Museums and heritage centres offer wealth of information about the history, tradition and culture of the country and its people. There are many artefacts on display for the public to appreciate what the country has gone through in the past and offer glimpse of hope for the future. For the arts museums or galleries, they offer arts lovers and the public in general venues to appreciate and understand arts, however abstract and modern they may be.
Most museums are free, at least for the locals. And for tourists too on certain days such as during public holidays or on Fridays. However, there are exceptions like the
Changi Museum, which is free for all visitors, locals and foreign. There is a separate post dedicated to
Changi Museum. While most museums are free (entry fees apply for foreign visitors except Changi Museum and few others), if you end up eating at the many upscale restaurants and cafes dotting some museums, your outing can be an expensive affair. However, the setting of the restaurants is befitting the ambience and culture of the museums.
National Museum have plenty of activities for the kids so a visit there can be a fun wholesome activity for the family without costing money, again if you can stay away from the museum in-house restaurants. I guess that is how museums make some money to cover free entry for locals, which is fine. Renting out space to cafes and restaurants.
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| National Museum of Singapore |
The vibe around the arts area of Bras Basah is simply eclectic. Behind the national museum is Fort Canning Park, a pleasant park with lots of histories dating back to Sir Stamford Raffles era.
Fort Canning Park is the oldest botanical garden in Singapore. Some of the artefacts unearthed from
Fort Canning are on display at the National Museum including gold ornaments dating back to the 14th century possibly from the ancient royalty of Temasek (sea town) who lived up the forbidden hill behind the museum. Temasek was the former name for Singapore.
The oldest museum in Singapore, the National Museum was designed by Henry McCallum and started out as the Raffles Museum and Library in 1887. Since 1969 it was designated as the National Museum. From 1993 to 2002, it was renamed as Singapore History Museum.
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| Revere Bell in the National Museum |
However, after a major re-development and expansion, it re-opened as the National Museum of Singapore in 2006. Do you know that the Revere Bell in the National Museum is the only one outside of the USA? Other than the Revere Bell, a fragment of Singapore Stone is a must-see in the National Museum.
There was once a sandstone boulder at the mouth of the Singapore River. In 1843, the British blew up the boulder near present-day Fullerton Hotel, to build military quarters. There were three fragments, one of them at the National Museum, the other two exact whereabouts are unknown, though they were sent to the Calcutta Museum in 1848.
The stone dated back to the 14th century with the inscription written in Kawi, a variant of old Sumatran script and it also contains some Sanskrit words, though it has never been fully deciphered. There is a legend that this boulder had been hurled from the nearby
Fort Canning Hill by a strongman known as Badang. This boulder split into two equal parts facing each other at an angle of about 40 degrees.
Fort Canning Hill is right behind the museum, and a terrace with a sculpture of the Singapore Stone in honour of Badang can be found at
Fort Canning.
The nearest MRT station is Bras Basah via Singapore Management University. Entrance fee for foreign visitors is $10 and they conduct free guided tours at certain times of the day. National Museum will be a good starting point for a visitor to understand the history of Singapore. Lots of information via artefacts and high-tech visual and audio aid.
Check out the Revere bell in the museum which has lots of history and stories behind it. It came all the way from Boston, USA, in 1843. And a fragment slab of the Singapore stone with some inscription on it dated back to the 12th century. A good starting point to learn about the history of Singapore in chronological order is at National Museum.
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| Singapore Art Museum |
Not too far away from the National Museum, diagonally across, separated by Singapore Management University, SMU, is
Singapore Art Museum, affectionately known by its acronym
SAM, which is just next to Bras Basah MRT station and within the arts and culture district of Bras Basah and Waterloo Street. The Singapore Art Museum is housed in the former St. Joseph's Institution, formerly a missionary school.
Founded in May 1852 by the French priest Father Jean-Marie Beurel and a small group of LaSalle Brothers, the school was opened to boys of all religions. It was restored and opened as Singapore's first Art Museum in 1996. Entrance fee for foreign visitors is $10 and they do have free guided tours at certain times of the day. SAM mostly showcase abstract arts so it will take a bit of imagination to understand and appreciate them. I always like Thinker by Rodin which was once displayed there.
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| Asian Civilisation Museum |
Another museum worth visiting is the
Asian Civilisation Museum or ACM for short, formerly Empress Place, located along Singapore River and near Raffles Landing Site. The Empress Place Building was completed in 1867, the year Singapore became a British Crown colony. It was built by imported convict labourers.
The museum first opened its doors at the Old Tao Nan School building on 22 April 1997 at Armenian Street, with exhibits centred on Chinese civilisation. With the restoration of the Empress Place Building, the museum established its flagship museum there on 2 March 2003, expanding the collection to include other parts of Asia.
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| Peranakan Museum |
The Armenian Street branch then closed for renovations and reopened on 25 April 2008 as the Peranakan Museum, specialising in Peranakan culture. The Peranakan Museum at the former Tao Nan School along Armenian Street has a sculptured cat mascot chilling at the entrance of the museum. You can find many interesting or historical buildings along or near Armenian Street such as the
Singapore Philatelic Museum and the secretive fraternal society Masonic or Freemason Club. Our modern founding father Sir Stamford Raffles was a member.
