Swan & Maclaren

Contents

Acknowledgements v Preface 1 Introduction 2

PART ONE 1888–1899

PART THREE 1914–1941

1. Archibald Alexander Swan: Introducing the Man 6

25. The Great War Years: 1914–1918 202

2. Messrs Swan & Lermit: Surveyors

26. Mercantile Palaces and the Modern Classical Style 210

and Civil Engineers 10

27. Interlopers: The Arrival of Rivals 228

3. Swan Alone: 1890–1892 18

28. The Golden Era of the Black and White House 234

4. Swan & Maclaren: The Founding of the Practice 24

29. Tropical Voysey: The Residential Architecture

5. Hotels, Clubs and Early Residential Work 34

6. A Class Act: Bidwell Joins the Practice 40

30. Mansion Blocks, Flats and Tenements: The Advent

of Frank Wilmin Brewer 246

7. Shophouses and Godowns: An Urban Archetype 48

8. A Penang Interlude: George Town, 1895–1898 56

31. Going Dutch: Social Housing and the Influence

of Apartment Living 254

9. A Jubilee Year: 1897 60

10. Arts and Crafts: The Residential Architecture

32. Upwardly Mobile: Designing Homes for an Emergent

of Regent Bidwell 68

of the Amsterdam School 262 Middle Class 268

11. A Victorian Swansong: Swan & Maclaren

33. Up and Down the Peninsula: Swan & Maclaren

at the Turn of the Century 82

PART TWO 1900–1914

in Malaya Between the Wars 274

34. Swan, Maclaren & Craik: The Penang Years 284 35. Memorialising the Rajahs: Swan & Maclaren in

12. Robinson Road Wrenaissance: A Corporate Style

Kuching 294

36. Swan & Maclaren Sacred: The Churches and

for a New Century 90

13. From Edwardian Baroque to Indo-Saracenic 100

Memorials 298

14. Industry and Transport: Ramping up the

37. Romantic Orientalism: Mosques and Temples 308

Infrastructure 106

38. Corridors of Learning: Schools and Colleges 316

15. Variations on a Theme: From Shophouse

39. A Matter of Style: From Neo-Georgian

to Townhouse 112

to Chinese Renaissance 328

16. Gracious Living: The Tropical Edwardian House 120

40. Art Deco Singapore 334

17. Grand Tourism: The Battle of the Hotels 130

41. The Residential Architecture of Denis Santry 350

18. The Sporting Life: Clubs and Leisure 138

42. Early Modern: Stripped Classical

19. Three Masterworks 146 20. The Curious Fate of Mr Bidwell

158

21. Broadening the Horizon: Bangkok and Surabaya 168

and the Great West Road 358

43. Shophouses Between the Wars 370 44. More or Less: The Advent of Modernism 376

22. Kuala Lumpur Pursuits 172 23. A Changing of the Guard 180

Reflecting on Fifty Years 397

24. David McLeod Craik Joins the Practice 190

Swan & Maclaren Today 400

Gazetted Buildings Designed by Swan & Maclaren 410

Endnotes 411 Bibliography 424 Index 426

viii

Preface

The former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill is

Swan & Maclaren were pioneers of the Modern architec-

credited with the statement, “We shape our buildings and

tural movement in Singapore. A Serbian architect, Doucham

afterwards our buildings shape us.” If this observation is true

Slobodov Petrovitch joined Swan & Maclaren in 1927 and was

then the architectural practice of Swan & Maclaren can be

responsible for the exquisite Art Deco Federated Malay States

said to have shaped a substantial part of Singapore’s history.

Railway Terminus in Keppel Road (1929); Amber Mansions

Founded in 1892 by two Scottish engineers—Archibald

(1920–1922), designed by Swan & Maclaren, developed the

Alexander Swan and James Waddell Boyd Maclaren, the prac-

concept of apartment living. Brewer, Lundon and Petrovitch

tice of Swan & Maclaren is the oldest extant firm of architects

along with Harry Robinson and C. J. Stephen collectively stim-

in Singapore and the Malayan peninsula.

This book is an extraordinary work of scholarship by the

ulated a quiet revolution in Singaporean architecture in the 1930s and the seminal Fullerton Water Boat Building (1941)

author Julian Davison (b. 1956) who himself has a fascinating

was designed by Swan & Maclaren’s first Singaporean architect

life story. His father, Robert Davison, was one of the founding

Koh Cheng Yam (C. Y. Koh), who joined the practice in 1938.

partners of the architectural practice of Raglan Squire &

In 1911 Swan & Maclaren designed the Malayan HQ of the

Partners (now RSP Architects, Planners & Engineers) in

Mercantile Bank of India, London and China in Kuala Lumpur

Singapore (having previously worked in their London office).

and a year later the premises of John Little and Co. (1912–1913).

