The Singapore Poh Leung Kuk (保良局), or “office to protect virtue”, was established by the Chinese Protectorate in 1888. It grew out of one aspect of the protectorate’s work: controlling prostitution through registration and inspection to prevent the spread of venereal ...
Opium (Papaver somniferum) contributed significantly to the general trade in Singapore’s pioneering years. Encouraged by the British colonial government, it reaped great profit from opium licenses. However, many Chinese coolies succumbed to this vice as an escape ...
From 1879 to 1901, Fort Tanjong Katong stood on the eastern side of Singapore, adjacent to Katong Beach on what is now Meyer Road and Fort Road. It lent its name to Fort Road, which led to the base of the fort. Built by the British colonial government, Fort Tanjong ...
Phillip Street (or Philip Street) is a short one-way street in Chinatown that connects Chulia Street to Church Street. It was named either after William Edward Phillip, the governor of Penang (1820–26) or after Charles Phillip, the superintendent of the Sailors’ ...
William Alexander Pickering (b. 9 June 1840, Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England–d. January 1907, San Remo, Italy) was the first Protector of Chinese in Singapore. He joined the British colonial administration in 1877 and was the first British officer who could ...
The Chinese Protectorate was established in the Straits Settlements in 1877 to address matters concerning the Chinese community. Its main functions included establishing a pool of civil servants conversant in the Chinese language, managing newly arrived coolie ...
Guthrie & Co.’s history began in 1823 when a partnership was established between Alexander Guthrie and Thomas Talbot Harrington, a family friend. First located in a rented godown on Hill Street, the company sold British goods to the European and Chinese communities ...
The Chinese Christian Association (CCA) was established in October 1889 and lasted for more than half a century. The group organised religious activities such as bible classes alongside secular activities including debates, lectures as well as drama and reading ...
The Singapore Straits is among the most geographically strategic sites in the maritime world. Ships sailing between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean had to, and still have to, sail around the southern coast of Singapore. Over the centuries, control over ...
Gambling activities, also known as gaming, in colonial Singapore attracted different opinions from the colonial administrators. Sir Stamford Raffles abhorred it, and set out to ban gambling while Residents William Farquhar and John Crawfurd saw gambling as critical ...
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 ...
Tan Swie Hian (b. 5 May 1943, Pulau Halang, Indonesia–) is a multidisciplinary Singaporean artist known for his poetry, novels, paintings, calligraphy and sculptures. A highly esteemed artist, Tan has received multiple accolades both locally and internationally ...
On 3 January 2003 at about 11.35 pm, a patrol vessel commissioned by the Republic of Singapore Navy, the RSS Courageous, collided with a cargo ship, the ANL Indonesia, along the eastern Singapore Straits near Horsburgh Lighthouse (on the island of Pedra Branca). ...
Gay World was one of three amusement parks built in Singapore before World War II and around which Singapore’s nightlife revolved from the 1920s to the ’60s. The other two were New World and Great World. Gay World was a popular entertainment joint before the advent ...
Tun Sri (or Seri) Lanang is largely credited as the author of the Sulalat al-Salatin (Genealogy of Kings), popularly known as the Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals). He was a bendahara (prime minister) to the sultan of Johor at a time when the Johor sultanate was under ...
Great World Amusement Park was one of the three “Worlds” that lighted up Singapore’s nightlife in the 1950s and 1960s. Although it closed in 1964, cinemas, cabaret and restaurants continued operations at the park until 1978. Today, the site is occupied by Great ...
Neil Road in Chinatown is a one-way road that begins at South Bridge Road and ends at two points – one leads into Kampong Bahru Road and the other to the junction of New Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Street. Originally known as Silat, Selat or Salat Road, it was ...
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 ...
Built in the late 1930s, the Johore Battery was the main artillery battery of the British coastal artillery defence network on the northeastern coast of Singapore. It was located on Cosford Road in Changi, off Upper Changi Road North.