduced in December 1982 when the Arts Resource Centre (ARC) was established in the Reference Services Division at the National Library at 91, Stamford Road. The service was made possible by funds provided by the Cultural Foundation. ...

Located in the central region of Singapore, Balestier refers to the area around Balestier Road that runs between Thomson and Serangoon roads. Balestier was first developed as a sugarcane plantation in the mid-19th century by American Joseph Balestier. Wealthy individuals ...

Battery Road is located in the central business district, stretching from Fullerton Square to the junction of Bonham Street and Chulia Street. One of the earliest roads in Singapore, many warehouses were set up on Battery Road by the Singapore River after it was ...

Beach Road stretches from the junction where it meets Crawford Street and Republic Avenue to the junction where it meets Stamford Road. It was historically designated a part of the European Town. Once lined with beautiful villas, Beach Road today marks the boundary ...

The former Beach Road military camp is located opposite Raffles Hotel, along Beach Road. It began as the headquarters of the Singapore Volunteer Corps (SVC) in the 1930s and later doubled up as the headquarters of the Singapore Military Forces (SMF), which was ...

The Beach Road Police Station was built by the colonial government in the early 1930s. Part of the expansion plans of the local police force during that period, the station was one of many built in the city area and it had remained operational until 2001. The colonial-style ...

Beaulieu House is located at 117 Beaulieu Road, within the grounds of what is now Sembawang Park. Built sometime in the 1910s, the house was believed to have been owned by a Jewish family by the name of David, before the building and the surrounding land were acquired ...

Bedok Public Library, located at 21 Bedok North Street 1, is the sixth branch library built by the National Library Board (NLB). It was known as Bedok Community Library until 2008. Officially opened on 28 September 1985 by S. Jayakumar, then minister for home affairs, ...

Bellevue Hotel, or Hotel Bellevue, was one of the renowned hotels in early Singapore and was featured in a few guidebooks published during the early 20th century.

Located off Serangoon Road, Bendemeer House was formerly called the House of Whampoa or Whampoa House. It was a mansion designed and built in 1840 by Hoo Ah Kay (better known as Whampoa), a Kapitan China (“leader of the Chinese people”) of Singapore. In 1964, the ...

The Benjamin Sheares Bridge is a 1.8-kilometre-long stretch of highway that forms part of the East Coast Parkway, linking the Keppel Road/Shenton Way junction to Marina Centre. Named in honour of the second president of Singapore Benjamin Sheares, the bridge spans ...

Bidadari Cemetery was located at the base of Mount Vernon and bounded by Bartley Road and Upper Serangoon Road. It served the Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sinhalese communities. Bidadari was the main Christian cemetery of Singapore from its official opening in ...

Boat Quay, a river embankment on the south bank of the Singapore River, is one of the oldest and most historical areas in Singapore’s central region. For more than 150 years, warehouses (or godowns) thriving with economic activity lined the banks of north and south ...

Boey Kim Cheng (b. 1965, Singapore–) is widely regarded as one of the most promising Singapore poets to emerge in the 1990s. Boey has published four collections of poetry. Three of his works, Somewhere-bound, Another Place and Days of No Name, have won awards. ...

Boon Tat Street is a one-way street located in the Central Business District (CBD). It connects Amoy Street to the junction of Shenton Way and Raffles Quay. The street was named in 1945 after Ong Boon Tat (b. 1888–d. 1941), a Singapore-born businessman and former ...

The British Military Hospital (BMH) was established in 1938 by the British Armed Forces, serving as the principal hospital for the British in the Far East during World War II. At the time of its opening, it was considered “the most up-to-date and one of the largest ...

Brother Joseph McNally (b. 10 August 1923, County Mayo, Ireland–d. 27 August 2002, Ballintubber, County Mayo, Ireland), was a brother from the Catholic La Salle Christian Brotherhood who dedicated 37 years of his life to teaching in Singapore and Malaysia. He later ...

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum (BTRTM) is a religious and cultural institution located in Chinatown, which houses a relic said to be a tooth from Buddha. The BTRTM was built for the veneration of the relic, to promote Buddhist culture and education and ...

Bugis Junction is a mixed development comprising a shopping complex, an office tower and a hotel. It incorporated three former streets on its site into its shopping complex: Malabar, Malay and Hylam streets. These streets are the first in Singapore to be air-conditioned, ...

Bukit Batok Public Library is located at 1 Bukit Batok Central Link, #03-01 West Mall. Known as Bukit Batok Community Library until 2008, this public library is the fifth library under the National Library Board that is located inside a shopping mall. The library ...

Bukit Merah Community Library, located at Bukit Merah Central, Singapore, was the fourth full-time Branch Library built by the National Library in its decentralised plan to bring library services nearer to people's homes. The Library is the first amongst the Branch ...

The Capitol Theatre, located at the junction of Stamford Road and North Bridge Road, opened in 1930 and was considered one of the finest cinemas of that era. Originally owned by the Namazie family, Capitol Theatre, along with the four-storey adjoining building ...

Cathay Building, located at the foot of Mount Sophia in the Dhoby Ghaut area, was once the tallest building in Singapore. It used to house the Cathay cinema, Cathay Hotel and Cathay Restaurant. The cinema was opened in 1939 in the front building, while the main ...

Formed in 1953, Cathay-Keris Studio was one of two key film producers (the other being Shaw Brothers) during the peak of filmmaking in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s. The studio produced many black-and-white Malay films, and later also had co-productions with ...

The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd stands at the junction of Queen Street and Bras Basah Road. Built between 1843 and 1847, it is the oldest surviving Catholic church in Singapore. The Cathedral was gazetted as a national monument on 28 June 1973.

CatholicNews is the official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore. It is a fortnightly newsletter that covers local parish news, news from the Vatican and Catholic parishes around the world, as well as articles on contemporary religious issues. ...

The Cenotaph, located at Esplanade Park along Connaught Drive, is a war memorial which commemorates the sacrifice of men who perished during World War I and II. It was first unveiled on 31 March 1922 by the Prince of Wales (later Duke of Windsor and King Edward ...

Opened on 12 November 1960, the Central Community Library was located in the former National Library Building on Stamford Road. It used to be called the Central Lending Library until 1 September 1995 when the National Library became a statutory board and it was ...

The Central Fire Station, also known as the Hill Street Fire Station, is Singapore’s oldest surviving fire station. Completed in 1909, the distinctive red-and-white brick building was gazetted as a national monument by the Preservation of Monuments Board on 18 ...

The Central Sikh Temple, or Central Sikh Gurdwara as it is known to the Sikhs, is a place of worship for the Sikh community in Singapore. Established in 1912, it was previously known as the Queen Street Gurdwara Sahib, due to its former location on Queen Street. ...

The Ceylon Sports Club at 101 Balestier Road was established in 1928. It was reconstituted from the Lanka Union, which was founded by a group of Ceylonese students in 1920. The club’s main aim was to unite Ceylonese in Singapore and promote sports among them. Cricket ...

Change Alley is a lane located in the downtown core of the central region. Stretching from Raffles Place to Collyer Quay, Change Alley was the site of a bazaar that became famed for the diversity of goods available at bargain prices and its numerous money changers. ...

Changi Airport, located at the eastern edge of Singapore, was officially opened on 29 December 1981. It was built mainly on reclaimed land, near where the Changi airbase once stood during World War II.

Located in the eastern part of Singapore, Changi Naval Base is one of two bases operated by the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), the other being Tuas Naval Base. Built on reclaimed land, the naval facility has a basin size of 128 ha and a total area of 86 ha encompassing ...

Completed in 1936, Changi Prison (historically also referred to as “Changi Gaol/Jail”) was the last prison built by the British colonial government. It is known for being an internment camp during the Second World War. The original premises were demolished to make ...

Chen Chong Swee (b. 6 November 1910, Chenghai County, Guangdong Province, China—d. 15 February 1985, Singapore), also known as Chen Kai, was a painter, educator, writer and critic. Chen belonged to the pioneering group of artists of the Nanyang style. His contemporaries ...

Chen Jen Hao (b. 1908, Fuzhou, Fujian, China–d. 28 October 1976, Singapore) was a pioneer artist and art educator. Best known for his Chinese calligraphy, Chen was also one of the early art teachers at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), and helped to lay ...

Chen Wen Hsi (b. 9 September 1906, Guangdong, China–d. 17 December 1991, Singapore) was one of Singapore’s pioneer artists. A prolific painter who worked in a range of styles, Chen won acclaim for combining Western art with Chinese brush strokes in his paintings. ...

Cheng San Public Library is located in Hougang. It is the third library of the National Library Board (NLB) to be located in a shopping mall, and the first to acquire and display works by local artists in an effort to promote the local arts scene. It was officially ...

Cheo Chai-Hiang (b. 1946, Singapore–) is an artist who pioneered Singapore's modern art scene. In 1975, he famously wrote that local art during that period was dominated by the production of “beautiful pictures” that were lacking in conceptual content. He perceived ...

Chesed-El Synagogue, located at Oxley Rise, is one of two synagogues currently in use in Singapore. It was designed by Regent Alfred John Bidwell of Swan & Maclaren, and completed in 1905. Its name, Chesed-El, means “bountiful mercy and goodness of God”. The building ...

Chew Kok Chang 周国灿 (b. 1934, Guangdong, China–), otherwise known as Zhou Can (周粲), or other pen names such as Qiu Ling 丘陵, Yu Yin 郁因, Lin Zhong Yue 林中月, Zhou Zhi Xian 周志翔, and Ai Jia 艾佳, is a well-known Chinese author in Singapore. He is a versatile writer, whose ...

Chia Hwee Pheng (b. 1957, Singapore–) is an accomplished Chinese poet and novelist who writes under the pseudonym of Xi Ni Er. Chia has won many major literary awards, including the Golden Lion Literary Award and the National Book Development Council of Singapore’s ...

Chia Keng Prison was a medium-security prison located on Yio Chu Kang Road. It housed prisoners who were serving their second stage of detention under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act.

CHIJMES was originally known as the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ), which was a premier girls’ school established in 1854 by an order of French Catholic nuns. It was originally located within a self-contained city block bound by Victoria Street, Bras Basah ...

Chin Mee Chin Confectionery, located at 204 East Coast Road, is a landmark kopitiam (Hokkien for coffee shop) in Katong. It is popular for its kaya, a kind of custard jam. A contemporary of Hock Ann Coffeeshop and the Red House Bakery, the confectionery delights ...

Chinese street storytelling was a popular form of entertainment in Singapore during the colonial period and up till the 1960s. The storytellers set up makeshift premises in various locations in the evening, and read aloud in dialect to paying customers seated around ...

The history of the Chinese Swimming Club on Amber Road began in 1905 as an informal gathering of a small group of swimming enthusiasts. The club is known for having produced a number of national swimmers.

Choa Chu Kang Public Library is located in Lot One Shoppers’ Mall in Choa Chu Kang. Opened on 22 February 1997, it is the second library under the National Library Board to be housed in a shopping centre. It serves residents in Choa Chu Kang, Yew Tee, Teck Whye, ...

Chomp Chomp Food Centre, originally known as Serangoon Garden Food Centre, is a landmark in Serangoon Gardens estate because of the good food offered there.

Chong Fah Cheong (b. 20 January 1946, Singapore–) is a self-taught sculptor who is locally and internationally recognised for his iconic sculptures that reflect his whimsical disposition. Considered one of Singapore’s pioneer sculptors, Chong currently resides ...

Chong Tze Chien, 张子健 (b. 1974, Singapore–) is a talented and versatile playwright. One of Singapore’s brightest playwrights, Chong has been compared to heavyweights such as Arthur Miller and Kuo Pao Kun by Casey Lim, the former associate artistic director of TheatreWorks. ...

Choo Hwee Lim (b. 28 September 1931, Singapore–d. 12 May 2008, Singapore) was an important figure in the development of choral music and opera in Singapore. An accomplished baritone singer and music teacher, Choo spotted, encouraged and nurtured once-unknown music ...

Christopher Henry Rothwell Allen (b. 1933, Bombay, India–d. 2004, United Kingdom), more popularly known as Christopher Allen or Chris Allen, was an amateur actor and director who came to Singapore in 1954. He was a prominent member of the expatriate theatre company, ...

Chua Mia Tee (b. 25 November 1931, Shantou, Guangdong, China–) is one of Singapore’s foremost realist painters. He is best known for his oil paintings that depict Singapore’s vanishing traditional urban landscape. He is also a much sought-after portrait artist ...

Chulia Street is located in the central region of Singapore, within the downtown core. Its former name, Kling Street, was regarded as derogatory, hence it was renamed Chulia Street on 1 January 1922, after the Chulias who migrated to Singapore from the Coromandel ...

The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes is located at 50 Ophir Road, near Serangoon Road. It was built between 1886 and 1888 by Father Joachim Alexander Marie Meneuvrier, and named after the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes located in Lourdes, France. Originally built to ...

The Church of Saints Peter & Paul is located at 225A Queen Street. Built in 1870, the church is historically associated with the growth of the Chinese Catholic community in Singapore. The church building was gazetted a national monument in 2003.

The Church of St Teresa is located at 510 Kampong Bahru Road. It was built on the eastern slope of Bukit Purmei (in Malay, “beautiful hill”). Established in 1929, it is the only Catholic church featuring Romano-Byzantine architecture, which is recognised by the ...