Julian spent his early years in Singapore and Malaysia before

They have maintained a presence in the city to this day, making

being despatched to boarding school in England at the age

them the oldest extant architectural practice in Malaysia.

of nine. He went on to gain a PhD in anthropology from the

The history of Swan & Maclaren is captivating and Davison

School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He

writes with palpable passion, weaving the factual stuff with

has lived in Singapore, off and on, for a total of thirty-five years.

anecdotal evidence, making it an incisive historical account of

This book covers the first fifty years of the practice from

the buildings designed by early generations of Swan & Maclaren

1892 to the outbreak of war in the Pacific in 1942. In that time

architects and the socio-cultural milieu in which they were built.

Swan & Maclaren designed or supervised the construction of

Other architectural firms changed their names after

almost twenty per cent of the buildings that are today gazetted

Singapore achieved independence in 1965 to reflect the shift

as National Monuments, including extensions to Raffles

from their mainly British ownership with allegiance to head

Hotel (1897), the Teutonia Club, now the Goodwood Park

offices in the United Kingdom but the name Swan & Maclaren

Hotel (1899), Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall (1903–1909),

has persisted throughout several changes of ownership for 127

Chesed-El Synagogue (1903–1905), Telok Ayer Chinese

years.

Methodist Church (1924) and Masjid Sultan (1928).

A galaxy of talented architects were associated with the

Another book is planned for the period from 1945 until the present day. I await with interest the story of the practice in the

practice in the early years of the twentieth century, including

latter years of the twentieth century and its resurgence in the

Regent Alfred John Bidwell (1895–1912), Vincent Steadman

twenty-first century under the present generation of directors,

(1913–1919), David McLeod Craik (1912–1929), Frank Wilmin

led by Lim Chai Boon. The name Swan & Maclaren speaks of

Brewer (1920–1930), Denis Santry (1919–1934) and Frank

continuity and change.

Lundon (1919–1954). Many of the houses in what are known as the “Good Class Bungalow Areas” stand as testimony to the

Professor Robert Powell

skill of these architects.

July 2018

1

Introduction Founded in 1892 by the eponymous Messrs Archibald

provided their buildings were habitable and, as a general rule,

Alexander Swan and James Waddell Boyd Maclaren, Swan &

didn’t fall down. Since the vast majority of buildings erected

Maclaren is the oldest architectural practice in Singapore. Not

in Singapore in the late-nineteenth century comprised two- or

only that but in the course of their 127-year history, one of the

three-storey structures—shophouses, godowns (warehouses)

most successful too. Almost from the very first moment that

and bungalows—this was perfectly reasonable. In the case of

the new partnership drew breath in February 1892, the practice

government buildings and other major civic works such as

was pre-eminent, securing top-flight commissions for prestige

churches, meeting halls and theatres, these were erected by

buildings and enjoying an almost unbroken chain of success

government or military engineers in the employ of the colo-

for fifty years to the outbreak of the war in the Pacific (1941–

nial administration; they also took on private commissions

1945). There was a brief period in the late 1920s when Swan

when required. It was a system that had been in place since

& Maclaren faced a serious challenge from the rival British

the earliest days of the Settlement, founded by Sir Stamford

partnership of Keys & Dowdeswell, but the latter foundered,

Raffles in the name of the East India Company in 1819 and one

leaving Swan & Maclaren in top position once more, a place

that had served the architectural needs of nineteenth-century

they maintained until the Second World War, which is where

Singapore well.

the present study ends; a second volume charting the firm’s

By the mid-to-late 1880s, however, the situation was

achievements in the postwar era through to the present day is

beginning to change as Singapore’s growing prosperity in the

to follow.

late-Victorian era created a demand for newer and bigger

The two founding partners, both of them Scotsmen,

buildings that not only were structurally sound, but were

were engineers with a background in railways. They came to

attractive and well-considered from a design perspective too.

Singapore to work for the Singapore Tramway Company, their

In this respect, Messrs Swan and Maclaren were in the right

paths having previously crossed in Scotland when they were

place at the right time. As engineers they had the technical

both in the employ of the Glaswegian railway engineer John

skills to erect large multi-storey buildings using the latest

Strain—it was John Strain who secured the contract to build

materials and building technologies, but they also knew a

the tramway in 1882 and both Swan and Maclaren arrived in

thing or two about architecture as well. Or at least Swan

Singapore under his auspices.

did—Maclaren, it seems, was not involved with the design side

Swan was the first to go out on his own, initially being

of the practice. In this respect Swan & Maclaren were well-

engaged in railway surveys in the Malay Peninsula before

positioned to take advantage of the rebuilding of Singapore at

entering into partnership with Englishman Alfred Lermit

the turn of the twentieth century, as the city underwent one

in 1888. Lermit was a surveyor by training, but he had some

of its periodic facelifts and reinventions. From the word go,

prior experience in architecture before coming to Singapore

the newly established practice was able to secure important

and this led to early architectural commissions alongside the

commissions in the private sector. One of their first projects

railway surveys, most notably a godown at Clarke Quay for the

was the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank’s first purpose-built bank

prominent British merchant house Paterson, Simons & Co. in

building and corporate headquarters in Singapore in early 1892

1890. The partnership of Swan & Lermit was relatively short-

and this was followed a year later by a similar commission for

lived, but Swan continued to practise as an architect after the

the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China.

