Empress Place Building
The
Empress Place Building (
Chinese: 皇后坊大厦) is a historic building in
Singapore, located on the north bank of the
Singapore River in the
Downtown Core, within the
Central Area in Singapore's
central business district. The building is currently the second wing of the
Asian Civilisations Museum. The other wing of the
museum is located at the
Old Tao Nan School building along Armenian Street.
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Sculptures depicting activities carried on the banks of the Singapore River on the south front of the Empress Place Building. |
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A statue of Sir Stamford Raffles denotes his landing place in 1819, located next to the Empress Place Building. |
During the
colonial era, the Empress Place Building was known simply as Government Offices. The first
civic buildings were planned here in
Sir Stamford Raffles' day. Originally intended to be a
courthouse, the Empress Place Building instead became offices for the government departments located in the adjacent Maxwell's House (later the
old Parliament House).
Maxwell's House, designed by
George Drumgoole Coleman, was a two-storey house built for a merchant, John Argyle Maxwell, in
1827. However, it was never occupied by him and it became a courthouse and lands office. Subsequently, it was converted to Government Offices and additions were made in
1839 and
1847.
Constructed in four phases from
1864 to
1920, Government Offices was built to provide much needed space for the growing colonial
administration. The original section of the building was designed by colonial engineer J.F.A. McNair and built by
convict labour between June
1864 and December
1867. This original section now forms the part of the building nearest to the old Parliament House.
Yet another courthouse was built in
1865; this is now the core of the Government Offices. In
1873-
1875, the old courthouse was extended towards the river and this is where the Supreme Court of the Colony held its sessions from
1875 until
1939 when the present
Supreme Court was built. Maxwell's original house became the
Assembly House in
1954 after extensive renovations and reconstruction. The decision to build a new Town Hall was made in
1854; the building was completed in
1862.
Government Offices that were housed included the
Secretariat,
Audit Office, Registration of
Deeds Office, Land Office,
Public Works and
Medical Department,
Treasury and
Stamp Office and the
bureaus of the Colonial
Engineer, the Official
Assignee and the Inspector General of the
Police Force. The
Legislative Chamber occupied a room on the upper floor.
In front of the building was a public
square which was given the name Empress Place by the
Municipal Council in
1907 in honour of
Queen Victoria. It may well be the oldest
pedestrian space in Singapore. Over time, Government Offices became associated with Empress Place and its name changed to what we know it today.
As the demand for more government office space increased, three major extensions were added in
1880,
1904-
1909 and
1920. Fortunately, every one of these extensions were faithful to McNair's
Neo-Palladian design and the building maintained a harmonious overall look.
In the surrounding area also known as Empress Place, the Memorial Hall and Tower were added in
1905 and extensive renovations were carried out from
1954 till
1979. Raffles' statue, now in front of the
Victoria Memorial Hall and Theatre, as it is now called, was first erected on the
Padang in
1887 but later removed to its present site in
1919. A second statue, a copy of the first one, was erected at
Raffles Landing Place in
1972. The
Dalhousie Memorial was originally located at Dalhousie Pier but found its present place in
1886.
Cavenagh Bridge was built in
1869 and was converted to
pedestrian traffic after the erection of
Anderson Bridge. These are the major elements which have contributed to the developing qualities of Empress Place.
The Empress Place Building was used by government departments until the late
1980s. It is perhaps best known as the
Registry of
Births and
Deaths, the
Citizenship Registry and the
Immigration Department.
In the late
1980s, plans were made to convert Empress Place Building into a
museum. Extensive
restoration began, culminating in the opening of the Empress Place Museum on
7 April 1989 by the then Second
Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong.
Although the museum was afflicted with
structural and
logistical problems from its inception, it nonetheless managed to organise five outstanding
exhibitions on
Chinese history in six short years. The first of these exhibitions, which featured royal objects from the
Qing Dynasty, put on display many precious
artefacts never seen before outside
China. By
1995, the museum's problems got the better of it and on
30 April that year, it closed its doors.
Subsequently, the Empress Place Building underwent renovations and opened as the second wing of the
Asian Civilisations Museum on
2 March 2003, exhibiting
Southeast,
South and
West Asian collections.
The Empress Place Building was
gazetted as a
national monument on
14 February 1992.
Located at the mouth of the
Singapore River, the Empress Place Building's imposing
Neo-Palladian exterior with
timber-
louvred
windows and
pitched
clay tile roofs caught the attention of immigrants and visitors sailing into Singapore harbour. A
1905 Singapore guidebook describes Government Offices and its neighbouring buildings thus:
"Apart from the cities of India, there is, perhaps, no place in the East which boasts such a handsome group of [government] buildings as viewed from the sea."
Inside, the rooms are stately, with high
ceilings, handsome
Doric columns and exquisite
plaster mouldings and
cornices. Elegantly proportioned, the building is laid out
symmetrically along a central axis.
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Asian Civilisations Museum, Empress Place |
*National Heritage Board (2002),
Singapore's 100 Historic Places, Archipelago Press, ISBN 9814068233
*Norman Edwards, Peter Keys (1996),
Singapore - A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places, Times Books International, ISBN 9971652315
*
Asian Civilisations Museum
