Colonial District Tour, An Introduction

I had another great walking tour experience that I have yet to share. On Monday, December 14th Razeen was our guide for the Colonial District Tour. There were only three of us taking the tour: me and a Mother/ Son duo that were Korean but from California (they were visiting family here). We were a quiet group but got the personal attention of the guide and some good nuggets about the city.

Here was the itinerary for the day:
We started outside the City Hall MRT and headed right to St. Andrew’s Cathedral, then continued west on Coleman St. while Razeen related interesting tidbits about the city and why Coleman has a street named after him. While heading north on Hill St. we stopped at the Armenian Church. After a quick walk up Victoria St. we stopped at Chijmes and ultimately ending at the Raffles Hotel (I posted this part of the trip earlier last week: “Flat Phoebe” Visits the Raffles Hotel).

Quick S’pore History Bite:
In 1819, Sir Raffles bought Singapore for the East India Company. Why? Interestingly enough, S’pore has a natural harbor and, at the time, was the perfect place to stop in the spice trade. Raffles wanted to create a free port – no taxes. It was quite a concept back then! To bring order to a growing city, Raffles engaged with the “First Architect of Singapore,” G.D. Coleman. Along with Raffles, Coleman turned S’pore into a planned city starting in 1822 with streets at right angles and “planned areas” for ethnicities, administration and trade. S’pore still has the remnants of these areas: many of the government buildings are in the Colonial District and even though people are no longer sectioned out by ethnicities, Little India and Chinatown sprung out from those roots. Of course, the most desirable area of S’pore – the beachfront, was designated for Europeans. Though a few infiltrated the area – if you had lots of money then it didn’t matter. So, a few successful Chinese businessmen had Bungalows along Beach Road. Raffles actually had people moved if they were not in their “designated” area; for example, the people from India first inhabited the beachfront area, but were pushed north and west to what is now called Little India. Hmmm…makes you think it would have been difficult to have an interracial relationship…I guess, for Raffles, the idea of segregation was revolutionary, but now it just seems ludicrous.

So, here’s Part I: St. Andrew’s Cathedral
How fascinating that so much history could be in one building. Of course, Razeen is a WWII history buff and he gave us a lot of information about the attack and how long the Japanese occupied S’pore. Thus, I’m going to try and do the Cliff Notes version!
Yes, lighting can strike twice and it did for the original church that stood on the grounds. After that, the church was declared unsafe, redesigned and rebuilt in 1860 using convict labor (& not so coincidently also highly-skilled craftsmen) from Sumatra. The church (now upgraded to a Cathedral) is much more ornate than the first church and attracted the most influential in Singapore. St. Andrew’s was not for the “common man.” Of course, it wasn’t – why wouldn’t a church be for all to come together and worship – what a concept! No, of course, it was a place to see and been seen.
You’ll see in the stained glass of this church three very influential family “code of arms” or “badges.” The left represents Crawford’s (the man who what in charge of S’pore in 1823 and signed a treaty with the Sultan that gave up S’pore to the British); the middle represents Raffles and the right represents Butterworth, the governor of S’pore at the time. I found this quite interesting that in a house of God, three men’s family representations stood in plain sight at the head of the church…just makes you wonder a bit.

(Above: Crawford's Family "Code of Arms" - see the two-headed eagle?)

(Above: Raffles "Code of Arms" - see the ornate "badge?")

(Above: Butterworth's Family "Code of Arms" - see the moose?)

The other interesting thing about this church was the extensive WWII Plaques that were inlaid into the walls of the chapel. The history surrounding WWII, the Japanese and S’pore is fascinating but I will have to leave that for a later post. But, the connection to the church is that it was used as an infirmary during the war.

As you can see the church is beautiful and is quite prominent; we can see if from our hotel. The white façade is striking in sunlight and is a beautiful study in architecture. The city was lucky to have such skilled convict labor.