departure of Mr Lermit, producing the iconic Medical Hall on

After this there was no looking back for the practice, the

Battery Road towards the end of that same year. In the mean-

only time when the firm experienced any serious difficulties

time, J. W. B. Maclaren had also quit the Singapore Tramway

being in the late 1920s when they faced stiff competition from

Company to join Messrs Swan & Lermit as an Assistant

former government architects, Messrs Keys & Dowdeswell of

Engineer in 1889. In February 1892, he was elevated to the

the Fullerton Building fame. The setback was only temporary

position of partner, alongside Archibald Swan, the new asso-

and with the withdrawal of the latter from Singapore in the

ciation being styled Swan & Maclaren.

early 1930s, Swan & Maclaren reassumed their pre-eminence

At the time that Swan & Maclaren was established, the

in Singapore’s architectural community, a position they

architectural community in Singapore was close-knit, informal,

retained until the outbreak of the war in the Pacific, which is

with very little regulation other than a requirement that draw-

where the present volume ends.

ings for new buildings be submitted to the Municipality for

Looking back over Swan & Maclaren’s achievements

the inspection and approval of the Municipal Engineer. Just

during this fifty-year period, a good case can be made for

about anyone who had a mind to could practise as an architect,

arguing that the story of Singapore architecture at this time

2

and the history of Swan & Maclaren is to a large extent one

were invariably to the fore and almost always leading from

and the same—certainly where prestige commercial and

the front, except for that brief period during the late 1920s

civic buildings are concerned. Raffles Hotel, Goodwood

and early 1930s when they came under pressure from London

Park Hotel (formerly the Teutonia Club), Eden Hall, the

interlopers Keys & Dowdeswell. But the threat passed and

official residence of today’s British High Commissioner,

Swan & Maclaren resumed their position as the leading archi-

Stamford House, the Victoria Memorial Hall and Theatre, the

tectural practice in Singapore through to the outbreak of the

Chesed-El Synagogue on Oxley Rise, the Singapore Cricket

Second World War.

Club, the Chinese High School at Bukit Timah (today’s Hwa

This volume tells the story of these formative years of

Chong Institution), Telegraph House by Lau Pa Sat (today’s

Swan & Maclaren and the lives and endeavours of the men

Sofitel Hotel), the Federated Malay States Railway Terminus

who built the practice up: the founders, Messrs Swan and

at Tanjong Pagar—these are just some of the surviving Swan

Maclaren themselves; James Meikle, the first professional

& Maclaren buildings from that period, which today are

architect employed by the firm; Regent Alfred John Bidwell,

central to Singapore’s architectural heritage from the British

indisputably the greatest architect of the British era; the very

era. To this may be added scores of lesser-known buildings

talented David McLeod Craik, who briefly succeeded him in

that can also be found all over town. Comprising shophouses,

Singapore and then headed a branch office in Penang; Denis

industrial buildings, bungalows and a multitude of other

Santry and Frank Lundon, architects of the early Modern era

works, they stand testimony to the wide-ranging and varied

between the world wars; Frank Brewer, Singapore’s answer to

output of the practice over more than half a century. And

C. F. A. Voysey; and Modernist Doucham Slobodov Petrovitch.

then there is the great “lost legacy” portfolio: two versions

There are lesser names too, long overlooked, but who fully

of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building on the corner

deserve our attention, among them Thomas Swales, Victor

of Battery Road and Collyer Quay (today’s bank building is

Flower, Vincent Steadman, Eric Channon and C. J. Stephen, a

also by Swan & Maclaren); the Union Insurance Company of

long line that culminates, just before the Second Word War, in

Canton building next door; Winchester House and St Helen’s

C. Y. Koh, Swan & Maclaren’s first Singaporean staff architect.

Court a little farther along Collyer Quay; two iterations of the

Koh’s inclusion in the Swan & Maclaren line-up was a pivotal

Chartered Bank on Battery Road; John Little’s department

moment and one that heralded the dawn of a new era in

store across the street in Raffles Place; Katz Bros (latterly

which Singaporean architects would come increasingly to the

Robinson’s Department Store) on the other side of the square

fore. But before this could take place there came the scourge

and Raffles Chambers next door. These were landmark build-

of war and three years of Japanese Occupation. After the war,

ings in their day that sadly lost out to the passage of time.

C. Y. Koh would play an important role in the revival of Swan

Swan & Maclaren was not the only successful architec-

& Maclaren’s fortunes, going on to lead the practice, together

tural practice to have been in business during the latter half

with A. G. Church, in the 1950s as Singapore stood poised on

of the British era. In the early years of the practice, there

the threshold of independence from Great Britain and a new

was Edward Osborne of Crane Bros, who was one of the first

beginning as a sovereign nation. But that is another story to

professionally-trained architects to have worked in Singapore.

be told in volume two.