The Church of the Holy Family, which is located at the junction of East Coast and Chapel roads in Katong, has been a centre of activity for the Roman Catholic community in the East Coast area since it was built in 1932. The church's beginnings were humble, starting ...

The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commonly known as just the Church of the Nativity, is a Catholic church located at 1259 Upper Serangoon Road. In its beginnings during the 19th century, the church catered to the Teochew Catholic community, ...

The Civilian War Memorial is a monument dedicated to civilians who perished during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore (1942–45). It is located on a parkland, along Beach Road, opposite Raffles City. The memorial’s structure comprises four tapering columns of ...

Claire Tham Li Mei (b. 1967, Singapore–) is the author of several award-winning short story collections and two full-length novels, Skimming (1999) and The Inlet (2013). She has also contributed literary reviews for The Straits Times newspaper. Previously a legal ...

Command House is located at 17 Kheam Hock Road. Built circa 1937 to 1938, it was originally known as Flagstaff House. Prior to the British withdrawal from Singapore in 1971, the building was the official residence of the British General Officer Commanding (GOC) ...

The Communicable Disease Centre is the national centre for the management of communicable and infectious diseases. It is also one of Singapore’s oldest hospitals. It began in 1907 as a quarantine camp for patients with infectious diseases. Between 1907 and 1931, ...

Community Children’s Libraries (CCLs), targeted at children aged 10 and under, were located at the void decks of Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates. These libraries were set up jointly in 1993 by the People’s Action Party Community Foundation (PCF) and ...

Community Libraries are administered by the National Library Board to provide library services in the HDB heartland and town centres of Singapore. All the community libraries are situated close to the homes and offices of people so as to help them avail its services ...

Connell House was a sailors’ haven and used to be located at 1 Anson Road. It had co-located with the Missions to Seamen (Singapore branch), a London-based non-profit organisation established in 1856, to provide quality shelter and services to sailors who called ...

Considered one of Singapore’s foremost English artistes, singer-songwriter Corrinne May has enjoyed critical and popular success in Singapore and regionally. As at 2014, she has released five albums.

The Cultural Medallion honours individuals who have achieved excellence in the fields of literary arts, performing arts, visual arts and film, and contributed to Singapore’s cultural environment. The award is conferred by the president of Singapore and administered ...

Cyril Wong Yit Mun (b. 1977, Singapore–) is an award-winning poet and writer. He clinched the National Arts Council’s (NAC) Young Artist Award in 2005 and is a two-time winner of the Singapore Literature Prize (2006; joint winner for 2016) for English poetry. Wong ...

The Dalhousie Obelisk commemorates the visit of then governor-general of India (1848–1856), the Marquis of Dalhousie, James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, to Singapore between 17 and 19 February 1850. Singapore, as part of the Straits Settlements, was administered under ...

Dalhousie Pier, also known as Dalhousie Ghaut, was a 19th-century jetty located near the mouth of the Singapore River, in the vicinity of the former Empress Place Building (now Asian Civilisations Museum). The pier was named after the Marquis of Dalhousie, James ...

Dave Chua Hak Lien (b. 1970, Malaysia –), author of the novel Gone Case, was the recipient of the Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award in 1996. He had been the joint winner of the SPH-NAC (Singapore Press Holdings-National Arts Council) Golden Point Award ...

The David Elias Building, completed in 1928, is situated at the junction of Short Street and Middle Road. The building features various Stars of David in bas-relief on its facade. The words “David Elias Buildings” and the year of its completion are inscribed beneath ...

David Tay Poey Cher (b. 9 July 1945, Singapore–) is one of the most influential figures in the Singapore photography scene. He was the first Asian to be elected to the Directory Board of the International Federation of Photographic Art. From 1990 to 2013, Tay served ...

Dempsey Road, also known as Dempsey Hill or Tanglin Village, is located across from the Singapore Botanic Gardens, near the Embassy of the United States. It was originally the site of a nutmeg plantation that later became Tanglin Barracks for British troops. The ...

Diana Chua Be Ie (b. 3 November 1963, Singapore–) is an art educator and artist whose focus was in printmaking. Her works are usually social commentaries about modern life. An outstanding female artist of the 1980s and 1990s, she made headlines together with other ...

Dikir barat is a style of Malay choral singing popular in Singapore and Malaysia. With a flexible format that incorporates singing, poetry, movement and music, dikir barat is a form of entertainment that cuts across various segments of society.

Dondang sayang is a traditional poetic art form mainly associated with the Malay and Peranakan (Straits Chinese) communities in Singapore and Malaysia. The term is derived from the Malay words dondang or dendang, meaning “to sing”, and sayang, which encompasses ...

Drama festival was first launched in August 1978 as part of goverment initiatives to invigorate the local arts scene.

Dream Academy Productions (DAP) is a theatre production company established by local actress and comedian Selena Tan in 2000. The company is well known for its comedic productions featuring music and satire, such as the popular Dim Sum Dollies and Broadway Beng. ...

Dunearn Road Hostels (DRH) was opened in 1952 to provide accommodation for overseas undergraduates of the University of Malaya. Popularly known as DRH, it comprised 31 semi-detached five-room houses at College Green along Dunearn Road. After some 29 years, the ...

There are two black eagles made of cast iron that stand at the entrance of the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) at 45 Armenian Street. The eagles were part of Tao Nan School, which had occupied the premises between 1910 and 1982. The eagle statues were first captured ...

Eleanor Wong Siew Yin (b. 6 February 1962, Singapore–) is a lawyer and playwright. She is best known for her trilogy of plays Invitation to Treat (2003), which explores the themes of lesbianism, female sexuality and gender politics in Singapore. Two of the plays ...

The “elephant statue” is a bronze monument located at the High Street entrance of the Old Parliament House (formerly known as the Old Court House, now The Arts House) in the Downtown Core of Singapore’s Central Region. It was a gift from Thailand’s King Chulalongkorn ...

Elgin Bridge spans the Singapore River and joins North Bridge Road to South Bridge Road. Built in 1862, the bridge was named after Lord James Bruce Elgin, the Governor-General of India (1862–1863) and eighth Earl of Elgin. The bridge functioned until January 1927, ...

Ellenborough Market, market and trading centre in Ellenborough Street by the Singapore River, located in the Central Region of Singapore. It was named after Ellenborough, Lord, the Governor-General of India (1841-1844). The original Ellenborough Market was first ...

Emma Yong Oi-Mun (b. 20 January 1975, Malaysia–d. 2 May 2012, Singapore) was a well-loved stage performer. The versatile bilingual actress performed in a wide range of shows: from pantomimes and comedies to dramas and musicals to experimental theatre. She was a ...

Eng Tow (b. 1 October 1947, Singapore–) has been lauded as one of Singapore’s most outstanding local female artists of the 1980s. She began her career as a tapestry artist working with different textiles but later ventured into other art forms such as printmaking ...

Eric Khoo Kim Hai (b. 27 March 1965, Singapore–), better known simply as Eric Khoo, is a local filmmaker who has been credited with jumpstarting the Singapore film industry in the mid-1990s. Khoo, who helms local movie companies Zhao Wei Films and Gorylah Pictures, ...

The Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay is an arts centre built on reclaimed land in the Marina Bay area. It features a 1,600-seat concert hall, a 2,000-seat theatre and other smaller performing arts venues. The Esplanade also contains art installation spaces, a library, ...

In support of Singapore’s educational and cultural development, part-time branch libraries were started by the Raffles Library in the 1950s, with the first of these set up at Upper Serangoon in 1953. Stocked with books for juniors and adults, such as dictionaries, ...

Felix Cheong Seng Fei (b. 1965, Singapore–) is a poet and recipient of the National Arts Council Young Artist Award for Literature in 2000. He has published three volumes of poetry: Temptation and Other Poems (1998), I Watch the Stars Go Out (1999) and Broken by ...

Staged on 10 August 1988, Kuo Pao Kun’s Mama Looking for Her Cat was Singapore’s first multilingual play. Performed by the Practice Theatre Ensemble, the play focuses on the theme of Singapore’s multiracial, multicultural and multilingual society, brought out by ...

Officially opened on 24 December 1987 by then Second Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong, Singapore’s first satellite self-dialysis centre is located in the Toa Payoh housing estate. Called the Singapore Airlines-NKF Dialysis Centre, it was a major initiative ...

Flint Street stretches from Battery Road to Boat Quay and is flanked on each side by the Bank of China building and Malayan Banking building. It was named after Captain William Flint, the brother-in-law of Sir Stamford Raffles. Upon his arrival in April 1820, he ...

Foo Tee Jun (b. 15 December 1935, Singapore–) is a highly regarded and artistically distinguished salon photographer. His involvement with professional photography began in 1963. Over the years, Foo perfected his skills and experimented with various darkroom techniques ...

Fook Tet Soo Khek Temple, better known as Wang Hai Da Bo Gong Miao, is located at the foot of Mount Palmer at Palmer Road (off Shenton Way). It is one of the earliest Chinese temples and the oldest Hakka institution established in Singapore.

Ford Malaya was founded in 1926 to directly control Ford operations in Malaya. It set up a full-fledged assembly plant in Bukit Timah in 1941. The plant became famous not only because it was the first in the region, but also because it was the venue where the British ...

In 1874, the Singapore Library became a public library and, with the functions of the museum added to it, was renamed Raffles Library and Museum. The government received formal ownership of the Singapore Library collections on 1 July 1874. The Raffles Library and ...

The former Asia Insurance Building is located at 2 Finlayson Green. With 18 storeys rising above a double-volume ground floor, it was once the tallest building in Southeast Asia at a height of 270 ft (82 m). Designed by one of Singapore’s pioneer architects, Ng ...

Located in the heart of the civic district, the former City Hall served as an important government office in Singapore. The impressive building bears witness to Singapore’s colonial past and the Japanese Occupation (1942–45) as well as several milestones on its ...

The former Empress Place Building is one of the architectural treasures in the Empress Place civic area overlooking the Singapore River. It was completed in 1867 and had originally been planned to be used as a courthouse but instead functioned as government offices ...

The Former Ford Factory, located at 351 Upper Bukit Timah Road, was the site where British forces officially surrendered Singapore to the Japanese on 15 February 1942 during World War II. In 2004, the site was handed over to the National Archives of Singapore (NAS). ...

The Singapore Armed Forces Non-Commissioned Officers (SAF NCO) Club was set up in 1974 to strengthen the bonds among members of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). It was located in a two-storey clubhouse along Beach Road. This building, constructed between 1951 ...

Located on Guillemard Road, the former Singapore Badminton Hall was built to host the 1952 Thomas Cup, first held in England in 1949 and won by the Malayan team. Although the games did not eventually take place in the building, subsequent Thomas Cup matches in ...

Bound by Queen Street, Bras Basah Road and Waterloo Street, the former building of the boys’ school, St Joseph’s Institution (SJI), was completed in 1867. The school premises comprised a cluster of blocks built between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, featuring ...

The former Sun Yat Sen Villa at 12 Tai Gin Road, off Balestier Road, was once the Southeast Asian headquarters for Sun Yat Sen’s revolutionary activities that led to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China. The villa was ...

The former Supreme Court building was the seat of Singapore’s highest court from 1939 to 2005. It was located at St Andrew’s Road in an area spanning 5,110 sq m. Conceptualised by Frank Dorrington Ward, it was the last classical building constructed in Singapore ...

The former Thong Chai Medical Institution is also known as the old Thong Chai Building. Located at 50 Eu Tong Sen Street (formerly 3 Wayang Street), it was gazetted as a national monument on 28 June 1973. It was one of the first eight buildings in Singapore to ...

Located at 51 Canning Rise, the Fort Canning Bunker (now known as The Battlebox) was built between 1936 and 1941 to serve as a command centre for the Malaya Command, which oversaw British military operations in Malaya during World War II. On 15 February 1942, it ...

Fort Canning Hill, previously known as Bukit Larangan and Government Hill, is 156 ft high and located at the junction of Canning Rise and Fort Canning Road. It has been a landmark since Singapore’s earliest recorded history. In the 14th century, it was likely the ...

Fort Road, in the eastern part of Singapore connects Mountbatten Road to the East Coast Parkway, and connects to this expressway at the Tanjong Rhu Flyover. The road was named in the 1920s after the now demolished Fort Tanjong Katong. On the grounds of the fort ...

Fort Siloso, located on the northwestern tip of Sentosa Island, was built in the 1880s on Mount Siloso to aid in protecting the port, particularly the western entrance to Keppel Harbour and the coal stocked nearby. It was part of Singapore’s coastal defence along ...

Frontier Danceland is a local non-profit contemporary dance company founded by Low Mei Yoke and Tan Chong Poh in July 1991. The main focus of the company’s repertoire of original works is on fusing Western dance techniques with Asian aesthetics and culture. These ...

Located on Telok Ayer Street, Fuk Tak Chi Temple is one of the oldest Chinese temples in Singapore. Devoted to the deity Tua Pek Kong, it was built in the 1820s by the Hakka and Cantonese communities. It was converted into a museum in 1998.

The former Fullerton Building was one of the most important landmarks in the Civic District. The building is located at 1 Fullerton Square in the Downtown Core of the Central Region. It sits partially on the site of the former Fort Fullerton. After Fort Fullerton ...

