Old Hill Street Police Station
Encyclopedia
The Old Hill Street Police Station (Chinese: 旧禧街警察局) is a historic building in Singapore
, and is located at Hill Street
in the Museum Planning Area
, within the Central Area
, Singapore's central business district
.
and a school
— occupied the current site of the Old Hill Street Police Station.
The Old Hill Street Police Station building is the site of Singapore's first jail
. Following a meeting of soldier
s in the Alexandra Barracks
in 1915, the Singapore Police Force
was reorganised. As a result of the reorganisation, from 1915 to 1935, the Singapore Police Force built several police station
s to deal with increasing Chinese
secret society
activities. To provide vehicular access behind the building, the steep slopes of Fort Canning
had to be cut back and shore
d up. In 1934, the Hill Street Police Station and Barracks was opened by Director of Public Works
and Adviser for Malay States, G. Sturrock, who was also a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects
(FRIBA). In addition to the standard facilities for a police station, there were living quarters for policemen and their families.
During the Japanese Occupation
, Hill Street Police Station was used by the Kempeitai
as a holding area for prison
ers and some say, as torture chamber
s. After the war, it reverted to being a police station. The Arms
and Explosives Branch of the Police Department operated there from 1949 to 1981.
In the 1960s, a new housing
scheme gave police personnel the option to live in government-built accommodation. Police staff gradually moved out, with the last occupant leaving in 1979. Two years later, the station was closed and, after renovations, the building was renamed Hill Street Building in 1983. It housed the Official Consignee
, the Official Trustee
s, Public Receiver and the Archives and Oral History
Department (now the National Archives) and other government departments.
Today, it is used by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts
(MICA) and other associated departments and statutory board
s, including the National Arts Council
, the National Heritage Board
and the Media Development Authority
.
The Old Hill Street Police Station building was gazette
d as a national monument
on 18 December 1998.
in the 1930s. The building was designed by the Public Works Department when F. Dorrington Ward was the Government Architect
.
The six-storey
building has a thoroughly Italianate air with its corbel
led loggia
s and balconies, arcade
s, stucco
ed, rusticated surfaces and central courtyard
s, one large and one small. Because of the building's height, the proportions of these internal spaces are somewhat overwhelming but, as a solution to the problems of the Singapore climate
, this is a sensible idea.
The building was considered amongst the finest in the world. Modern for its time, it had electric lift
s by 1933. Upon its completion in 1934, it was the largest pre-war government building in Singapore and regarded as a modern skyscraper
. The building has a total of 911 window
s with colourful shutter
s.
The main courtyard, the former police parade
grounds, has been converted into an air-conditioned atrium
, called The ARTrium for art
activities. The spacious ARTrium, with its vibrant colours and ample space, regularly features artistic performances and also houses art galleries.
by the Chinese people. The traders
enjoyed prosperous trading until then because of the shape in the area which resembled the peh toh, the Chinese New Year
fish which was symbolic for good fortune.
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and is located at Hill Street
Hill Street
Hill Street is a street in the downtown of Singapore starting from Eu Tong Sen Street and ending at Stamford Road, where the road becomes Victoria Street...
in the Museum Planning Area
Museum Planning Area
The Museum Planning Area is an urban planning area in the Central Region of Singapore. It is located in the area known as the Civic District. The area plays a "bridging role" between the Orchard Street area and the Downtown Core, which necessitates proper transport networks for vehicles,...
, within the Central Area
Central Area
In Singapore, the Central Area or Central Business District contains the core financial and commercial districts, including eleven urban planning areas, namely Downtown Core, Marina East, Marina South, Museum, Newton, Orchard, Outram, River Valley, Rochor, Singapore River and Straits View as...
, Singapore's central business district
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
.
History
Between 1845 and 1856, the Assembly Rooms — a space for public functions and a building that housed a theatreTheatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and a school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
— occupied the current site of the Old Hill Street Police Station.
The Old Hill Street Police Station building is the site of Singapore's first jail
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
. Following a meeting of soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
s in the Alexandra Barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
in 1915, the Singapore Police Force
Singapore Police Force
The Singapore Police Force is the main agency tasked with maintaining law and order in the city-state. Formerly known as the Republic of Singapore Police , it has grown from an 11-man organisation to a 38,587 strong force...
was reorganised. As a result of the reorganisation, from 1915 to 1935, the Singapore Police Force built several police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
s to deal with increasing Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
secret society
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
activities. To provide vehicular access behind the building, the steep slopes of Fort Canning
Fort Canning
Fort Canning is a small hill slightly more than 60 metres high in the southeast portion of the island city-state of Singapore, within the Central Area that forms Singapore's central business district...
had to be cut back and shore
Shoring
Shoring is a general term used in construction to describe the process of supporting a structure in order to prevent collapse so that construction can proceed. The phrase can also be used as a noun to refer to the materials used in the process....
d up. In 1934, the Hill Street Police Station and Barracks was opened by Director of Public Works
Public works
Public works are a broad category of projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community...
and Adviser for Malay States, G. Sturrock, who was also a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(FRIBA). In addition to the standard facilities for a police station, there were living quarters for policemen and their families.