There was also Alfred Lermit, Swan’s former partner, who

The present volume documents what might be regarded

left to head the architectural department at Crane Bros and

as Swan & Maclaren’s “classical” period, a golden era, which

then subsequently went into partnership with the Eurasian

saw Singapore transformed from a nineteenth-century

architect, J. B. Westerhout, at the start of the new century.

entrepôt into modern port city. Swan & Maclaren, as the

Westerhout later went out on his own before going into part-

leading architectural practice during this period, played a

nership with former government architect, William Campbell

major role in this transformation of the city, producing, over

Oman in the 1920s. And then there was Keys & Dowdeswell,

fifty years, several generations of top-flight buildings, which

also former government architects, who stole something of

chart Singapore’s march towards modernity. Today, we live in

Swan & Maclaren’s limelight in the latter half of the 1920s

yet another incarnation of the city—Singapore is forever rein-

and the early 1930s. At which point, we see the advent of the

venting itself—but there are still a great many landmark build-

professionally-qualified Singaporean architect: the practices

ings, designed by Swan & Maclaren, which recall that earlier

of E. C. Seah, Chung & Wong and Ho Kwong Yew are the

time. Collectively, they constitute an important architectural

most prominent, but there were many more, all of whom

legacy for the nation, one that both conserves and illuminates

were capable of wresting jobs and clients away from Swan &

Singapore’s historic past, while simultaneously underpinning

Maclaren should the opportunity have arisen. Despite this

and informing the identity of modern-day Singapore. This is

gradual intensification of the competition, especially in the

the story of how they came about.

years leading up to the war in the Pacific, Swan & Maclaren

3

7

Shophouses and Godowns An Urban Archetype The Singapore shophouse is a local archetype, which until the advent of the International-style corporate tower block and modern shopping mall—that is to say the beginning of the 1970s—dominated the urban landscape of Singapore. Even today there are over 6,000 surviving examples currently gazetted under the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s architectural conservation programme. Its origins lie in Mainland China, but it is a style of architecture that also has a long history in Southeast Asia, being introduced to the region by Chinese immigrants, possibly as early as the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries. In the case of the Singapore shophouse, building regulations laid down by Sir Stamford Raffles in his Town Ordinances of November 1822 both standardised and codified the basic ingredients of the Chinese shophouse, while introducing certain requirements of Raffles’s own devising—most importantly the mandatory five-foot way or public verandah at street level—to create an urban typology that would define the Singaporean streetscape for the next 150 years. So successful was the Singaporean shophouse as an urban archetype that it spread to neighbouring countries in the region—not just British Malaya and the other Straits Settlements, but also Burma, Thailand, Sarawak and British North Borneo, the Dutch East Indies, French Indochina and even, via the Treaty Ports, Mainland China.

48

The typical nineteenth-century Singapore shophouse comprised a two- or three-storey building with commercial premises on the ground floor and living accommodation above. The ground floor was set back a little from the street with the upper storey, supported by a pair of columns, projecting forward in line with the edge of the road to create a covered verandah in front of the shop. Because shophouses, whether they were built individually or as a row of units in a single development, were ultimately intended to be incorporated into a terrace of similar buildings, this verandah effectively constituted a continuous covered walkway or colonnade at street level, along which pedestrians could stroll, protected from both the sun and the rain alike. The frontage of a traditional shophouse was quite narrow—as wide as could be feasibly spanned by a single timber beam in the days before reinforced concrete—but they often extended backwards from the street a fair way, the interior being lit by strategically placed airwells—narrow courtyards, open to the sky—which also helped with ventilation and the cooling of the building. Building regulations, introduced in 1907, more or less put an end to the traditional airwell,1 giving rise instead to a new shophouse typology with an L-shape plan and a rear courtyard, a configuration not unlike that of the Victorian terrace house in Britain.

ab ove Houses in Telok Ayer Street to be re-erected for Messrs Guthrie & Co. as Agents for the Estate of the late John Crauford [sic], 1893.

An early shophouse commission for Swan & Maclaren was the rebuilding of two units in Telok Ayer Street for the Estate of the late John Crawfurd in 1893.

Whether or not they dated back to the time of Mr Crawfurd is unclear—John Crawfurd was Singapore’s second Resident between 1823 and 1826—but they were certainly very old buildings

by Singapore standards, even in 1893.

One archaic feature is the extremely long and narrow plan, which in this instance includes two airwells and a courtyard at the rear. This is a characteristic that it shares with buildings of a similar vintage found in Malacca and other cities in Southeast Asia where the Chinese have long been settled.

Clients and commissions In the early years of the firm’s existence, Swan & Maclaren received relatively few shophouse commissions, a rare exception being a couple of units at Cheng Cheok Street in Tanjong Pagar, which were designed by Archibald Swan for comprador Gan Eng Seng in 1891. This might seem surprising at first, given that the shophouse is such a ubiquitous feature of the Singaporean urban landscape, but the fact is that up until the turn of the last century, designing and building shophouses was largely the preserve of home-grown Singaporean architects—local men like Wee Teck Moh, Yeo Hock Siang, Lao Chee Hean, Eurasians Henry Richard and George d’Almeida, and the Malay architect Wan Mohamad Kassim. Since they were extremely familiar with the building type and were more than competent designers in their own right, it was seldom the case that their mainly Asian clients would feel the need to turn to a European architectural practice to carry out their work for them. The one exception to this general rule was the Anglo-Tamil partnership of Lermit & Annamalai, which was in business between 1884 and 1887, and whose output mainly consisted of shophouses for Asian clients.