Fullerton Square, located in the Downtown Core of the Central Region, was named in honour of Robert Fullerton, the first governor of the Straits Settlements who served from 1826 to 1830. The former site of one of Singapore’s earliest fortifications, Fullerton Square ...

Getai (歌台), which literally means “song stage” in Chinese, is believed to have originated during the Japanese Occupation at the New World Amusement Park. It became a popular form of mass entertainment in the 1950s with getai established at various amusement parks. ...

Geylang East Community Library (known as Geylang East Public Library from 2008) was the seventh branch library opened by the National Library Board (NLB). This standalone library was officially unveiled on 26 July 1988.

Goh Beng Kwan (b. 26 December 1937, Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia–) is a pioneer Singapore modern artist known for his distinctive approach to abstraction and collage, as seen from his artworks. For his contributions to the local art scene, Goh was awarded the Cultural ...

Goh Ee Choo (b. 12 December 1962, Singapore–) is an established Singaporean contemporary artist who uses multiple mediums in his work. He has won many awards, among them the Jurors’ Choice in the Philip Morris Singapore Art Awards, and the Honourable Mention at ...

Goh Eng Wah (b. 1923, Muar, Johor, Malaysia–d. 5 September 2015, Singapore) was one of the pioneers of Singapore's film industry. He founded Eng Wah Organisation (now known as Eng Wah Global) in 1946, a major film distributor and cinema operator in Singapore specialising ...

Goh Lay Kuan (b. 1939, Sumatra, Indonesia–) is a pioneer dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. She has nurtured generations of young artists, and is an advocate of arts education for the young and the physically handicapped. She co-founded the Singapore Performance ...

Goh Poh Seng (b. 1936, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya–d.10 January 2010, Vancouver, Canada) was a physician, poet, laureate, award-winning writer and entrepreneur. He played an active role in the arts scene of post-independence Singapore. Goh was a pioneer of local English ...

Golden Mile Complex is a residential and commercial development, situated between Nicoll Highway and Beach Road. Formerly known as Woh Hup Complex, it was developed as part of the Urban Renewal Department’s goal to redevelop Singapore’s central area in the 1960s. ...

Goodwood Park Hotel is a luxury heritage hotel located at 22 Scotts Road, off Orchard Road. Built in 1900, the building was originally the Teutonia Club for the expatriate German community in Singapore. The tower block of the building was gazetted as a national ...

Also known as Southern Hotel or Nam Tin, the Great Southern Hotel commenced operations in 1927. Occupying a building named Nam Tin at the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Cross Street, it was the first Chinese hotel in Singapore with a lift. Nam Tin was the tallest ...

The Gunong Sayang Association, or Persatuan Gunong Sayang in Malay, is a Peranakan (Straits Chinese) social club that aims to promote Peranakan performing arts. It has played an instrumental role in preserving the Peranakan version of dondang sayang, the singing ...

Gurdwara Sahib Silat Road (Silat Road Sikh Temple) is a Sikh temple located on Jalan Bukit Merah. It houses the samadh (Punjabi for “tombstone”) of Bhai Maharaj Singh, the Sikh freedom fighter, after it was brought to the gurdwara from the Singapore General Hospital ...

Hajjah Fatimah Sulaiman was a tradeswoman and philanthropist from Malacca who settled in Singapore. As she married a Bugis prince from the Celebes (present-day Sulawesi), she was also known as the Sultana of Gowa, Celebes. Grateful that her life was spared when ...

Hajjah Fatimah Mosque is located along Beach Road in the historic Kampong Glam area. Built between 1845 and 1846, the mosque was named after Hajjah Fatimah, a wealthy businesswoman. It is one of the few mosques in Singapore to be named after a female benefactor. ...

Han Lao Da (b. 22 October 1947, Singapore–), original name Han Yong Yuan, is a Mandarin playwright, theatre director and xiangsheng (or crosstalk, which is a traditional Chinese comedic performance featuring witty dialogue) pioneer who has worked in the local Mandarin ...

Haresh Sharma (b. 1965, Singapore–) is the resident playwright of The Necessary Stage, Singapore. A critically-acclaimed playwright known for his socially-conscious plays, he has written more than 100 plays that have been staged in Singapore and abroad, such as ...

Havelock Road is a street located in the Central Region of Singapore. It starts where Kim Seng Road meets Outram Road, runs along and is almost parallel to the Singapore River, and stretches until Eu Tong Sen Street before it opens into Upper Pickering Street. ...

The Helix, commonly referred to as Helix Bridge, is the longest pedestrian bridge in Singapore. Opened in 2010, the bridge has a distinctive double helix structure modelled on the DNA structure. It overlooks Marina Bay, forming a curve next to the vehicular Bayfront ...

Ho Ho Ying (b. 23 January 1936, Wenchang, Hainan, China–) is a prominent pioneer of modern art in Singapore and an influential art critic. His works have been exhibited in many countries, including Australia, China, France, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, ...

Ho Kah Leong (b. 21 September 1937, Singapore -) a Cantonese, who established his name as both a politician and an artist. The former Member of Parliament of Jurong Constituency also served as Parliamentary Secretary in various ministries. He is an acclaimed amateur ...

Hock Ann Coffeeshop, a.k.a. Hock Ann Eating House, was located at 125–127 East Coast Road. This eating house is synonymous with the famous tau kwa pau stall, Say Seng Tau Kwa Pau, which was co-occupying the coffee shop.

Hokien Street (sometimes spelt “Hokkien Street”) is a one-way street connecting China Street with South Bridge Road. After crossing South Bridge Road, it becomes Upper Hokien Street and ends near New Bridge Road. Hokien Street is named after the large number of ...

Hong San See at 31 Mohamed Sultan Road was built between 1908 and 1913. It was gazetted as a national monument on 10 November 1978. The temple was originally located on Tras Street in Tanjong Pagar when it was first established in 1829. However, that structure ...

Opened by Shaw Organisation in 1960, Hoover Theatre was located at 360 Balestier Road, at the junction of Jalan Ampas and Balestier Road. It was renamed Hoover Live Theatre and, subsequently, New Hoover Cinema. In 1996, it closed down to make way for the construction ...

Horsburgh Lighthouse, located at the eastern entrance to the Singapore Straits, is the oldest lighthouse in Singapore waters and the first in Southeast Asia to be built in granite masonry. It is situated on Pedra Branca, an island 54 km off the mainland of Singapore. ...

Hossan Leong (b. 1969, Singapore–) is an actor, comedian, director, television and radio host, motivational speaker and entertainer.

Hotel de la Paix was established in 1865, making it one of the earliest hotels to be set up in Singapore. It operated from Coleman House, the former personal residence of Singapore’s first superintendent of public works, G. D. Coleman (George Dromgold Coleman), ...

Hotel van Wijk, one of the early Dutch hotels in Singapore, was established in the late 19th century. At the time, hotels were set up to cater to the needs of the growing overseas mercantile communities. Hotel van Wijk was located at the hotel belt along Stamford ...

The House of Tan Yeok Nee is situated at the junction of Clemenceau Avenue (formerly Tank Road) and Penang Road. Constructed between 1882 and 1885 as the residence of businessman Tan Yeok Nee, it was one of four residences built in Singapore at the end of the 19th ...

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) is the national public housing authority of Singapore. It was formed in February 1960, shortly after Singapore attained self-government, to alleviate the severe housing shortage at the time. Through the years, the emphasis ...

Independent (commonly shortened to “indie”) music encompasses a wide range of musical genres, including rock, pop, metal and folk. Indie music is associated with alternative, non-mainstream productions and forms of distribution. Increasingly, the term “indie music” ...

The Institute of Mental Health is the only government mental hospital in Singapore. It was relocated to its present campus – a modern complex off Hougang Street 51 – in April 1993. The site is near the old Woodbridge Hospital off Jalan Woodbridge, which has since ...

Isa Kamari (b. 1960, Singapore–) is a prominent figure in Singapore’s Malay literary scene. He has gained critical acclaim for many of his works, which range from novels and short stories to poetry and essays. He is also a musician, and has crafted scripts for ...

Iskandar Jalil (b. 5 January 1940, Singapore–) is an eminent local ceramist who uses fine clay to develop bowls and pots into artworks, integrating Japanese and Islamic styles. Iskandar was awarded the Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 1988.

Iskandar Mirza Ismail (b. 23 July 1956, Singapore–d. 1 November 2014, Singapore) is a prominent figure in Singapore’s music scene. A multitalented and versatile musician, Iskandar has worked as a composer, arranger, conductor, music director, recording producer, ...

Istana Kampong Glam (also spelled as “Gelam”) was the seat and historic home of Malay royalty in Singapore. The first sultan, Hussein Mohamed Shah, never lived in the building as he died in Malacca in 1835. The present building was constructed in 1840 by his son, ...

Ivan Heng (b. 1963, Singapore–), an accomplished stage actor and director, is the founding artistic director of theatre company Wild Rice. He has acted and directed many Singapore theatre productions and his works have been performed internationally in Europe, ...

Jacintha Abisheganaden (b. 3 October 1957, Singapore–) is an accomplished Singapore actress, entertainer and jazz singer. The daughter of musician and Cultural Medallion recipient Alex Abisheganaden, Jacintha’s early training in music stood her in good stead for ...

Jah Lelawati (b.1937, Medan, Indonesia–d. 2 November 1979, Singapore), also referred to as Jahlelawati, was a bangsawan (Malay opera) actress and writer. She started by writing novels and short stories and later progressed to scripts for radio and television dramas. ...

Jalan Besar Stadium is a well-known Singapore landmark located at Tyrwhitt Road in the Kallang area. Since its official opening on 26 December 1929, the stadium had held many football events, including Malaysia Cup tournaments. In 1999, the original facility underwent ...

Jamae Mosque is located at 218 South Bridge Road, on the corner with Mosque Street in the historic Chinatown area. One of several mosques built by Tamil Muslim migrants from south India, the present mosque was built between 1830 and 1835. Jamae Mosque was designated ...

The Jawi Peranakan were an elite group in the Malay community active for half a century (1870s to 1920s). They are Straits-born Muslims of mixed Indian (especially Tamil) and Malay parentage who have assimilated into the Malay society. Their publication, the Jawi ...

The Jawi Peranakkan, the first Malay newspaper in Singapore, was founded in 1876 and remained in circulation until 1895. The rise and demise of the newspaper was closely associated with the history of the Jawi Peranakan community in Singapore. The Jawi Peranakan ...

Jennifer Tham Sow Ying (b. 1962, Singapore–) is best known as the conductor of the Singapore Youth Choir (now the SYC Ensemble Singers, or SYC-ES), which she has led since 1986. Trained as a composer, Tham has been actively involved in educating young musicians ...

Located at the junction of Neil Road and Tanjong Pagar Road, the Jinrikisha (also spelt as “Jinricksha”) Station was built in 1903 and opened the following year, serving as the main depot for rickshaws. Following the 1947 ban on rickshaws in Singapore, the building ...

Joanna Wong Quee Heng (b. 1939, Penang, Malaya–) is a leading exponent of Cantonese opera in Singapore. Although an amateur artist, Wong’s artistic skills have won her praises from Beijing opera scholars. She has also pioneered many novel ideas to promote Cantonese ...

Joash Moo Zun Yong (b. 1965, Singapore–) is a novelist and poet and an award-winning illustrator. His book, Sisterhood: The Untold Story, published in 1990, explored the transsexual phenomenon in Singapore, while Nannu stirred up a fair amount of controversy over ...

Joavien Ng Bong Na (b. 1973, Singapore–) is a dance choreographer whose works have been presented and commissioned by various festivals and performances in Japan, Taipei, Hong Kong, Seoul, Canada and the United States. Ng has helped pushed the local dance scene ...

John Little, also known as JL, is Singapore’s oldest department store. It was established by John Martin Little in 1842, and was acquired by Robinson & Co Ltd. in 1955. John Little had several stores across Singapore over the years, but has since been operating ...

John Turnbull Thomson (b. 10 August 1821, Glororum, England–d. 16 October 1884, Invercargill, New Zealand) was the Government Surveyor of the Straits Settlements from 1841 to 1853. He made a number of important contributions during his 12 years in Singapore, including ...

Johns Hopkins Medicine is a renowned American medical enterprise that combines research, teaching and medical services. In 1998, Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Singapore National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) established Johns Hopkins Singapore (JHS), which ...

Joo Chiat is an area located in the eastern part of Singapore that is known for its multi-cultural heritage. It derived its name from a number of roads in the area named after plantation owner and philanthropist, Chew Joo Chiat. In the early 20th century, significant ...

Juliana Yasin (b. 1970, Singapore–d. 27 August 2014, Singapore) was a multidisciplinary artist whose mediums of choice include painting, installation, video and performance art. Her works deal with themes such as movement, identity, displacement, freedom and socio-political ...

The Junior Library was a library for the young within Raffles Library, with the aim of providing them with books as a healthy form of entertainment. It was declared open by Sir Neill Malcolm, general officer commanding the Straits Settlements and chairman of the ...

Singapore’s only open-air drive-in cinema, the Jurong Drive-in, was opened by the then Minister of Culture, Jek Yuen Thong, on 14 July 1971. The brainchild and pride of Cathay Organisation, it was located at Yuan Ching Road, next to the Japanese Gardens. Built ...

Jurong Regional Library (JRL) located at 21 Jurong East Central 1, Singapore 609732, is the largest public library in Singapore and the third regional library after Woodlands Regional Library and Tampines Regional Library. First opened as Jurong East Community ...

The Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) was set up on 1 June 1968 under the Jurong Town Corporation Act to take over from the Economic Development Board (EDB) as Singapore's principal developer and manager of industrial estates and their related facilities. On 15 November ...

Located at 9 Jurong Town Hall Road, Jurong Town Hall served as the headquarters of the Jurong Town Corporation (JTC; currently known as JTC Corporation) from 1974 until 2000. The building, which is considered a symbol of the success of the industrialisation programme ...

Jurong West Community Library is located at 1 Jurong West Central 2, #04-01/04 Jurong Point, Singapore 648886. It is the first library of the National Library Board to be located inside a shopping mall. It was officially opened on 22 March 1996 by Member of Parliament ...

The Kampong Kapor Methodist Church is located at 1 Kampong Kapor Road in Little India. Established in 1894, it was the first Peranakan (Straits Chinese) church and the fourth Methodist church in Singapore. In its early years, the church catered only to the Peranakan ...

Katong Park Hotel, one of Singapore's oldest hotels, was located at 46 Meyer Road. Owned by several people since it was built in 1953, the hotel was previously known by three other names: Embassy Hotel, Hotel Ambassador and Duke Hotel. It was renamed Katong Park ...

Kelly Tang Yap Ming (Dr) (b. 1961, Singapore–), better known simply as Kelly Tang, is a prolific and versatile composer whose works cover various genres ranging from classical and jazz to cinematic and popular music. His myriad compositions have been performed ...

Keppel Road is located in the Tanjong Pagar sub-zone of the Bukit Merah Planning Area within Singapore’s Central Region. The road was developed through the reclamation of mangrove swamps and mudflats that stretched from Tanjong Pagar to Telok Blangah, and was named ...

The Keramat Habib Noh, located at 37 Palmer Road, is a shrine dedicated to the Muslim saint Sayyid Noh bin Sayyid Mohamad bin Sayyid Ahmad Al-Habshi, popularly known as Habib Noh. The shrine houses his maqam (tomb) and is visited by pilgrims from as far away as ...

Keramat Radin Mas is the shrine of Radin Mas Ayu, a Javanese princess who shielded her father from being killed, only to be killed herself. According to the legend, Radin Mas was a beautiful and filial daughter loved by her father but hated by her stepmother. Radin ...

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) is a public hospital located in Yishun and managed by Alexandra Health. The 3.4-hectare, 550-bed hospital cost an estimated S$700 million to build, and was opened in phases from March 2010. KTPH is part of a planned healthcare hub ...

The King Edward VII College of Medicine was established in 1905 as the Straits and Federated Malay States Government Medical School. It was renamed King Edward VII Medical School in 1912, and then King Edward VII College of Medicine in 1921. In 1982, the College ...

The KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital has a history that stretches back to 1858 as the fifth general hospital established since Stamford Raffles set up a trading post in Singapore in 1819. The hospital officially became a maternity hospital on 1 October 1924. ...

Founded in the 19th century by a Chinese businessman-scholar, Lim Kong Chuan (林光铨), Koh Yew Hean Press (古友轩印务私人有限公司) was possibly one of the earliest Chinese printing houses in Singapore. The press was well known for publishing two Chinese-language newspapers and ...

The Kranji Memorials, located off Woodlands Road, about 22 km from the city, is made up of three cemeteries: the Kranji War Cemetery, the Kranji Military Cemetery and the State Cemetery.

The Kranji Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station was built as part of the Woodlands extension line, which connects Choa Chu Kang to Yishun through Woodlands. This station is the largest on the Woodlands MRT Line and is designed to handle thousands of people, mostly ...

Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre (牛车水人民剧场) was built in 1969, funded by public donations. The theatre was revamped several times, including a complete overhaul that was completed in May 1979, before it became the well-equipped theatre seen on 30A Kreta Ayer Road today. ...

Kumarason Chinnadurai (b. 10 August 1968, Singapore–), popularly known as Kumar, is a stand-up comedian, actor, host and drag queen. He made his name at the now defunct cabaret nightclub Boom Boom Room, and was for a time synonymous with the club as its headlining ...

Kuo Pao Kun (b. 1939, Xiaoguo village, Hebei, China–d. 10 September 2002, Singapore) was a playwright who produced plays in both English and Chinese. He is considered one of the most significant dramatists in Singapore and a pioneer of Singapore theatre. Many of ...

Kusu Island is located 5.6 km south-west of Singapore. A Chinese temple and three Malay keramat (shrine) on the island attract thousands of pilgrims annually, especially in the 9th lunar month that falls between September and October. Kusu means “tortoise” or “turtle” ...

Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, located on Waterloo Street, is a popular place of worship for devotees of Guan Yin, the Chinese goddess of mercy. Built in 1884, it is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Singapore and a hallmark of late-19th-century Chinese temple ...

The Ladies Lawn Tennis Club in Singapore was established in 1884. The club gained popularity soon after it was formed, but membership started falling by the 1920s and it was eventually closed in 1932. The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) took over the club’s ...

Lat Pau (Le Bao), the longest running Chinese daily in pre-war Singapore, was incepted in December 1881 by See Ewe Lay. The Lat Pau continued for 52 years before folding in March 1932.

Lee Hock Moh (b. 1947, Singapore–) is a Singaporean artist whose detailed and vibrant orchid paintings have won him accolades both locally and internationally. Trained in traditional Chinese ink and Western oil painting, Lee is considered a second-generation artist ...

Lee Lim (b. 1931, China–d. 12 January 1989, Singapore), was an icon in the field of artistic photography, both locally and internationally. His landscape photography had a distinctive Asian style that strongly resembled Chinese painting. He was also an expert in ...

Lee Man Fong (b. 1913, Guangdong, China–d. 1988, Jakarta, Indonesia) was a prominent artist based in Indonesia and Singapore. Primarily working with oil paintings, Lee was associated with the Nanyang style, which blends Chinese techniques and subjects with Western ...

Lee Tzu Pheng (b. 13 May 1946, Singapore–) is one of Singapore’s distinguished poets. A retired university lecturer, she has published in anthologies and journals internationally. Her three volumes of poetry, Prospect of a Drowning (1980), Against the Next Wave ...

Lee Wen (b. 1957, Singapore–d. 3 March 2019, Singapore) was a multidisciplinary artist and one of Singapore’s most internationally recognised contemporary artists. A local pioneer of performance art who is best known for his Yellow Man series, Lee promoted the ...

Leo Hee Tong (b. 1 August 1940, Singapore–) is a second-generation Singapore artist. He has participated in many solo and group exhibitions, and has received many awards including four Dr Tan Tsze Chor Art Awards by the Singapore Art Society as well as nine Distinction ...

Lew Poo Chan (b. 1943, Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaya), better known by her pseudonym Dan Ying, is a well-known poet in Chinese-speaking communities around the world. Her poetry has won a number of literary awards and has been translated into several languages. For ...

Li Rulin (李汝琳; b. 5 July 1914, Qinyang, Henan, China–d. 17 March 1991, Singapore), real name Lee Hung Pen (李宏贲), was one of Singapore’s Chinese literary pioneers. During his lifetime, Li also published under a number of other pseudonyms, including Li Lin, Li Jiguang, ...

Liang Seah Street, located in the Civic District, links North Bridge Road with Beach Road. Built in the old European residential town during colonial times, it was named in 1927 after the well-known Teochew millionaire, Seah Liang Seah of Chin Choon and Chin Giap, ...

Liang Wern Fook (Dr) (b. 1964, Singapore) is a writer, singer-composer and educator in Chinese literature and the Chinese language. A pioneer of xinyao, a genre of Mandarin songs that is unique to Singapore, Liang’s name is synonymous with the xinyao movement. ...

The Library Supply Centre, located in Changi South, houses the Library Support Services (LSS) Division of the National Library Board. LSS performs the library functions of collection development, supply-chain management and bibliographic services.

Library@Esplanade, officially opened on 12 September 2002, is Singapore's first performing arts library. It is located in the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay building at 8 Raffles Avenue, #03-01, Singapore 039802. It is one of the few libraries in the world to ...

Library@Orchard, officially opened on 21 October 1999, is located on the fifth floor of the Ngee Ann City Shopping Mall, Podium Block, Tower B, at 391 Orchard Road, #05-22/26, Singapore 238872. It is the sixth rental library to be located in a shopping mall and ...

Lien Shih Sheng (连士升) (b. 24 May 1907, Fujian, China–d. 9 July 1973, Singapore) was an influential pioneer writer and news editor. His works span multiple genres such as travelogues, commentaries and biographies. Lien is best remembered for his Letters from the ...

Lim Cheng Hoe (b. 24 May 1912, Xiamen, China–d. 3 September 1979, Singapore) was a pioneering watercolourist in Singapore and one of the founders of the Singapore Watercolour Society. Unlike some of his contemporaries from the Nanyang group who were educated in ...

Lim Chor Pee (b. 1936, Penang, Malaysia–d. 5 December 2006, Singapore) was an established lawyer and a pioneer playwright in Singapore. He was among the first batch of playwrights in the 1960s who planted the seeds of local English-language theatre in Singapore. ...

Lim Fei Shen (b. 1945, Singapore–) is a modern dance pioneer in Singapore. Both a dancer and a choreographer, Lee has produced works that show a creative blend of Western and Asian influences. She is also known for her multidisciplinary projects that involve different ...

Lim Hak Tai (林学大) (b. 28 May 1893, Xiamen, Fujian, China–d. 14 February 1963, Singapore) was one of Singapore’s pioneer artists and art educators. He was one of the main proponents of the Nanyang style of art in terms of technique and subject matter. He was also ...

Lim Hung Chang (林汉精 ; b. 17 October 1949, Singapore– ), better known by his pseudonym Lin Gao (林高), is one of the leading figures in the Chinese literary scene in Singapore. He has used various pen names, such as Lin Yifei (林一飞), Sanmuzi (三木子) and Lin Jingshan ...

Lim Tze Peng (林子平) (b. 28 September 1921, Singapore–) is an artist, and a winner of the Cultural Medallion in 2003. Self-taught, Lim started painting in the 1950s when he was a teacher in Xin Min School. Having a strong foundation in Chinese philosophy, art and ...

Lim Yau (born 1952, Singapore) is a prominent orchestral and choral conductor whose long conducting career has included stints as Resident Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Chorus (SSC). He is reputed ...

Lim Yew Kuan (b. 16 November 1928, Xiamen, China–) is a well-known second-generation Nanyang Style painter, printmaker and sculptor. Lim is also an arts educator who has taught art for four decades, including a stint as the second principal of the Nanyang Academy ...

The lion dance is a pugilistic performance dating back to more than 1,500 years. Its performance during auspicious occasions, such as the launch of new businesses and shops, is believed to bring good fortune and wealth. The lion dance is also performed during the ...

Singapore’s array of literary awards and prizes recognises writers and works of literary merit. The honours are applicable to works in all four official languages of Singapore – English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil – and genres such as poetry and drama. The official ...

Literary festivals in Singapore play host to readers and writers alike, and include book festivals, writers’ festivals as well as language festivals. These events are not only platforms for promoting reading and authors, but also an appreciation for writing and ...

Lou Mee Wah (b. 30 March 1951, Singapore–) is a Cantonese opera singer well known for her role as a male impersonator. She has received many glowing reviews for playing sheng, or male roles, ranging from gentle scholars to fearsome warriors. Her teacher, mentor ...

Low Ing Sing (b. 1924, Sibu, Sarawak–d. 2002, Singapore) was a pioneer of Mandarin drama and theatre in Singapore. An all-rounded theatre practitioner, Low acted, wrote and directed plays, and was also a drama trainer. Furthermore, he was an established writer ...

The Loyang Tua Pek Kong Temple, located off Loyang Way, was established in the 1980s. The temple owes its existence to a group of friends, who on finding figurines of different religions abandoned on a beach, brought them together and housed them under a unique ...

Lut Ali (b. 1 June 1957– ) is a well-known actor, television producer, playwright and director of Malay theatre and drama in Singapore. A graduate of Edith Cowan University in Australia, Lut was conferred the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award in 1993 for ...

Lynnette Seah Mei Tsing (b. 1957, Singapore–), better known simply as Lynnette Seah, is an internationally acclaimed violinist. She has been a member of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) since its inception in 1979 and is currently its co-leader. An ambassador ...

Mohammed Saffri Bin Abdul Manaf (b. 3 November 1952, Singapore–) is a scriptwriter, actor, director and comedian. Much of his work has been aired on the local Malay television and radio. A bangsawan (Malay opera) enthusiast, M. Saffri has also written, acted in ...

Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah, located at 30 Victoria Lane, is Singapore’s premier Islamic institution of learning. Of international repute, the school boasts an illustrious alumni including key Muslim leaders in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Magazine Road connects Havelock Road and Merchant Road. The road probably got its name due to its association with the old ammunition storage ground of Havelock Road.

The Maghain Aboth Synagogue, which translates to mean “Shield of our Fathers”, is the oldest surviving synagogue in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Situated at 24/26 Waterloo Street, the synagogue was built in 1878 and gazetted as a national monument on 27 February ...

Located at 3 Race Course Lane, close to Little India, the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hall was built as a tribute to the leader of India’s independence movement, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948), often referred to as Mahatma Gandhi (mahatma is Sanskrit for “great ...