During the Japanese Occupation
Japanese Occupation of Singapore
The Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II occurred between about 1942 and 1945 after the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied Singapore after defeating the combined Australian, British, Indian and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore...
, Hill Street Police Station was used by the Kempeitai
Kempeitai
The was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not an English-style military police, but a French-style gendarmerie...
as a holding area for prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
ers and some say, as torture chamber
Torture chamber
A torture chamber is a room where torture is inflicted.- Methods of coercion :According to Frederick Howard Wines in his book Punishment and Reformation: A Study Of The Penitentiary System there were three main types of coercion employed in the torture chamber: Coercion by the cord, by water and...
s. After the war, it reverted to being a police station. The Arms
Weapon
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
and Explosives Branch of the Police Department operated there from 1949 to 1981.
In the 1960s, a new housing
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
scheme gave police personnel the option to live in government-built accommodation. Police staff gradually moved out, with the last occupant leaving in 1979. Two years later, the station was closed and, after renovations, the building was renamed Hill Street Building in 1983. It housed the Official Consignee
Consignee
In a contract of carriage, the consignee is the person to whom the shipment is to be delivered to whether by land, sea or air.-A brief statement of law:...
, the Official Trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
s, Public Receiver and the Archives and Oral History
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
Department (now the National Archives) and other government departments.
Today, it is used by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts
Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts
The Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts is a ministry of the Government of Singapore...
(MICA) and other associated departments and statutory board
Statutory boards of the Singapore Government
The statutory boards of the Singapore Government are organisations that have been given autonomy to perform an operational function. They usually report to one specific ministry.*Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority...
s, including the National Arts Council
National Arts Council Singapore
The National Arts Council of Singapore was established in September 1991 "to nurture the arts and make it an integral part of life in Singapore.-History :...
, the National Heritage Board
National Heritage Board (Singapore)
The National Heritage Board is a statutory board of the Singapore Government, under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts ....
and the Media Development Authority
Media Development Authority
The Media Development Authority is a statutory board of the Singapore Government, under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts .-History:...
.
The Old Hill Street Police Station building was gazette
Gazette
A gazette is a public journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.In English- and French-speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name Gazette since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers bear the name The Gazette.Gazette is a loanword from the...
d as a national monument
National Monuments of Singapore
National Monuments of Singapore are buildings and structures in Singapore that have been designated by the Preservation of Monuments Board as being of special historic, traditional, archaeological, architectural or artistic value....
on 18 December 1998.
Architecture
The Old Hill Street Police Station was built in Neo-Classical style which was still fashionable for public buildings in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the 1930s. The building was designed by the Public Works Department when F. Dorrington Ward was the Government Architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
.
The six-storey
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
building has a thoroughly Italianate air with its corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
led loggia
Loggia
Loggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
s and balconies, arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
s, stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
ed, rusticated surfaces and central courtyard
Courtyard
A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....
s, one large and one small. Because of the building's height, the proportions of these internal spaces are somewhat overwhelming but, as a solution to the problems of the Singapore climate
Tropical climate
A tropical climate is a climate of the tropics. In the Köppen climate classification it is a non-arid climate in which all twelve months have mean temperatures above...
, this is a sensible idea.
The building was considered amongst the finest in the world. Modern for its time, it had electric lift
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
s by 1933. Upon its completion in 1934, it was the largest pre-war government building in Singapore and regarded as a modern skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
. The building has a total of 911 window
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
s with colourful shutter
Window shutter
A window shutter is a solid and stable window covering usually consisting of a frame of vertical stiles and horizontal rails...
s.
The main courtyard, the former police parade
Parade (military)
A military parade is a formation of soldiers whose movement is restricted by close-order manouevering known as drilling or marching. The American usage is "formation or military review". The military parade is now mostly ceremonial, though soldiers from time immemorial up until the late 19th...
grounds, has been converted into an air-conditioned atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
, called The ARTrium for art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
activities. The spacious ARTrium, with its vibrant colours and ample space, regularly features artistic performances and also houses art galleries.
Trivia
Since the building was erected, it has been said to have bad feng shuiFeng shui
Feng shui ' is a Chinese system of geomancy believed to use the laws of both Heaven and Earth to help one improve life by receiving positive qi. The original designation for the discipline is Kan Yu ....
by the Chinese people. The traders
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
enjoyed prosperous trading until then because of the shape in the area which resembled the peh toh, the Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
fish which was symbolic for good fortune.