49

A Chinese street in Singapore, from Present Day Impressions of the Far East & Prominent and Progressive Chinese at Home and Abroad (1917).

opposite pag e

For 150 years the shophouse defined the urban landscape of Singapore and even in the modern era it still retains its status as a Singapore icon. Incorporating a wide range of architectural influences and disparate cultural elements, they are a physical embodiment of Singapore’s plural society.

Reconstruction of a house on Quee Lan Hill for Khoo Han Yeng [sic] Esq., Regent Bidwell, 1906.

above

b e low Stables at Club Street for Khoo Han [Hun] Yeang, 1904.

Two years prior to the building of his hilltop mansion, Khoo Hun Yeang commissioned Swan & Maclaren to design a coach house and stables at the end of the Club Street cul-de-sac. The result was a charming Neo-Classical pavilion with parking for two coaches and stalls for fourteen horses at the rear, plus dormitory accommodation on the floor above for the grooms, or syces, who attended them.

Chinese gentlemen’s clubs The Cricket Club, the Swimming Club, the Singapore Club and the Tanglin Club9— Maclaren was club president of the last in 1900—were all bastions of the British upper crust in colonial times, places of retreat where Englishmen could lay down the “White Man’s burden” and relax in the company of their own kind, without being obliged to play the “pucka Sahib” all the time. The latter consideration being an important aspect of these institutions, there was a colour bar in place, which closed their doors to Asian members, the occasional Malay Sultan or visiting Maharajah excepted.10 But perhaps this didn’t worry the local elites unduly for they had their own social clubs, which were every bit as exclusive as their European counterparts. These varied in style and interest. There were some that were modelled along the lines of a typical British sports club—the Straits Chinese Recreation Club, for example, was established in 1884 for the express purpose of playing lawn tennis, cricket and the practising of English athletic sports. Others, such as the Celestial Reasoning Association or the various musical salons dedicated to the performance of Chinese Classical music, were of a more oriental mien. Some were distinctly highbrow—the Philomathic Society was one such institution, its intended purpose being “the regular study of English Literature, Western Music and the Chinese Language”. Lastly, there were those gatherings that were very like an English “gentleman’s club”, the sort of establishment one might ordinarily expect to find in St James’s or Pall Mall, London.

The best-known example of the latter institution was the celebrated Weekly Entertainment Club on Ann Siang Hill. Founded in 1885, it admitted only Englishspeaking Straits-born Chinese with lots of money to their name: tin-mining towkays, shipping magnates and the heads of powerful trading empires. Millionaires to a man, they would meet on a regular basis to discuss the affairs of the day and enjoy the rarefied pleasures of one another’s company. Next door was the Goh Loo Club, established 1909, otherwise known as the “Bankers’ Institute” because most of the directors of the Chinese banks were members. And then directly opposite there was the Chui Lan Teng, the oldest of the clubs on Club Street, which occupied a bungalow at the very top of the hill dating back to the days when Ann Siang Hill was a nutmeg plantation.

144

T he S porting L ife

The Chui Lan Teng was the club that gave Club Street its name, but was no longer in existence by the end of the nineteenth century, the property passing through several hands before it was acquired by a Mr Khoo Hun Yeang (1860–1917) around 1902. Khoo was originally from Penang where he was a well-known merchant and plantation owner. He also ran the island’s opium and spirit farm in which his father had a share. Khoo moved to Singapore in 1899, where his business acumen was soon recognised by the local opium and spirit farm concessionaires, who appointed him as a managing partner of the Singapore Farm. Khoo continued as manager of the farm until 1906, which was the same year that he commissioned Swan & Maclaren to carry out a major rebuilding of his house on the summit of Ann Siang Hill.11 The brief was to redevelop the site as a private residence for Khoo Hun Yeang, but with additional facilities for a gentlemen’s club included. Though the drawings are unsigned—they bear the initials S. R., indicating they were prepared by S. Rozario, a draughtsman who worked for Swan & Maclaren between 1901 and 1914—the style is unmistakably “Bidwell Wrenaissance”, indicating that he was the author of this work, the only other architect employed by Swan & Maclaren at this time being Victor Flower.

Bidwell responded with a huge mansion, dominated by a grand colonnade of doubleheight Corinthian columns arranged along the principal southwest elevation. The building was divided in two, with one half being reserved for the private apartments of Mr Khoo and the other half assigned to his club. The entrance to the Khoo residence was from today’s Club Street cul-de-sac and was at a slightly lower level to the main part of the house. It comprised a lofty three-storey tetrastyle portico rising from a rusticated base.

