Exploring Singapore observations of an expat in Singapore
Paying a Visit to Esplande Park
Written by and Photography by Amanda Jaffe
View from the mouth of the Singapore River
Wedged between the Padang’s classic green and the durian-spiked Theaters on the Bay, Esplanade Park and its surroundings are filled with monuments and memorials that invite you to join in some of Singapore’s collective memories. It’s worth your time to accept the invitation and pay a visit.
five steps leading to the monument list the five years of World War I, and bronze tablets list the names of the dead. In 1950, the Cenotaph’s base was expanded to commemorate World War II casualties on the reverse. This side of the Cenotaph is inscribed, “They died that we might live” in Singapore’s four official
The Esplanade Park Memorials Three memorials sit at the heart of Esplanade Park: Tan Kim Seng Fountain and Lim Bo Seng Memorial at either end and the Cenotaph in the middle. It’s not often that you find monuments commemorating the contributions of individuals in Singapore. There’s something wonderfully Singaporean in the fact that these three memorials were designated collectively as a single National Monument in 2010. Tan Kim Seng Fountain resides at the park’s Stamford Road end. This beautiful cast iron fountain, constructed in 1882, features four Muses, faces of Poseidon, and cupids. The inscription around the base commemorates Tan Kim Seng’s 1857 donation toward the construction of public waterworks for the city of Singapore. A leader of Singapore’s Chinese community, Tan Kim Seng founded two educational institutions and was a leading supporter of Singapore’s Chinese Pauper Hospital (today’s Tan Tock Seng Hospital). Modelled on the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London, Singapore’s Cenotaph sits, solemn and austere, in the middle of Esplanade Park. Completed in 1922 and unveiled by the Prince of Wales, Edward VIII, it was built to honor the 124 men from Singapore who died in World War I. On the side facing the Padang, -- 8 --
The Struggle Against the Communist Party of Malaya Marker
languages. The steps list the years 1939 through 1943, with 1944 and 1945 inscribed on the base. At the other end of Esplanade Park, you’ll find the Lim Bo Seng Memorial, the only Singapore memorial to honor an individual’s sacrifice during World War II. Long active in anti-Japanese war efforts, Lim Bo Seng fled Singapore shortly before Japan invaded for Malaya, where he built a resistance group known as Force 136. Lim Bo Seng was captured by the Japanese and died in a prison camp in 1944. The memorial, unveiled on the tenth anniversary of his Bamboo Telegraph - Jul/Aug 2020