Music festivals play an important role in developing audiences and Singapore’s music scene. Grouping music events into a festival results in an intense and exciting audience experience. Music festivals have been staged in Singapore since the early 20th century. ...

Opened in 1963, Malabar Mosque, or Masjid Malabar in Malay, is located at the junction of Victoria Street and Jalan Sultan. The mosque built in the traditional Islamic mosque architectural style, is managed by the local Malabar Muslim community.

The Malaysia-Singapore Second Link is a 1.9 kilometre dual-three lane bridge that connects Tuas in northwest Singapore to Tanjung Kupang in Gelang Patah located in southwest Johor. Officially opened on 18 April 1998, it is the second bridge across the Straits of ...

Mandalay Villa at Amber Road was built in 1902 by Lee Cheng Yan (b. 1841–d.1911), a prominent businessman from the Peranakan (Straits Chinese) community. The beautiful bungalow with its fanciful facade was well known because of the parties thrown by Lee Cheng Yan’s ...

Margaret Tan Hee Leng (b. 1945, Singapore–), popularly known as Margaret Leng Tan, is a pianist and a leading figure in experimental music. One of the best-known Singaporean musicians internationally, she is famed for her skill with unconventional playing techniques ...

Marina Bay Sands (MBS) is an integrated resort (IR) with a hotel, casino, retail mall, as well as convention facilities and entertainment venues including theatres, nightclubs and a museum. Sitting on a 570,000 sq m waterfront site at Marina Bay, MBS is operated ...

Marine Parade has the distinction of being the first housing estate built entirely on reclaimed land. Sited in the east of Singapore, Marine Parade has a wide array of social amenities and recreational facilities, including the beaches on the east coast of the ...

The Marine Parade Community Library, opened on 10 November 1978, was the third full-time library built by the National Library under its plan to decentralise home reading services and to bring the Library nearer to the people. It was the first Branch Library to ...

Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka is Singapore’s oldest mosque. Located on Keng Cheow Street, off Havelock Road, the mosque was constructed in 1820 by the Aljunied family.

The Masonic Hall at 23A Coleman Street is located near the Central Fire Station at the foot of Fort Canning Hill. Designed by Thomas A Cargill, a municipal engineer and a Freemason, the foundation stone of the Masonic Hall was laid in April 1879. The building was ...

Max Le Blond (b. 1950, Singapore–) was conferred the Cultural Medallion for Theatre in 1987. At age 37, he was then among the youngest to receive the award. At a time when the stage was predominantly Anglo-centric, Le Blond relentlessly pushed for “a truly Singaporean ...

Maxwell Food Centre (originally known as Maxwell Market), located at the junction of South Bridge Road and Maxwell Road, is a popular hawker centre near the Central Business District.

Mediacorp Raintree Pictures is the pioneering local film production company in Singapore. Formed in August 1998, the company produces and distributes local films as well as features made in the region. The company started out by producing Chinese films but later ...

Medium Rare, Singapore’s first full-length English-language film to be released locally, was released in local cinemas in November 1991. Loosely based on the Adrian Lim ritual murders in the early 1980s, the film was shot and produced in Singapore. Medium Rare ...

The Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. Regarded as a Singapore icon, the Merlion was designed in 1964 for the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB; now known as the Singapore Tourism Board) and functioned as its logo ...

Milenko Prvacki (b. 1951, Yugoslavia–) began his artistic career in his native country, the former Yugoslavia, and had established himself as an artist in Europe before moving to Singapore in 1991. The prolific artist has deeply enriched the local visual arts scene ...

Mobile Library Services were initiated by the National Library in 1960. This was mainly to ease the overwhelming demands made on its services at the main library building in Stamford Road whilst continuing to provide library services to more people.

Mohamed Sultan Road stretches from the junction of Saiboo Street and Martin Road to River Valley Road. The road is home to several conserved shophouses and national monuments like the Hong San See temple. The area was once a street of busy night spots as it was ...

Opened in 1961, Mount Alvernia Hospital is a non-profit private hospital in Singapore. It was founded by the Franciscan Missionaries of Divine Motherhood to provide healthcare services based on Christian values and Catholic teachings. Located at 820 Thomson Road, ...

N. Palanivelu (b. 1908, Tanjore district, Sikkal, Tamil Nadu, India−d. 11 November 2000, Singapore) was a novelist, playwright and poet who had been an active writer for more than 50 years. His short stories and poems reflected political and social changes over ...

Na Govindasamy (b. 1946, Singapore−d. 26 May 1999) was an educator, writer and an Internet researcher. He started writing in the 1960s. His works, which include plays, dramas and short stories for radio and television, furthered the development of literature in ...

Nagore Dargah is an Indian Muslim shrine located at 140 Telok Ayer Street, in the historic Chinatown area. It was built between 1828 and 1830 by the Chulias from south India in memory of Shahul Hamid, a holy man from Nagore, south India. The shrine was gazetted ...

The Nanyang Technological University was formally established on 1 July 1991 through the merger of the Nanyang Technological Institute and the National Institute of Education, though its origins can be traced to the establishment of Nanyang University in the 1950s. ...

The National Arts Council (NAC) was established as a statutory board on 17 August 1991 to spearhead the development of the literary, performing and visual arts in Singapore.1 The council’s mission is to help nurture the arts and make it an integral part of the ...

The Singapore government has commissioned national songs since the 1980s. The early songs featured strong nationalistic themes and resembled advertising jingles. Since then, national songs have taken on a pop sensibility and become a showcase for local musical ...

Between 1960 and 1979, the National Library expanded its collections and diversified its services. The number of library members grew from 55,000 in 1963 to more than 322,000 by the end of March 1979. Key developments include the library moving beyond the promotion ...

Between 1980 and 1995, the National Library embarked on the computerisation of its library operations and services. To keep abreast with the information technology (IT) revolution, new audiovisual, multimedia and online services were also launched. Decentralisation ...

The National Library Building, located at 91 Stamford Road, officially opened on 12 November 1960. Between 1887 and 1960, the National Library had previously occupied the western wing of the Raffles Museum (now the National Museum of Singapore) at Stamford Road. ...

The National Library Building at 100 Victoria Street is the headquarters of the National Library Board (NLB). Opened in 2005, the Victoria Street premises replaced the old National Library Building on Stamford Road. The 16-storey complex houses mainly the collections ...

The National Library Courtyard was an open-air area of 300 sq m located at the former Stamford Road premises of the National Library. It was opened to the public on 19 January 1998. In helping to build a gracious nation the courtyard is an avenue for cultural and ...

With its wide facade and large dome, the National Museum of Singapore has been a prominent landmark on Stamford Road for over a century. It is Singapore’s oldest existing museum, currently devoted to the general history of Singapore.

The National Reference Library (NRL) was located on the third floor of the National Library building at Stamford Road. It was formed on 16 January 1998, concurrently with the re-opening of the National Library that was closed for nine months of upgrading works. ...

The National Stadium of Singapore was officially opened on 21 July 1973 by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. For over three decades, it was used for many major sporting, cultural, entertainment and social events, such as the 1983 and 1993 Southeast Asian Games, ...

The National Theatre was a public theatre used for performances, concerts and conferences that was situated at the corner of Clemenceau Avenue and River Valley Road. Built to commemorate Singapore's achievement of self-government in 1959, it was also known as the ...

Established in 1985, National University Hospital (NUH) is a tertiary hospital and a major referral centre for a comprehensive range of medical, surgical and dental conditions. It also serves as the main teaching hospital for the National University of Singapore ...

Ng Eng Teng (b. 12 July 1934, Singapore–d. 4 November 2001, Singapore) was a sculptor and winner of the Cultural Medallion in visual arts in 1981. He learned painting under first-generation masters such as Georgette Chen and Liu Kang, and furthered his studies ...

Nicoll Highway stretches westward from Mountbatten Road across the mouth of Kallang River over Merdeka Bridge down to the city centre, where it joins Connaught Drive and Stamford Road. It was built in the 1950s to alleviate frequent traffic jams on the often congested ...

Objectifs Centre Ltd is a non-profit visual arts space in Singapore that is dedicated to film and photography. Established in 2003, it is widely regarded as an establishment that champions local films and photography in Singapore and overseas, and nurtures photographers, ...

The Odeon Cinema was built in 1953 at the junction of North Bridge Road and Cashin Street, where Odeon Tower and K. H. Kea Building are now situated. It was Cathay Organisation’s flagship cinema and its most successful box-office earner in Singapore. The Odeon ...

Old Admiralty House, located at Old Nelson Road, was built in 1939 and served as the residence for the Commodore Superintendent of the Royal Navy Dockyard. It was gazetted as a national monument in 2002 and currently houses a private school.

There appears to have been a military medical presence at Changi ever since construction of the base began with the first medical officer arriving in 1928 to assist with anti-malarial drainage work. The hospital for the base was moved from Barracks Hill to Roberts ...

The Old Hill Street Police Station (formerly known as the MICA Building), home to the Ministry of Communications and Information and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, is a colonial landmark located at the junction of River Valley Road and Hill Street. ...

The old Sembawang Fire Station is located at 80 Admiralty Road West, within the grounds of the former Sembawang Naval Base. Built in 1941, the fire station previously served the naval base. When British military forces withdrew from Singapore in 1971, the naval ...

Built in 1968, Omni Marco Polo Hotel, also known as Marco Polo Hotel, was one of Singapore's famous landmarks. It was so well known that many popular personalities chose to stay there in the 1970s. The hotel was torn down in 1999 and on its site now sits a condominium ...

Ong Keng Sen (b. 1964, Singapore–), the critically acclaimed artistic director of TheatreWorks, a local theatre company, is best known for his intercultural Shakespeare-inspired trilogy of works – Lear, Desdemona and Search: Hamlet. He was the artistic director ...

Eminent watercolourist Ong Kim Seng (b. 10 June 1945, Singapore–) is the former president of the Singapore Watercolour Society (1991 to 2001), a Cultural Medallion winner (Visual Art) in 1990, and winner of six awards from the prestigious American Watercolour Society. ...

Ophir Road begins as an offshoot from Rochor Canal Road, and ends at Republic Boulevard at one point and East Coast Parkway at another point. It runs parallel to Rochor Road. Landmarks along the road include Raffles Hospital and the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. ...

Built in 1891, the Orchard Road Market used to occupy the site where Orchard Point is located today. A fair selling fresh produce, it was known to sell the freshest goods at higher prices compared to other markets in Singapore. The market was torn down by the Urban ...

The Orchard Road Presbyterian Church (ORPC), dubbed Greja Kechil (meaning “small church” in Malay) or the Scots Church, is the earliest Presbyterian church in Singapore. Located at the Bras Basah end of Orchard Road, it sits next to the Young Men’s Christian Association ...

Orkestra Melayu Singapura (OMS), Singapore’s first Malay orchestra, was set up by the People’s Association (PA) in September 1991. Formed to preserve and promote Malay music in Singapore, OMS is the only orchestra in Singapore to combine modern and traditional ...

One of Singapore’s earliest prisons was located at the foot of Pearl’s Hill in Outram. The original civil jail at the site was built in 1847 by Charles Edward Faber; in 1882, a new prison complex was built around the old civil jail by J. F. A. McNair. Originally ...

Outram Road School, now known as Outram Secondary School, was officially opened on 26 February 1906 by then Governor John Anderson. As one of the first English schools built by the colonial government, it has a rich history, dating to even before their official ...

P. Krishnan (b. 1932, Johor, Malaya–), also known as Puthumaithasan, is regarded as one of Singapore’s Tamil literary pioneers. He is a prolific short-story writer, playwright, poet and radio broadcaster, with an oeuvre comprising more than 40 stories, 100 essays ...

Panglima Prang was a 19th-century Straits Chinese bungalow built by Tan Jiak Kim, a grandson of Tan Kim Seng, one of the early pioneers in Singapore. The house belonged to a generation of bungalows built in the latter half of the 1800s as wealthy Chinese merchants ...

Part-time branch libraries were started by the Raffles Library (renamed the National Library in 1960) to bring library services closer to the public in suburban areas. A total of eight part-time branch libraries were opened between 1953 and 1987, most of them situated ...

Pasir Ris Public Library, located on the fourth floor of White Sands Shopping Centre in Pasir Ris, officially opened on 6 October 2000. It is the National Library Board’s (NLB) eighth library to be located in a shopping mall and its 18th public library. This library ...

Paul Tan Kim Liang (b. 1970–) is a poet and winner of the Singapore Literature Prize in 1993 and 1997 for his collections of poems.

Paya Lebar Airport officially opened on 20 August 1955. With its associated taxi tracks and aprons, it was considered a Class B3 Airport based on the 1953 standards of the International Convention for Civil Aviation. Operationally, Paya Lebar Airport was described ...

Pedra Branca is an outlying island situated about 24 nautical miles (45 km) to the east of mainland Singapore. It is located at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait, from the South China Sea. The island is a reef of light grey granite, although corals have ...

Penang Road begins as an offshoot from Orchard Road and ends at the junction of Somerset Road and Killiney Road. It was named after a northeastern city in Peninsular Malaysia. Landmarks along the road include the House of Tan Yeok Nee, the Singapore Shopping Centre, ...

The People’s Park Complex is a high-rise mixed-use building in Chinatown, Singapore. Completed in 1973, it is a landmark project in terms of architectural design and boasts a number of superlatives, including being the largest shopping complex in Singapore and ...

