Old Singapore Quiz (22) - Old Building - Answer

Nobody gave the correct answer for this quiz although YG did make an intelligent guess, as always, by saying that the building must be near my place of work. I don't think the quiz was too difficult but rather, there seems to be very few visitors to this place - Labrador Villa Road in Labrador Park and hence not many people know what it has to offer. Why do I say that? Well, I visited Labrador Park on the morning of 29 Dec 10, a Saturday and there was not a single soul in sight!

Almost all the facilities in the park were closed. They include the old building which, according to a location map in the vicinity, was originally designated a boutique hotel. I do not know whether the hotel business actually did materialise or not.

Other facilities that were closed include:

 

The secret tunnels.

The tunnels were "rediscovered" only in 2001 and officially opened by Minister for National Development Mr Mah Bow Tan not too long ago in March 2005.

Now they are "closed for maintenance".

The Villa Raintree Resort and Spa, which used to house the Pasir Panjang Boys' Hostel from 1980s till the early 1990s and then Breakthrough Missions till the early 2000s.

The creepers on its signboard look creepy.

The Olive Ristorante.

Even the toilets were closed. And definitely not for cleaning.

This statue in Labrador Park seems to be on the constant lookout for the precious and elusive visitor.

Considering the dearth of visitors, why do you think Labrador Park is now undergoing "maintenance"? Surely cannot be due to wear-and-tear because of heavy human traffic, right? And how come the supposedly "maintenance" does not have an expected completion date? Like Mandai Orchid Garden which "has been losing money from Day 1", according to its owner Mr Heah Hock Heng, I believe Labrador Park is suffering the same fate. Only difference is that Labrador Park is losing Government's, or more rightfully, taxpayers' money. Mr Heah continues to operate the Mandai Orchid Garden at a loss because of his passion for orchids. However, the same cannot be said for Labrador Park visitors. I don't think visitors are passionate enough about history and heritage to be willing to fork out $8.60 just to explore the secret tunnels at the park. Thus, the tunnels are likely to remain secret... or be "closed for maintenance" indefinitely.

What do you think?

Old Singapore Quiz (22) - Old Building

Just like Icemoon who gave an Old Building Quiz before going on holiday, I will do the same. That is, give an Old Building Quiz, not go on holiday. So the clue for this quiz is a photo which I took in August 2009 of an old dilapidated building - one that would make an ideal backdrop for a sequel to a movie like Haunted Changi. I don't know how this building looks like today as I have not visited it since then.

Quiz Question:

Where is the location of this building?

Who Stole The Carved Ceremonial Pole?

Chun See went to Empress Place this afternoon but he couldn't see the Carved Ceremonial Pole from across the river.

I thought to myself, "Oh no! Could someone have stolen the Carved Ceremonial Pole?" If so, being an alert and responsible citizen, I must report the theft to the National Heritage Board. Otherwise, I could be accused of being bochap (couldn't care less, can't be bothered, complacent, etc.) just like what MRT staff have been criticised for after the recent case of the train vandalism came to light. However, I should verify the facts myself first. So I made a special trip down to Empress Place after 8 pm tonight (to beat the ERP because the pole was located inside the CBD).

To my great relief, the pole was still standing, as ramrod straight as ever. (The date/time stamp for this photo shows that I took the photo tonight, i.e. I did not cheat.)


Maybe my illusion trick made the pole look gigantic. Actually, it is only about 30-foot (9-metre) high, i.e. only slightly taller than a flag pole and a bit fatter, as the photo below shows. So Chun See could have easily been misled missed it, especially when he was looking from across the river.


So that the trip was not completely wasted, I might as well attempt a second shot of the old Marine Police Station:

A 1920s View Of Empress Place

This is a 1920s view of Empress Place. Chun See has an Old Buildings Quiz here which shows the building in the foreground. This building has been demolished long ago. The area is now an open field where the following Carved Ceremonial Pole could be found.


The Carved Ceremonial Pole was presented by the State Government and People of Sarawak to the Government and People of Singapore, after the 'Singapore-Sarawak Link' exhibition at the old National Museum in Jan 1991. Doesn't it look taller than the skyscrapers? Of course, that is just an illusion.

You can see part of Cavenagh Bridge and Anderson Bridge at the right of the first photo. Note the background of the photo, which is the city centre, is practically devoid of tall buildings. In fact the tallest structure in the area seems to be the clock tower of the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, previously called the Town Hall or the Victoria Memorial Hall.

Philip Chew said that the building in the foreground was the former Marine Police Station in Empress Place. I think he is right.

When AIDS Had A Very Different Meaning

We all know that AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and an AIDS Society helps people inflicted with AIDS. But did you know AIDS and AIDS Society had very different meanings in the 1960s?