The entrance to the gentlemen’s club was at the other end of the building and to the side.

It consisted of a two-storey Chinese-style pavilion with a terrace, or mirador, on the upper floor, which would have afforded magnificent views across Chinatown in the direction of Pearl’s Hill. A first-floor verandah at the opposite end of the mansion provided Mr Khoo with an equally splendid vista, in this instance looking out across the roofs of Telok Ayer to the Straits of Singapore. The best view of all, however, was to be had from the octagonal drum tower, or observatory, raised over the Khoo apartments, which offered a 360-degree panorama of the entire city. As well as adding drama to the composition, it was a landmark that could be seen from anywhere in the city, rising above the roofs of Chinatown like a Singaporean Montmartre.

145

ab ove Ann Siang Hill, photographed in the 1950s, with the drum tower of Mr Khoo’s mansion, prominent against the skyline.

The southeast corner of the Khoo Hun Yeang mansion, looking up at Mr Khoo’s apartments.

b e low

By the time this photograph was taken in the 1930s, the building was home to the Yeung Ching School—a pupil can be seen standing on the steps. Originally founded as a Cantonese-language school in 1906, the Yeung Ching School (by now bilingual) took over the premises in 1918. Forty years later, the school had grown too large to be housed in the existing building, and in 1957 Mr Khoo’s mansion was demolished to make way for new classrooms and school facilities. In 1988 the school was converted by the government into the Yangzheng Primary School and relocated to Serangoon; the Emerald Garden condominium occupies the site today.

27

Interlopers The Arrival of Rivals The Hongkong & Shanghai Bank, the Union Building and Telegraph House were all completed by the end of 1924 and that same year Santry and Lundon were both made partners of Swan & Maclaren. This followed the retirement of Harry Robinson, who had stepped down at the end of the previous year—he had led the firm since the departure of A. J. W. Watkins in 1915. The retirement of Robinson left Herbert Courtney Atkin-Berry at the head of the practice—Atkin-Berry relocated from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore—with Santry and Lundon as his junior associates; presumably Santry and Lundon were on an equal footing since they joined Swan & Maclaren at the same time. They were supported by staff architects Cyril James Stephen and the talented Frank Wilmin Brewer, both of whom had joined the firm in 1920.

Keys & Dowdeswell The year 1924 was also when work began on a new General Post Office and Government offices at Fullerton Road. This was a project that had aroused considerable public interest over several years since the proposed building was to be the

228

largest structure yet erected in the Straits Settlements. Designs for the GPO had actually been put on public display as long ago as 1920, but the project had been delayed several times due to the uncertain financial climate. (The US recession of 1921 to 1922 had resulted in a crash in tin and rubber prices, the twin mainstays of the Malayan and Singaporean economies.) It was not until the beginning of 1924, therefore, that work actually began on site.

The new GPO was designed by the London partnership of Keys & Dowdeswell, who were contracted by the Singapore Government to come up with an imposing new edifice for this most prominent and prestigious site, until then occupied by the old General Post Office and the Exchange Building.1 Major Percy Hubert Keys, who was the driving force in the team, was very much the commanding officer type with a distinguished service record in the Royal Engineers during the First World War. Prior to the war, Keys had designed and supervised buildings for the London postal service; with budgets of up to £5,000,000, they included some of the largest reinforced-concrete buildings then erected in London.2 A winner of the Architectural Association’s prestigious Bannister Fletcher medal in 1905, Keys was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects not long after his arrival in Singapore; Frederick Dowdeswell, who seems to have been the junior party in the practice, was an associate.

During their early years in Singapore, Keys and Dowdeswell were not allowed to accept private commissions on account of their being in the employ of the Singapore Government—an exception seems to have been made in the case of the Sailors’ Institute on Anson Road, which was completed in 1924. This restriction was relaxed in 1927, at which point Keys & Dowdeswell began to accept commissions from the public and private sectors. Overnight, Swan & Maclaren found themselves no longer the biggest fish in the pond, but faced with some fairly serious competition.

The figures speak for themselves: out of the six major corporate commissions in downtown Singapore between 1927 and the end of the decade, only one—Meyer Chambers—went to Swan & Maclaren, the contracts for the other five being awarded to Keys & Dowdeswell. Their clients included the Dutch trading company, Messrs Internationale Credit en Handels Vereeniging Rotterdam (1927); the Mercantile Bank of India (1927); the Kwangtung Provincial Bank (1928); the Oversea-Chinese Bank

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opposite pag e Meyer Chambers, Raffles Place, Frank Lundon, 1929.

Commissioned by Swan & Maclaren’s long-time clients, Meyer Bros, the anchor tenant was the Ho Hong Bank, which moved into the completed building in December 1930 (this was two years before the Ho Hong Bank was incorporated as part of the newlyconstituted Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation). After the Second World War, Meyer Chambers was taken over by the Overseas Union Bank (established 1949), at which point it became known as OUB Chambers. The building was demolished in 1981 to make way for today’s OUB Centre.

The General Post Office, otherwise known as the Fullerton Building, Keys & Dowdeswell, 1920–1928.