PERKAMUS (Persatuan Karyawan Muzik Melayu Singapura; The Society of Singers, Musicians and Professionals of the Malay Industry in Singapore) is a non-profit organisation established in January 1994 to support musicians and composers in Singapore’s Malay music industry. ...

Phoon Yew Tien (b. 21 August 1952, Singapore–), is a pioneer Singaporean composer. Initially trained in Chinese orchestral music, Phoon was subsequently educated in Western classical music. Phoon is a prolific composer and is Singapore’s most recorded composer. ...

Pinnacle@Duxton is a public housing project at 1A Cantonment Road. It is the first 50-storey public housing project in Singapore, and also the first in the world with two sky bridges linking seven towers. The sky bridges create two layers of sky parks that offer ...

Formed in 1998, Plastique Kinetic Worms (PKW) is a contemporary art collective co-founded by artists Vincent Leow and Yvonne Lee. By showcasing Singaporean contemporary art at its gallery as well as at local and international arts festivals, the non-profit art ...

Popular music flourished in Singapore during the 1960s, when a number of local bands became extremely popular with their cover versions of British and American songs as well as original compositions. These bands had a strong following and often played to crowds ...

The Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) was formed on 1 April 1964 to take over the functions, assets and liabilities of the Singapore Harbour Board. It was operating five maritime gateways by 1990, including Keppel Wharves, Jurong Port, Sembawang Wharves, Tanjong ...

The Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church at 77 Prinsep Street was built in 1843 by Reverend Benjamin Peach Keasberry, a Protestant minister from the London Missionary Society. Apart from being the first Straits Chinese church, it was also the birthplace of the first ...

Project Eyeball was Singapore's first integrated print and digital newspaper.It was launched on 12 August 2000 by the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). Targeted at Internet-savvy readers between the ages of 20 and 40, Project Eyeball aimed to carry news of interest ...

Public housing in Singapore may be said to have begun with the formal establishment of the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) in 1927 by the colonial government to provide low-cost housing in addition to improvement works. The Housing and Development Board (HDB) ...

Pulau Pawai is an island located south-west of Singapore. Known as Alligator Island during colonial times, the island was described as having a conspicuous summit of about 147 ft, and was extensively fringed with coral reefs. A large reef found in 1946 separates ...

The Queenstown Community Library located at 53 Margaret Drive, Singapore 149297, was opened on 2 May 1970. It was the first full-time Branch Library, built by the National Library in its plan to decentralise home reading services. It pioneered several firsts amongst ...

Quek Ling Kiong (郭勇德) (b. 1967, Singapore–) is a percussionist and the resident conductor of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO). Winner of the National Art Council’s Young Artist Award in 2002 and recipient of the NAC Cultural Fellowship in 2013, Quek is committed ...

Raffles' Bust, a marble portrait of Sir Stamford Raffles, was originally designed and cast by Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey in 1817. The original was believed to have been destroyed with the sinking of the ship, the Fame in 1824. Copies were however made for the ...

Raffles College was set up in 1928 at 469 Bukit Timah Road as a college for higher education in the arts and sciences. Its formation was the result of a scheme to commemorate the centenary of the founding of Singapore by Stamford Raffles (Sir). In 1949, Raffles ...

Jointly owned by Raffles Medical Group and Pidemco Land, Raffles Hospital was officially opened on 16 March 2002 as the second largest private general hospital in Singapore. The hospital has made news for some of its pioneering surgeries on Siamese twins.

Raffles Hotel is a Singapore landmark located at No. 1 Beach Road. Established in 1887, the award-winning colonial-era hotel with a rich history is well known for its period architecture and decor, luxurious accommodation and fine cuisine. The hotel is particularly ...

Raffles Institution is one of the oldest schools in Singapore, with a history that stretches back to 1819 when Stamford Raffles proposed the establishment of a premier learning institution. The foundation stone of the building was laid on 5 June 1823, marking the ...

The Raffles Museum and Library reopened to the public on 1 December 1945, with the Junior Library opening on 14 January 1946. In the post-war years between 1945 and 1960, the library went through several changes in administration, separated from the museum and ...

The Raffles Library and Museum was taken over by the Japanese and renamed Syonan Hakubutsu Kan during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore from 15 February 1942 to 12 September 1945. Vulcanologist and geologist, Professor Hidezo Tanakadate headed the institution ...

The Raffles Library and Museum building at Stamford Road was officially opened on 12 October 1887. During its initial years, the library occupied the right wing on the ground floor of the building, while the museum occupied the first floor. The library and museum ...

Raffles Lighthouse is located on Pulau Satumu, or “one tree island”, 23 km southwest of Singapore, at the western entrance of the Singapore Straits. Designed by John Bennett, the lighthouse was named after and dedicated to the memory of the founder of modern Singapore, ...

Raffles Place is a commercial space that includes buildings such as the Arcade, Clifford Centre, Straits Trading, Hong Kong Bank and OCBC Building – all situated within five minutes’ walking distance of one another.

Rahimah Rahim (b. 9 December 1955–) is a veteran performer in the local music scene, and one of the most popular entertainers of the 1970s and 1980s. Rahimah has recorded more than a dozen albums. Following a hiatus from 1989 to 2002, Rahimah returned to show business ...

Ramakrishna Mission Singapore, located off Bartley Road, is a branch of the Ramakrishna Order of India, a worldwide spiritual and welfare organisation. Known for its services to the needy and poor, the mission strives to spiritually elevate people and the uplift ...

The Red Dot Design Museum is located at 11 Marina Boulevard. It is the second Red Dot Design Museum in the world. Established in November 2005, the museum showcases innovative product design and hosts events and exhibitions. It was the anchor tenant in the former ...

The Red House Bakery is a popular reference to a relict confectionery shop, Katong Bakery & Confectionery. This bakery was a popular breakfast haunt among Singaporeans living in the eastern part of Singapore, especially for its signature cakes and curry puffs. ...

Reference Point is an electronic reference service provided by the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. The service was launched in April 1996 by the former National Reference Library, the predecessor of the today’s Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, to provide reference ...

Ren Ci Community Hospital (RCCH) is one of the healthcare facilities under the voluntary welfare organisation, Ren Ci. The 15-storey hospital began operations in December 2008 and was officially declared opened on 11 January 2010. It provides rehabilitative and ...

The Revere Bell was presented to St Andrew’s Church in 1843 by Maria Revere Balestier, wife of Joseph Balestier, the first American consul to Singapore. The bell now resides in the Singapore History Gallery of the National Museum of Singapore.

Robert Yeo Cheng Chuan (b. 1940, Singapore–) is a poet, playwright, novelist, essayist and librettist. He has written a novel, newspaper columns on the arts, as well as literary and theatre essays advocating the establishment of a distinctly Singaporean tradition ...

Robinsons Department Store was founded in 1858 in Singapore by Philip Robinson and James Gaborian Spicer. Regarded as the grande dame of Singapore’s department stores, Robinsons was a shopping destination much loved by Singaporeans. However, following several years ...

The now demolished Roxy cinema, also known as Roxy theatre, used to be sited at the junction of East Coast Road and Brooke Road (where Roxy Square now stands). Initially owned by Mr Low Peng Soy, before being taken over by the legendary Shaw brothers, it was a ...

Rufino Soliano (b. 10 January 1932, Singapore–22 April 2017, Singapore) was an accomplished musician, composer and conductor. He was the former head of the now-defunct Singapore Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra. Soliano had been active in the local music scene ...

S. Chandrasekaran (b. 29 November 1959, Singapore–) is a visual artist who works across many different disciplines and mediums. He is known for the intense physical nature of his performances and the incorporation of elements from the biological sciences into his ...

S. Varathan (b. 22 February 1934, Singapore –), recipient of the National Arts Council Cultural Medallion in 1984, has played an active role in the local Tamil drama scene as an artiste, director, founder, producer, writer and researcher.

Sabri Buang (b. 1964, Singapore–d. 26 March 2021) is both a writer and director of theatre and television in Singapore and abroad. In his earlier days, Sabri acted in Malay dramas for both theatre and television, and has built up a body of directorial works in ...

The Sailors’ Home in Singapore was a seamen’s lodging from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. It became well known because novelist Joseph Conrad described his stay there in his novels, The Shadow-Line, The End of the Tether, and Lord Jim. The home was established ...

Salleh Japar (b. 1962, Singapore–) is a Singaporean contemporary artist who came into prominence in the late 1980s. He uses multiple mediums in his artworks which include sculptures, installations and paintings. Salleh has participated in more than 60 programmes ...

Sasanaramsi Burmese Buddhist Temple Singapore is located at 14 Tai Gin Road. The temple, which subscribes to the Theravada tradition, has been providing Theravada Buddhist services to the Buddhist community in Singapore since its earliest days. Built at a cost ...

Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) is one of the most important Malay historical works, and one of the finest literary works written in Malay, that has been handed down in various versions. There were at least seven versions of this text. Sejarah Melayu is also one ...

Selarang Barracks was built between 1936 and 1938 to house an infantry battalion. During the Japanese Occupation (1942–45), it was used by the Japanese Imperial Army to hold Australian and British prisoners-of-war (POWs). It is also the site of the infamous Selarang ...

Seletar Camp was formerly the site of the largest British Royal Air Force (RAF) base in the Far East. Plans for the camp were drafted as early as 1921, with the increasing need to build an airfield and flying boat base in Singapore. It soon became operational in ...

The Sembawang Naval Base was built by the British government during the 1920s and 30s. Opened in 1938, the base was meant to play a significant role in the British Empire’s strategic defences against external threats in the Far East, particularly from Japan. The ...

The Sembawang Public Library (formerly known as Sembawang Community Library) is located in Sun Plaza Shopping Centre. Its design was inspired by Sembawang’s shipyard and shipbuilding history. It was also designed with spaces to promote inter-generational reading. ...

Sengkang Public Library is located in Sengkang. Situated within the Compass One shopping centre, it was the first library of the National Library Board (NLB) to adopt a do-it-yourself (DIY) concept. The library was officially opened on 30 November 2002 by Teo Chee ...

The Sentosa Causeway links Sentosa Island with mainland Singapore. Built at a cost of S$117 million, the causeway was officially opened by former Senior Minister of State (Trade and Industry), Lim Boon Heng, on 15 December 1992.

Sentosa Cove is an integrated residential-cum-marina resort development on the eastern coast of Sentosa island, to the south of mainland Singapore. It is largely a residential estate, featuring Singapore's first and only gated residential community. In 2014, there ...

Shaw Organisation is best known as a major player in the Asian film industry since the 1920s, being involved in the production, distribution and exhibition of films. With studios in Shanghai, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, Shaw was a pioneer and revolutionary ...

As at 2016, the National Library Board (NLB) has 13 libraries located in shopping centres. This strategy aimed to bring the library closer to the people and encourage life-long learning among Singaporeans. The first shopping mall library, Jurong West Community ...

Shui Lan (b. 1957, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China–), also known as Lan Shui, is an internationally acclaimed conductor. He was appointed music director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) in 1997 and has been credited with transforming the SSO into a ...

Sime Road Camp is the site of the former combined operational headquarters of the British Army and Royal Air Force during World War II. Located along Sime Road, the 470-acre site was used as an internment camp during the Japanese Occupation. After the surrender ...

The Singapore Biennale is an international contemporary visual arts exhibition. It aims to promote Singapore art and culture to the world, boost the art and creative industries in Singapore, and provide a platform for locals to experience art. First held in September ...

The Singapore Chronicle was the first newspaper in Singapore. Its inaugural issue was published on 1 January 1824. Originally owned by publisher and editor, Francis James Bernard, it was initially a commercial newspaper which included official government notices, ...

The Singapore Conference Hall is located at 7 Shenton Way. Besides serving as the headquarters of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) from 1965 to 2000, it also witnessed many significant events in Singapore’s history. After extensive renovation works, it ...

Singapore Cricket Club (SCC) is a sports club located at the heart of the city’s civic centre along Connaught Drive and overlooking the Padang. It was established in 1852 and has evolved over the years from being an elite colonial sports club to a multi-racial ...

A platform to showcase dance practitioners and choreographers, and endear Singaporeans to dance as an art form – then known as the Festival of Dance – had begun as early as 1982. In 1993, the dance festival was subsumed under a bigger performing arts congregation, ...

Freemasonry, a fraternal society, was first set up in Singapore on 8 December 1845 with the establishment of Lodge Zetland in the East, the oldest surviving Freemason lodge here. Its members are called Freemasons or Masons, and belong to lodges or temples. The ...

Located at Outram Road, the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) established in 1821, is Singapore’s first general hospital and oldest medical institution. It had humble beginnings as a wooden shed built in the cantonment for troops situated near Bras Basah Road and ...

Formally established in 1927, the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) was initially tasked with improving the infrastructure of Singapore. This involved work such as drawing up general improvement plans, condemning insanitary buildings and constructing back lanes. ...

The Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS) is a non-profit cultural organisation, dedicated to the preservation and transmission of Indian culture through the arts. Its motto is “kala samskriti lakshanam”, meaning “art characterises civilisation”. SIFAS provides ...

The Singapore Indoor Stadium was officially opened on New Year’s Eve, 31 December 1989, by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Situated along the scenic Kallang River area, the stadium was part of the government’s urban re-generation project to revitalise the urban ...