This is a photo of the building standing at the junction of Victoria Street and Albert Street. It was probably taken around the year 1980 as Golden Landmark Hotel (now known as Landmark Village Hotel) could be seen in the bottom-right of the photo. Note the English sign on the old building - it says FOH SONG MUTUAL AIDS SOCIETY (Chinese - He Shang Hu Zhu Hui or 和商互助會. 'He' or 和 is a Chinese surname.) The Chinese sign on the top of the building says He Shan Gong Hui or 禾山公會. Note that in those days, it was common to write Chinese characters from right to left.)

Below is a photo of the same building taken at night in 1964 from the then Bugis Street, courtesy of Peter Chan:


Note the lighted advertisement in shape of a soft drink bottle on the building. There are also flags strung across the street and a round sign on the facade of the building which says that the society was celebrating its 60th Anniversary that year. In the background of the photo is the SIT flat that I blogged about here and here:


So there you have it - solid proof that the SIT flat was in the then Albert Street. (This portion of Albert Street has since been renamed as New Bugis Street.)

Of course, no blog post of old places in Singapore is complete without a second shot of the same place today:


Notice the F1 Team on top of the bus stop? It is a static advertisement for the Singapore 2010 Formula 1 Night Race that will be held from 24-26 Sep 2010. This modern and realistic advertisement is certainly a far cry from the 1960s advertisement of the soft drink bottle, isn't it?

With the amorous activities happening in the nearby Bugis Street then, AIDS in Singapore could very well have started in this area. If so, then the signboard of the AIDS society had certainly been very prophetic.

Old Singapore Quiz (14) - Answer

What a disappointment! Despite so many clues given, nobody came up with the correct guess for the last quiz. I am sure that once I reveal the answer, you will be saying to yourself, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Quiz Question:

Where did these patterns come from?

Answer:

Not from an old blanket but from Fairfield Methodist Church (花菲卫理公会). This church is located at the junction of Maxwell Road and Tanjong Pagar Road. The building has been conserved. (Owners of conservation buildings cannot demolish the buildings or make major alterations to their structures or facades.)

Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development at the 2005 URA Architectural Heritage Awards Presentation Ceremony at Malay Heritage Centre on 26 Sep 2005 said:

"Another post-war building approved for conservation is the former Metropole Cinema, otherwise known as Jing Hwa Cinema. Together with the Majestic and the Oriental, Jing Hwa Cinema, built in 1958, was one of Chinatown’s three famous cinemas. Some of you may recall traveling from outlying areas to catch your favourite Chinese movies there. Its successful new life as Fairfield Methodist Church today shows that modern-style buildings can be retained and modified for new use."

The building was built in 1958 as Metropole Theatre (金華大戯院). It was one of three famous cinemas in Chinatown - the other two being Majestic Theatre and Oriental Theatre. In the 1990s, Metrolpole Theatre was converted into Fairfield Methodist Church.


As I mentioned in one of the clues, I took the photos from only one side of the building. As indicated by the red arrows, all the 4 patterns appeared in this photo:


Metropole Theatre (1958-1985):


The following description of Metropole Theatre was taken from 4 posters displayed on its ground floor:


This was the main ticketing booth of Metropole Cinema. Patrons could purchase $1 and $1.50 tickets for seats in the main cinema hall at Level 2. The cheaper $1 seats were in the first few rows.

Kuehn Hall [entrance door in the centre of the above photo] was part of the cinema's basement car park. This car park is significant because it is the first basement car park ever constructed in an air-conditioned cinema in Singapore!

The front of Kuehn Hall was the ticketing booth for the more expensive $2 and $2.50 circle seats at Level 4.

At both ticketing booths, cinema goers would choose their seats from a piece of paper that displayed the overall seating arrangement before the seat numbers were manually written on the tickets.

A typical cinema seating plan in those days looked like the one in the above photo. The ticket seller, usually a woman, would cross out with a blue or red colour pencil the seats on the plan for which the tickets have been sold.

To get to the various levels of the cinema, patrons could either use the main spiral staircase...


...or the lift which was manually operated by a dedicated lift operator. (You can see the current lift in one of the photos above.) The lift had a foldable iron gate as the lift door. (Please see this post for a description of a similar cage lift.)

More Recent Photos of the Church


But How Did The Interior of the Cinema Look Like in the 1960s?

All the black-and-white photos below are by courtesy of the National Archives of Singapore:



The above photos were taken at a speech by C.V. Devan Nair, Member of Education Advisory Council at the Metropole Theatre in 1964.

Do you recognise this very famous Cantonese star who made an appearance at the Metropole Theatre in 1967? She was only 16 then.

This is how she looks like today:

Yes, she is Sit Kar Yin, also known as Nancy Sit. She is still pretty and charming after all these years, just like the Metropole Theatre.

Further Reading:

BullockCartWater's Metropole Cinema (Kum Wah)