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A selection of major corporate commissions awarded to Messrs Keys & Dowdeswell in the late 1920s.

(1929); and the Dutch shipping line, Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij, better

From left to right: the Mercantile Bank of India building at the southern end of Raffles Place, completed in 1930; China Building on Chulia Street (1931), initially the headquarters of the Oversea-Chinese Bank, but subsequently reconstituted as the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation; KPM Building, Finlayson Green (1931).

whose connections with Swan & Maclaren dated back to the 1890s. The loss of the

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known simply as KPM (1929). In the case of Meyer Chambers, “customer loyalty” probably had a lot to do with it, since the building was commissioned by Meyer Bros Mercantile Bank of India to Keys & Dowdeswell must have been especially galling considering Swan & Maclaren had previously designed the Bank’s Kuala Lumpur premises, albeit before the First World War. There were other defections, too. Not in the corporate sector, but Mizra Namazie, the Persian businessman who had regularly commissioned work from Swan & Maclaren in the past, not least the remodelling of his premises on Malacca Street in 1919, now went over to Keys & Dowdeswell for his Capitol Theatre at the corner of Stamford Road and North Bridge Road. Completed in 1930, this was Singapore’s first modern cinema, purpose-built to accommodate the new sound technology that was coming in, as well as all the latest advances in film projection and theatre design. Apart from a huge theatre hall with seating for 1,500, the brief also included a parade of shops with two floors of residential apartments above.

A couple of years earlier and the project would almost certainly have gone to Swan & Maclaren; the loss of this commission must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

A hard act to follow That Keys & Dowdeswell should have displaced Swan & Maclaren from the top of Singapore’s architectural tree and in such a dramatic fashion—it happened almost overnight—is less surprising when one considers the tremendous acclaim that greeted the completion of their General Post Office building in June 1928. It was the opinion of the Straits Times that the new addition to the waterfront contributed “immeasurably to the dignity and solidity of central Singapore” and that “the architects have made the most of a great opportunity and…have enhanced their professional reputation.”3 Governor Sir Hugh Clifford, for his part, thought that the new post office was “the most imposing [building] at present existing in the Colony of the Straits Settlements”, adding that it “will be for many years, one of the principal landmarks in Singapore”.4 And it was indeed an impressive pile: the Fullerton Building may not have been as tall as Swan & Maclaren’s Union Building, but in terms of sheer mass and materials it won hands down—some 20,500 cubic yards of reinforced concrete, 1,300 tons of steel, 3.5 million bricks and around 20,000 cubic feet of timber went into the making of the new general post office, with an additional 124,000 cubic feet of artificial granite used for the facing. And it had a budget to match: a colossal $4,098,808, at the time by far the largest figure ever expended on a building project in the Straits Settlements. This was a hard act to follow.

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A M at t e r o f St y l e

Pavilion at Eu Villa, Mount Sophia, 1924 A third example of Swan & Maclaren’s Neo-Georgian revival style consists of a two-storey pavilion in the grounds of Eu Villa on Mount Sophia from 1924. It comprised a huge, open-sided (when the concertina shutters were pushed back) dining room on the ground floor, with an equally grand ballroom on the floor above, the latter opening onto cantilevered balconies on either side (this was the ballroom referred to

by Dale Collins when he visited Eu Villa in 1925). The ballroom had a large stainedglass window at one end, ordered especially from Ireland with the help of Denis Santry, while the dining room below was lit by three huge glass chandeliers. It could seat one hundred guests, who were summoned to take their places at the table by two gongs in the form of massive bells. An article in the Straits Times of 9 September 1934, describes the decor: “A life-like model of a tiger stands in one corner, large vases are in profusion, and two fine examples of Florentine art—nude female figures in white marble—stand at the bottom of a wide staircase, carpeted in red plush, leading to the ballroom above”. Architecturally, the style is similar to the Straits Merchant Service Guild clubhouse, but since Eric Channon didn’t join Swan & Maclaren until 1928, Mr Eu’s pavilion must have been designed by either Santry, Lundon or Brewer—most likely the latter since the draughting style is very similar to plans that bear Brewer’s signature and Brewer is known to have generally preferred to do his own drawing.

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ab ove Pavilion for Eu Tong Sen, Mount Sophia, 1924.

The new pavilion at Eu Villa was on a lower level to the main house, with a staircase leading down to it. It was a necessary adjunct to Eu Tong Sen’s lavish lifestyle, where banquets and balls were the order of the day. The dining room on the ground floor could accommodate a hundred guests, while the ballroom on the floor above was described by Australian author Dale Collins as “stately”. As well as cloakrooms on both floors, there was a room reserved especially for making telephone calls.

r ig ht Apartments for Eu Tong Sen Esq., Club Street, Frank Brewer, 1925.

Eu Tong Sen approached Swan & Maclaren in 1925 with a commission for two blocks of residential apartments in the heart of Chinatown. This was a highly innovative move since given the location, the flats were evidently intended solely for Asian occupancy. In this respect they represent the first purpose-built apartment block for Singaporeans.