The Singapore Institution Library grew from a vision, by Sir Stamford Raffles, for an educated Singapore. Upon the founding of Singapore, one of Raffles’s early initiatives was the setting up of an institution of learning and along with it, the means to collect ...

The Singapore International Festival of Arts is an annual highlight of Singapore’s cultural calendar. It began as the Singapore Festival of Arts in 1977 and was a biennial event up till 1999. Started at a time when Singapore was often called a “cultural desert”, ...

The Singapore Library, which grew out of the Singapore Institution Library, was established on 22 January 1845 as a library for the residents of Singapore. Initially occupying the north wing of the Singapore Institution (later renamed Raffles Institution), it was ...

The Singapore Management University (SMU) was established on 12 January 2000 as the first American-style and also the first publicly funded autonomous university in Singapore. It focuses on the areas of management, business and economics. Currently, SMU has over ...

The Singapore National Youth Orchestra (SNYO) is made up of young musicians from various schools across Singapore, from primary to tertiary levels, including students in international schools. The orchestra is managed by the Ministry of Education and aims to provide ...

The first Singapore River Buskers’ Festival was held along the Singapore River from 15 to 23 November 1997. Organised by The A Team Promotions in collaboration with the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB), the festival was part of the three-month Celebration ...

The Singapore Swimming Club (SSC) was established in 1894 at Tanjong Rhu by a group of Europeans. In 1994, the club celebrated its 100th anniversary with the opening of a museum dedicated to its history and the publication of a commemorative book. With a large ...

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is a fulltime professional orchestra that officially debuted in 1979 as Singapore’s national symphony orchestra. The SSO first trained under the baton of then resident conductor and music director Choo Hoey in 1979. Since ...

The Singapore Watercolour Society (SWS) was established on 18 August 1969 to promote watercolour painting in Singapore and provide local watercolourists with greater opportunities to showcase their works. The society has since held exhibitions regularly in Singapore ...

The first television station in Singapore, Television Singapura, was launched on 15 February 1963. It merged with Radio Singapura to form Radio and Television Singapore (RTS) following Singapore’s independence on 9 August 1965. On 1 February 1980, RTS was corporatised ...

The sitar is a traditional and classical stringed instrument believed to have been invented in India around 700 years ago. It is played by striking a plectrum known as the mizrab (in Persian) or mezrab on the main strings of the instrument. There are two types ...

Choy Sivanandan (b. 1947, Singapore–4 March 2018, Perth, Australia), better known as Siva Choy, was a musician, humourist and writer. While he was famous for the popular 1991 comedy album Why U So Like Dat?, the multi-instrumentalist was also a pioneer of blues ...

The Society of Chinese Artists (SOCA) was established in 1935. It is one of the earliest art associations in Singapore, alongside the Singapore Art Club (新加坡美术俱乐部, established in around 1882) and Commercial Art Institute (新加坡美术广告研究会, established in 1937). SOCA’s ...

The South East Asia Cultural Festival was held in Singapore from 8 to 15 August 1963. It featured a series of performances involving about 1,500 artistes from 11 Asian countries. The main events were held at the National Theatre, which has since been demolished, ...

Spell#7 is a local English performance company founded in 1997 by husband-and-wife team, Briton Paul Rae and Singaporean Kaylene Tan, who met as drama students at Bristol University in the United Kingdom. Rae and Tan have developed a unique and creative theatrical ...

Sri Krishnan Temple was established on Waterloo Street in 1870. It is the only South Indian Hindu temple in Singapore dedicated exclusively to Sri Krishna and his consort Rukmini.

Sri Mariamman Temple on South Bridge Road is the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore. Commonly referred to as Mariamman Kovil (“Mariamman Temple” in Tamil), the temple was constructed for the worship of Goddess Mariamman by immigrants from the Nagapattinam and Cuddalore ...

Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple, situated on Ceylon Road, was established in the mid-19th century by Ceylonese Tamils from Sri Lanka. On 7 February 2003, the temple was designated as a historic site and is today visited by tourists and temple worshippers alike.

Constructed in 1885, the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple at Serangoon Road, Little India, is one of Singapore’s oldest Hindu temples. Known for being the starting point for kavadi carriers during the Thaipusam festival, the temple was gazetted as a national monument ...

Sri Temasek is a 19th-century bungalow designated as the prime minister’s official residence. It was formerly the residence of the colonial secretary. While the house has been unoccupied since 1959, it was used regularly for meetings and official social events ...

St Andrew’s Cathedral, located at 11 St Andrew’s Road, is an Anglican cathedral located next to the City Hall Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station. Named after the patron saint of Scotland, it is the oldest Anglican house of worship in Singapore and was gazetted as ...

The St Andrew’s Mission Hospital (SAMH) was founded as a dispensary, the St Andrew’s Medical Mission, on 18 October 1913. It was established by medical doctor Charlotte Ferguson-Davie, the wife of the first Anglican bishop of Singapore, the Right Reverend Charles ...

St George’s Church is an Anglican church located at Minden Road, off Holland Road, on the grounds of what were once the Tanglin Barracks. Built between 1910 and 1913 as a garrison church, the distinctive red brick building has a rich history dating back to the ...

St Joseph’s Church is located at 143 Victoria Street. It was built by the Portuguese Mission in 1853 to serve Portuguese and Eurasian Catholics in Singapore. A church of devotion that practises many Portuguese Catholic traditions, its building was declared a national ...

Stamford House, located at the junction of Stamford Road and Hill Street, is an ornate building designed in the Venetian Renaissance style favoured during the Victorian era. Built in 1904, it was designed by Swan and Maclaren architect R. A. J. Bidwell as a commercial ...

Named after Singapore’s founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, Stamford Road is a street in the Museum Precinct of the Central Region. It stretches from the Esplanade to Fort Canning.

Stanley Warren (b. 1917, London, England–d. 20 February 1992, Bridport, England), a bombardier with the 135th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, was known as the painter of the murals in St Luke’s Chapel of the Roberts Barracks in Changi while interned as a prisoner-of-war ...

The bronze statue of Stamford Raffles, sculpted by Thomas Woolner, was installed on Jubilee Day on 27 June 1887 at the Padang. It was relocated to Empress Place during Singapore’s centenary celebrations on 6 February 1919. The statue depicts Raffles standing with ...

Sng Ee Tze (b. 23 July 1978–), better known as Stefanie Sun Yan Zi (孙燕姿), is a Singaporean singer said to be the nation’s most successful musical export. When Sun debuted on the music scene in 2000, she became an instant Mandopop sensation in Singapore and Taiwan. ...

Suchen Christine Lim (b. 1948, Malaysia–) is the first winner of the Singapore Literature Prize (Fiction) in 1992 for her novel, A Fistful of Colours. Lim has written short stories, children’s stories, students’ textbooks as well as a play. In 2000, she was the ...

The Sultan Mosque is located at 3 Muscat Street, where it is the focal point of the historic Kampong Glam area. Also known as Masjid Sultan, it was named for Sultan Hussein Shah. The mosque was first built in 1824. However the original structure was demolished ...

Suntec City, commissioned and built by a private consortium, began construction in 1989 and was completed in phases between 1995 and 1997 at a cost of US$2.3 billion. Built in the heart of Marina Centre near City Hall MRT station, it has been described as a “city ...

The Supreme Court of Singapore comprises the Court of Appeal and the High Court. The Supreme Court and the State Courts (previously known as Subordinate Courts) together form the two tiers of the Singapore judiciary system. As a key organ of the state judiciary, ...

Suratman Markasan (b. 29 December 1930, Singapore– ) is a prolific poet, novelist and respected literary pioneer in Singapore. His literary career spans from the early 1950s to the present. The numerous awards he has received include: the Southeast Asian Writers ...

The Crescendos were a popular Singapore band of the 1960s. Formed in 1961 and comprising John Chee, Leslie Chia and Raymond Ho, the band was joined the following year by vocalist Susan Lim. It became the first Singapore pop group to be signed on by an international ...

The famous colonial architectural firm Swan & Maclaren had its beginnings in 1887 as Swan & Lermit. It is considered to be one of the pioneer architectural firms in Singapore. Archibald Swan and Alfred Lermit, started Swan & Lermit, but the latter left the partnership ...

The SYC Ensemble Singers, formerly known as the Singapore Youth Choir (SYC), is an award-winning and well-travelled amateur choir established in 1964. The group began as a combined school choir under the Music Department of the Ministry of Education. In 1972, the ...

The Syonan Jinja (Light of the South Shrine) was a Shinto shrine built to commemorate the Japanese soldiers who died in the conquest of Malaya and Sumatra. Constructed deep in the forests of the MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore between 1942 and 1943, the shrine ...

The Human Expression Dance Company, better known as T.H.E Dance Company, is a non-profit contemporary dance company founded by dancer and choreographer Kuik Swee Boon in September 2008. Known for its dancers’ nifty techniques and classical-trained grace, the company ...

Tampines Regional Library is the first regional public library in Singapore. Originally sited along Tampines Avenue 7, it was officially opened on 3 December 1994. Tampines Regional Library functioned as a “prototype library” where new services and features were ...

Tan Choh Tee (b. 1942, Guangdong, China–) is a prominent artist known for his impressionist-style oil paintings depicting still life as well as landscapes from a bygone era in Singapore’s history. For his contributions to the local arts scene, Tan was awarded the ...

Tan Hwee Hwee (b. 1974, Singapore–) was the recipient of the National Arts Council’s (NAC) Young Artist Award in 2003. She is the author of Foreign Bodies (1997) and Mammon Inc. (2001), which won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2004. Her works have been published ...

Tan Kian Por (陈建坡; b. 26 November 1949, Chaozhou, China–d. 16 August 2019, Singapore) was a Chinese calligrapher, painter and seal carver. His paintings have a distinctive style, and have been displayed in major art galleries in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China, ...

Tan Lip Seng (b. 1942, Singapore–) is a prominent local photographer known worldwide for his slide and travel photography. He has described his photography style as “painting with light and shadow”. Tan was conferred the Cultural Medallion in 1985 in recognition ...

Tan Si Chong Su, located on Magazine Road, was built in 1876 as the ancestral temple and assembly hall of the Tan clan in Singapore. This temple, which has a large Hokkien patronage, is still used as a repository for ancestral tablets. The architecture of the temple ...

Tan Siah Kwee (b. 6 October 1948, Chaoan District, Guangdong Province, China–) is an accomplished Chinese calligrapher and an active promoter of the traditional art of Chinese calligraphy. His calligraphy works and tireless efforts in creating awareness and interest ...

Tan Teck Guan Building, located at 16A College Road, was built in 1911 to add to the existing facilities of the Straits and Federated Malay States Government Medical School (later known as King Edward VII College of Medicine). The building underwent renovations ...

Tan Teng Kee (b. 1937, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia–) is a sculptor and painter, specialising in abstract works depicting space, flow and movement. He is regarded as a pioneer in the history of metal sculpture in Singapore, and was one of the first in the country ...

Established in 1844, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) is one of the oldest hospitals in Singapore. It was set up with the help of a generous donation by a wealthy philanthropist, Tan Tock Seng. First erected on Pearl’s Hill, the hospital moved to Balestier Plain, ...

Founded by Ang Chek Meng, Ng Yu-Ying, Leslie Tan and Lionel Tan in 1992, T’ang Quartet is the first professional string quartet formed in Singapore. Noted for its precision and balance, the quartet’s musical repertoire is a skilful and contemporary blend of both ...

The Tanglin Barracks was built by George Chancellor Collyer in 1861 for European troops. The barracks served the British garrison infantry battalion until the fall of Singapore in 1942. After the war, it was home to the General Headquarters of the Far East Land ...

Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, located along Keppel Road, was a passenger station for trains run by the Malaysian rail operator Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) Berhad travelling between Singapore and Malaysia. Previously known as the Keppel Road Railway Station, the ...

Built in 1998, the Tanjong Rhu Bridge spans the Geylang River, allowing residents of Tanjong Rhu to cross over to the Singapore Sports Hub.

Tanya Chua (蔡健雅) (b. 28 January 1975, Singapore–) is a critically acclaimed Singapore Mandopop singer-songwriter who emerged on the music scene in the 1990s. Effectively bilingual in both English and Mandarin, Tanya gained popular success mainly in Taiwan and has ...

One of Singapore’s oldest primary schools, Tao Nan School was established on 18 November 1906 by the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan (Singapore Hokkien Clan Association). The school was first located on North Bridge Road and then Armenian Street, before moving to Marine ...

Taufik Batisah (b. 10 December 1981, Singapore–) is a singer, songwriter and music producer. After winning the first Singapore Idol – a television singing contest – in 2004, he enjoyed popular success with a series of albums. Beyond Singapore, Taufik has also gained ...

Tay Bin Wee (b. 1926–d. 13 July 2000, Singapore) was a prominent actor and director in the Mandarin theatre scene in Singapore between the 1950s and 1980s. He co-founded the Singapore Amateur Players (now known as the Arts Theatre of Singapore), a Mandarin theatre ...

Tay Teow Kiat (Dr) (b. 1947, Singapore–) is a musician and conductor. Considered a pioneer and the founding father of Chinese orchestral music in Singapore, Tay established and built up various leading Chinese orchestras in Singapore and is a prominent conductor ...

Established on 1 March 1950, the Teachers’ Training College (TTC) was Singapore’s first permanent, fulltime training college for English-medium primary school teachers. Training classes for Chinese-medium teachers were subsequently started at the college in 1955, ...

