As a Singaporean who recalled being on many chaotic learning journeys to the Singapore River throughout my school days when growing up, I was vaguely aware that Singapore has come a long way to become the clean and modern city that we see today before we embarked on this trail. Along with my peers, we visited the Singapore River, viewing the beautiful architecture and scenery/landscape again, this time round taking time to see what was there before with different eyes (though we looked like tourists this way, taking wefies and examining the landmarks) has definitely changed the way I viewed Singapore’s history.
In the past, I was led to believe that Singapore was an obscure fishing village then back before 1819 and that Sir Stamford Raffles was the one who came all the way from the Great Britain to save us and bring us prosperity after he discovered Singapore, hence the statue at the Singapore River. This time, I was able to see the history of Singapore as a bigger picture rather than through the narrow perspective that was taught to us when we were in Primary and Secondary school and truly appreciate the change that Singapore went through to become what we see today.
While we were on our way to the first landmark on the trail, the Ancient Civilisations Museum (ACM), located at Empress Place, I would say the name of the road was practically shouting out “colonialism” and true enough, it was named by the British in honour of Queen Victoria in 1907. The ACM used to be Empress Place Building, designed by John Frederick Adolphus McNair in 1864, hence having the neoclassical architecture such as Doric columns and high ceilings, as well as the large French windows. I believe that the near 200-year-old building requires careful maintenance as frequent renovations were carried out to preserve it.
I believe that the sites at the Singapore River chosen for conservation do serve their purpose of educating the general public about the history of Singapore as they, undoubtedly, stood out amidst the high-rise buildings as well as futuristic and metropolis architectures such as the Esplanade, Marina Bay Sands and the Artscience Museum in the same area. These eye-catching blatant differences in the styles of buildings in the same area will no doubt trigger the interest of the public in finding out more about them and learning the history of Singapore.
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