The architecture is equally interesting, appropriating the Chinese Renaissance style of the Methodist Missionaries for an entirely secular purpose. b e low Ming dynasty gateway (1540), Changping, China.

Situated twenty-five miles to the northwest of Beijing, the so-called Ming tombs are the final resting place of thirteen Ming dynasty (1368–1644) emperors and their consorts.

Apartments for Eu Tong Sen Esq., Club Street, 1925 In 1925, Eu Tong Sen returned to Swan & Maclaren with a new commission for a pair of apartment blocks at Club Street, in the heart of Chinatown. This was at a time when apartment living was beginning to take off in Singapore: Eu Court, on the corner of Stamford Road and Hill Street, which we looked at earlier, was commissioned that same year. But whereas up until this point this new kind of accommodation had been mainly intended for a European occupancy, in this instance the “target audience” was clearly meant to be Chinese; in 1925, no European would have dreamed of renting rooms in Chinatown, far less dared to. Quite likely it was this consideration, then, that encouraged Brewer to opt for a Chinese Renaissance-style building, which at once signalled its modernity and yet retained a characteristically Chinese flavour. That said, one should remember that Brewer would have been overseeing the construction of the Anglo-Chinese Methodist school at Cairnhill at this moment in time; perhaps he was simply in a Chinese Renaissance frame of mind.

Chinese Renaissance, as we have seen, came about as a kind of nativist strategy adopted by missionaries working in China to try and encourage the local population to enter their churches and attend their schools and hospitals—the so-called “indigenous church movement”. Often the results were little more than a pastiche, even kitsch—the Western architects who designed these buildings had little understanding of traditional Chinese architecture; nor, perhaps, did they care to find out.

Frank Brewer’s two apartment blocks for Eu Tong Sen on Club Street, however, goes some way beyond the “Western-style building with a Chinaman’s hat on top” approach, to reveal that Brewer, at least, had taken the time to acquaint himself with some of the basic precepts of Chinese architectural practices and building typologies. The basement floor of the left-hand apartment block, with its centred arch and

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fair-faced brickwork, brings to mind Chinese gateways from the Ming dynasty, while the slightly tapering profile of the tower recalls the classic silhouette of a Chinese drum tower. Other “traditional” Chinese features include the canopy roofs over the windows, which rest on Chinese-style brackets protruding from the wall; one sees a similar arrangement for the canopy roofs of shophouses. The tiles were imported from China (unlike the v-shaped tiles normally used for shophouse roofs, which were of local manufacture), and they came with decorative, green-glazed “stoppers”, or end-pieces (wadang), for the roof margins; the origins of the latter can be traced back to the second millennium bce. The upturned corners, which are every Westerner’s idea of what a Chinese roof should look like, are perhaps the least successful aspect of the design, but the composition of the window mullions and transoms is convincing, being derived from traditional Chinese latticework patterns, albeit greatly simplified here.

Walking up Club Street, the Eu apartments present a theatrical spectacle, seemingly much taller than they really are on account of the hill, the flared eaves of the “drum” tower dramatically silhouetted against the sky. For Chinatown at that time, they were really exceptional buildings, but they are doubly interesting because they also afford us a rare glimpse of an early attempt in Singapore at “regionalism”, that is to say the search for an architecture that was at once contemporary and modern in the sense of making use of the latest building technologies and materials, and yet simultaneously sympathetic to local historical and aesthetic sensibilities. In this last respect, Chinese Renaissance can be understood as a kind of Orientalist counterpart to the Neo-Georgian movement that we considered at the beginning of this chapter.

They were both trying to make sense of traditional forms of architecture and decoration in a rapidly changing present, taking into account the latest building technologies and materials (artificial stone and the like) in a quest for a modern style of architecture that was clearly “of its time”, but which had yet to fully jettison the past or reject a sense of place.

ab ove Proposed premises for the Ee Hoe Hean Club, Bukit Pasoh, 1926

The Ee Hoe Hean Club, otherwise known as the “Millionaires’ Club”, was one of the first of the Straits Chinese gentlemen’s clubs to be established back in 1895. The Club’s original premises were at Duxton Hill, but in 1911 they moved to Club Street, a location that may have influenced the original proposal for a Chinese Renaissance-style building, since the Club was located at No. 28 with Mr Eu’s apartment block in full view. In the event, a more modern-looking elevation was adopted in its place, which is the face of the clubhouse we know today.

Clubhouse for Alan Loke, Robinson Road, 1925.

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Situated on the corner of Robinson Road and Japan Street (Boon Tat Street), the site of today’s Bank of East Asia, Alan Loke’s club was probably modelled on similar gentlemanly institutions from that period—Loke was himself a member of Ee Hoe Hean Club. The ground floor was taken up by an entrance lobby and dining room, with a large lounge on the floor above. Three bedrooms for out-of-town visitors occupied the floor above that, with a roof garden on the top floor, which in those days would have afforded an agreeable view across Raffles Quay to the Straits of Singapore.

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