Teater Ekamatra was founded by playwright, dramatist and director Lut Ali and his wife Rubie Lazim in 1988 to develop contemporary experimental Malay theatre that fuses traditional Southeast Asian theatre styles with contemporary techniques. This was a departure ...

The Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church is located at 235 Telok Ayer Street, at the junction with Cecil Street. Founded in 1889 by Benjamin Franklin West primarily for the Hokkien-speaking Chinese community, it is considered the oldest Chinese Methodist church ...

The Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church building is located at the junction of Telok Ayer Street and Cecil Street in Singapore’s Central Business District. Constructed in 1924, the building’s architecture is a unique blend of Eastern and Western styles, and does ...

Teng Mah Seng (b. 1915, Fujian province, China–d. 5 December 1992, Singapore) was a musician, lyricist and composer. He was hailed as the saviour of nanyin music, an ancient form of Chinese opera music that dates back to the seventh-century Tang Dynasty. Teng is ...

Teo Bee Yen (b. 1950, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China–) is an acclaimed photographer and philatelist. Although Teo ventured into photography only in the mid-1990s, he was, by 1998, already listed as one of the top 10 photographers in the world by the Photographic ...

Tham Yew Chin (b. 1950, Ipoh, Malaya–), better known by her pseudonym You Jin, is a well-known local Chinese language writer. A prolific writer, Tham has written numerous short stories, novels, travelogues, essays and opinion pieces, some of which have been translated ...

The Thau Yong Amateur Musical Association (陶融儒乐社) is a musical group formed in 1931 and registered as a society in 1962. It remains active today, performing Waijiang (外江) and Teochew music and opera concerts regularly.

The ARTS FISSION Company is a local non-profit dance company founded by choreographer Angela Liong and visual artist S. Chandrasekaran in 1994. As the first multidisciplinary contemporary dance group in Singapore, the company creates original works and new dance ...

The Arts House (also known as the Old Parliament House) is where the Singapore Parliament used to sit. Located at Empress Place, it was originally built as a residence in 1827. After a series of major alterations and additions, possibly only the arches inside the ...

The Arts Housing Scheme is a project under the National Arts Council (NAC). It was introduced in 1985 by the former Ministry of Community Development to support local artists and arts activities. Recognising the scarcity and high cost of land in Singapore, the ...

The Blessed Sacrament Church (also known as Church of the Blessed Sacrament) is a Catholic church located along Queensway, facing Commonwealth Drive. Officially opened in 1965, it was built to serve the Catholic community in the Queenstown area. The church building ...

The Causeway is a road and rail link between Singapore and Johor Bahru in Malaysia. Completed in 1923, the 1.05-kilometre Causeway cost an estimated 17 million Straits dollars and spans the Johor Straits (also known as the Tebrau Straits). At the Singapore end ...

The Chinese High School was founded in 1919 as the first secondary school in Singapore offering a modern education using the Chinese language. Initially operating out of bungalows on Niven Road, the school relocated to its current location along Bukit Timah Road ...

One of Singapore’s most successful local puppet troupes, The Finger Players (TFP) is a non-profit company founded in February 1996 by Tan Beng Tian and Ong Kian Sin as a unit of Kuo Pao Kun’s The Theatre Practice (formerly known as Practice Theatre Ensemble). Other ...

Chin Woon Ping’s Details Cannot Body Wants was the first Singapore play to receive a Restricted (R) rating, which grants admission only to viewers at least 18 years of age. First performed at The Substation’s Guinness Theatre on 12 September 1992, it was one of ...

The Istana is the official residence of the president of Singapore. Spanning over 40 ha, it is located along Orchard Road, Singapore’s prime shopping district. The present structure was designed and built by John Frederick Adolphus McNair in 1869, and originally ...

The Quests was a popular Singapore band of the 1960s. Formed in 1961 by Jap Chong, Raymond Leong, Henry Chua and Lim Wee Guan, and later joined by guitarist Reggie Verghese and singer Vernon Cornelius, the band was considered the most successful local band of that ...

Established in 1949, The Singapore Art Society (SAS) is considered the first multicultural art society in Singapore. The society aims to foster the practice and appreciation of art in Singapore. SAS organises regular art exhibitions and overseas painting tours. ...

Published for the first time on 8 October 1835, The Singapore Free Press was Singapore’s second English-language newspaper after the Singapore Chronicle. It was founded by William Napier, George D. Coleman, Edward Boustead and Walter Scott Lorrain, and remained ...

The Southeast Asia (SEA) Collection is a significant collection of the National Library. It includes the Ya Yin Kwan Collection, the Rost Collection, the Gibson-Hill Collection and a wide range of early-19th-century literature. Its most valuable titles come from ...

The Straits Times’ Life! Theatre Awards was inaugurated in 2001. It is organised by Life!, the arts and entertainment section of the newspaper The Strait Times, to acknowledge the contributions of theatre productions in Singapore. First announced on 4 January 2000, ...

The Thunderbirds was a Singapore band that was popular in the 1960s. Formed in 1962 and anchored by guitarist Derrick Fitzgerald, it was probably the longest-running band in Singapore, having played for almost two decades at the Carriage Bar at York Hotel. The ...

The Trailers was a very popular Singapore band in the 1960s. Formed in 1964 by Victor Woo and Eric Tan, the band was a regular feature at live music venues and events, and had released a number of commercially successful records. Among these were some original ...

TheatreWorks is Singapore’s flagship English language theatre company formed in 1985 by theatre practitioners Lim Siauw Chong, Lim Kay Tong and Justin Hill. The company aims to develop and nurture local artists, promote and support Singaporean writing and literature, ...

Thian Hock Keng is Singapore’s oldest Hokkien temple. Located at 158 Telok Ayer Street, it is recognised as the most majestic Chinese temple in Singapore. It was designed and built in 1842 by skilled craftsmen from China according to traditional Chinese temple ...

Thirunalan Sasitharan (b. 1958, Singapore–), also known as Sasi, is an actor, art critic, arts educator, activist, former journalist and former philosophy teacher. Besides being an outstanding actor, Sasitharan is one of the foremost thinkers in the local arts ...

Officially opened on 3 April 1958, Times House, the operation base for Singapore’s leading newspapers once stood at the junction of Kim Seng Road and River Valley Road. 46 years later, on 1 April 2004 at 8.45 am, the mustard-coloured landmark was targeted to be ...

An estate with architectural, cultural and historic significance, Tiong Bahru was developed in the 1920s as Singapore’s first public housing estate by the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT), the colonial predecessor of the Housing Development Board. In 2003, 20 ...

Located at 6 Toa Payoh Central, Singapore, Toa Payoh Community Library (previously known as Toa Payoh Branch Library), as it was then known, was opened on 7 February 1974. Equipped to serve about 250,000 residents in Toa Payoh, it was the second full-time branch ...

Tou Mu Kung, also called Hougang Dou Mu temple (后港斗母宫), is a Taoist temple located at 779A Upper Serangoon Road. Completed in 1921, it is the oldest temple dedicated to the worship of Jiu Huang Ye (九皇爷 or Nine Emperor Gods) in Singapore and was gazetted as a national ...

Tropicana was Singapore’s — and Southeast Asia’s first entertainment complex to feature a cabaret theatre, restaurants and nightclubs. Opened in 1968, it was best known for introducing topless revues to Singapore. Extremely popular in its early years, Tropicana ...

Yeh Tsung (b. 17 May 1950, Shanghai, China–), better known as Tsung Yeh, has been the music director of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) since 2002. Currently also the music director of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra in the United States (US), Yeh is the ...

Utusan Melayu, a Malay daily printed in the Jawi script, was first published in Singapore on 29 May 1939 by Utusan Melayu Press Limited (UMPL). It was a landmark publication as it was the first Malay newspaper to be wholly owned, financed, written and managed by ...

The Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall (VTCH) along Empress Place is Singapore’s oldest performing arts venue. Gazetted as a national monument on 14 February 1992, the VTCH comprises two blocks of building constructed more than 43 years apart, in 1862 and 1905, ...

Vivien Goh (born 1948, Singapore) is the daughter of the late Goh Soon Tioe, a pioneering violinist, music teacher and impresario who played a key role in the development of classical music in Singapore. Like her father, Goh is an accomplished violinist whose musical ...

W!LD RICE is a professional theatre company started in 2000 by actor, playwright and director Ivan Heng. Staging shows in Singapore and abroad, the company brings Singaporean theatre to international audiences and provides a platform for local theatrical talents. ...

Wang Sui Pick (b. 1904, Anxi, Fujian, China–d. 18 May 1998, Singapore) was one of the most respected senior calligraphers in Singapore. He was renowned for his finger calligraphy in cao shu, or cursive script. Other than taking part in exhibitions, Wang taught, ...

Waterloo Street is a one-way street that begins at Stamford Road and ends at the Rochor Canal at Rochor Canal Road. It forms junctions with Bras Basah Road, Middle Road and Albert Street. Named to commemorate the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, its landmarks include the ...

Wayang, a Malay word meaning “a theatrical performance employing puppets or human dancers”, commonly refers to Chinese street opera in Singapore, although it is also used in reference to other forms of opera such as wayang kulit. In Mandarin, Chinese street opera ...

Wayang kulit is a form of traditional theatre in Southeast Asia. It involves a puppet shadow play performance with origins that are possibly linked to the Indian shadow play. There are many forms and types of wayang kulit in Asia. Those performed in Peninsular ...

Wee Beng Chong (黄明宗; Huang Mingzong) (b. 22 November 1938, Singapore–), a renowned artist, was one of the first recipients of the Cultural Medallion when it was established in 1979. Among the most versatile artists in Singapore, Wee has done sculpture, Chinese ...

Wesley Methodist Church is located at 5 Fort Canning Road, in the Museum precinct of the Central Region in Singapore. Originally called the Methodist Episcopal Church, it was the first Methodist Church in Singapore, and was renamed Wesley Methodist Church in 1910. ...

White House Park is a 194,138-square-foot estate sited on White House Park Road and Dalvey Road. It lies within a designated Good Class Bungalow area, where bungalow development requirements stipulate a minimum plot size of 1,400 sq m and a maximum two-storey height. ...

Founded in Calcutta, India by Robert Laidlaw in 1882, Whiteaway Laidlaw was a department store that opened a premier branch in Singapore in 1900. Offering products that appealed to the Europeans and wealthy locals, the outlet in Singapore was located on D’Almeida ...

Wong Keen (b. 1942, Singapore–) is a painter largely considered to be the first Singapore artist working in the abstract style and known for his frequent utilisation of a controlled “drip and flow” painting technique. His works incorporate both American abstract ...

The Woodlands Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line connecting Choa Chu Kang to Yishun was constructed in the early 1990s. Built at a cost of $1.2 billion, the 16-km long line was officially opened on 10 February 1996 by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. Also known as ...

The Woodlands Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station was constructed as part of the Woodlands MRT line, built in the early 1990s, which connects Choa Chu Kang to Yishun. Located directly under the Woodlands station is Singapore’s first underground bus interchange.

Woodlands Regional Library (WRL) was officially opened on 28 April 2001. It is the first full-fledged regional library under the National Library Board (NLB).

World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) Singapore was an arts event that made its debut in 1998 at the Festival of Arts. The first WOMAD to be held in Southeast Asia, the event ran for 10 years in Singapore before it was put on hold in 2007.

Wu Peng Seng (b. 1915, Shantou, China–d. 23 May 2006, Singapore), also known as Goh Peng Seng, was a pioneer photographer in Singapore known for his landscape photography and photographic travelogues. Wu was involved in photography for more than half a decade, ...

Xinyao (新谣) is a genre of music that typically refers to Mandarin ballads composed, written and performed by youths in Singapore. Started in the late 1970s, xinyao was at its peak in the 1980s and propelled many local singers and singer-songwriters to stardom, ...

Yan Hui Chang (b. 1954, Heyang County, Shaanxi Province, China–) is an internationally acclaimed conductor. He has premiered the works of leading Singapore composers, and his international standing has inspired musicians at home and abroad. For his contributions ...

Yeng Pway Ngon (b. 26 January 1947, Singapore–d. 10 January 2021, Singapore) was a well-known poet, novelist and critic in the Chinese literary scene in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. A prolific writer, Yeng’s works have been translated into English, ...

Yew Tee MRT Station, located in northwestern Singapore, lies between the Choa Chu Kang and the Kranji MRT stations on the North-South Line. It was constructed in the 1990s to serve the northern part of the expanded Choa Chu Kang town as part of the Woodlands extension. ...

Ying E Ding (b. 1947, Shanghai, China–), is a dancer and choreographer. He is known for his large-scale dance dramas and innovative approach to Chinese dance. Ying is a much sought-after choreographer and has choreographed a number of dances for the Singapore Arts ...

Yueh Hai Ching Temple is one of the oldest Taoist temples in Singapore. It was established in 1826 by the Teochew community and is also known as Wak Hai Cheng Bio in the Teochew dialect. The present building at 30B Philip Street was built in the 1850s and gazetted ...

Zhu Xu (朱绪) (b. 15 November 1909, Quanzhou, Fujian, China–d. 19 December 2007, Singapore), real name Choo Kui Chao (朱季灶), was a pioneering figure in the history of Singapore theatre. A renowned playwright and director, Zhu played an instrumental role in the development ...