The oldest church in Singapore the Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator is located along Armenian Road. This church was designed by a pioneer colonial architect George Coleman who designed many other early historical buildings including Istana
Kampong Glam A.k.a. Malay Heritage Centre. On the ground of this oldest church lays the tombstone (not grave) of Miss Joachim who cultivated Singapore's national flower, an
orchid, Papilionanthe (vanda) Miss Joachim. You can find this orchid at
National Orchid Gardens and at other parks too.
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| Baba House along Neil Road |
And the oldest fire station here, the Central Fire Station is also near Armenian Street. The early prominent Armenians include the late Miss Joachim and the Sarkies brothers who built the world-famous Raffles Hotel. Though Raffles Hotel is certainly not cheap to stay in! However, the public can admire and walk around the ground of this famous and historical hotel used to be called the Beach House as it is located along Beach Road. Imagine Suntec City used to be water.
If you have some dough to spare, enjoy high tea at Tiffin Room at Raffles Hotel. Worth an experience, at least once. Reservation is required. At all these museums you can join complimentary guided tours at certain times of the day conducted by volunteer museum guides or docents. Entrance fee for foreign visitors at heritage centres is $6. Museums will be around $10 to $20 depending on the size and exhibits of museums.
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| Chinatown Heritage Centre |
At Peranakan Museum the in-house lady's museum guides or docents wear Peranakan attire or costume which is the lovely sarong kebaya. Do you know that our first Prime Minister, the late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew is a Peranakan?
If you are into Peranakan history, you can also join the free one-hour guided tour at the
Baba House along Neil Road. Though reservation has to be made with NUS in advance for this one. But it is well worth the effort. Many prominent local pioneers are of Peranakan descent.
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| Kim Choo Kueh Museum |
And another Peranakan-theme Museum worth visiting, which is free for both locals and visitors alike is
Kim Choo Kueh Museum located at Katong. It is a small museum packed with Nyonya porcelain wares, antiquated kitchen and cooking utensils,
kasut manek or beaded shoes, tiffin carriers, wedding bed, dressing table with comb, mirror,
Florida Water cologne water and many other items associated with Peranakan culture.
You can even find an old
chongkat set there. Chongkat is a game played with marbles or saga seeds popular in the olden days among the Malays and Peranakans. You can find also find a huge chongkat (or congkat) on display at Wisma
Geylang Serai. The Peranakans and Malays are culturally entertwined in the dressings, language and food, though not in the religion areas. Katong and the nearby Joo Chiat area is traditionally a Peranakan enclave, and you can find shophouses in pleasant pastel colours and Peranakan architecture. Do note they do sell food and snacks and souvenirs so that is not free.
Other heritage-based museums are the Malay Heritage Centre at the cool
Kampong Glam and
Indian Heritage Centre at the equally vibrant and busy
Little India. Entrance fee for both these heritage centres for foreign visitors is $6 per person. Senior citizens pay half of that.
Indian Heritage Centre is located along Campbell Lane. While the building design may look modern amongst traditional street markets and shophouses, the facade is actually inspired by the 'baoli' or Indian step wells. It has five permanent galleries with over 400 artefacts.
As the name implies, Malay Heritage Centre is dedicated to showcase the Malay culture and heritage. It is not a big centre, formerly a residence for the descendants of Sultan's Hussein Shah, but at $6 it is quite affordable considering the wealth of information and artefacts on display. There are a total of six galleries on two levels with the lower level showing the culture of the Malay community and the upper level showcasing the Malay maritime world in South-East Asia.
Go inside the former Istana (palace) to feel how a traditional Malay architecture is like. Actually, this heritage centre is designed in Palladian style with a Malay feature. The architect was probably the pioneer colonial architect George Coleman, but this cannot be verified. George Coleman was the designer of the Old Parliament House and there is some resemblance to it. Free guiding by in-house docents is available too on certain days and times. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, from 10am to 6pm. Just like Indian Heritage Centre, Malay Heritage Centre also closes every Monday.
At Malay Heritage Centre, which is previously Istana (Palace)
Kampong Glam, you can find Letter of appointments of Mr. Yusof Ishak as Head of State and later as the first President of Singapore. The ubiquitous face on all Singapore dollar bills belongs to the late Yusof Ishak. Do you know why the Istana is painted in yellow? Because yellow is the colour of royalty for the Malay kingdom.
For Malay history you can also check out
Geylang Serai Heritage Gallery located at Wisma Geylang Serai located just next to
Geylang Serai Market. Can you see the feathery chapteh hanging from the ceiling of gallery? That's the game kids used to play here before the advent of computer games.
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| National Gallery at St. Andrews Road |
And the new kid on the block is the
National Gallery, sited at the former historical City Hall and Supreme Court. This five storeys gallery holds the largest collection of modern art in Singapore and South-East Asia. Over 8000 pieces of art works are on display. Massive! It ranked 38th in the Art Newspaper's annual global survey of attendance at museums.
For locals you can sign-up for a year of free membership, that allows entry to special exhibitions. The National Gallery free app is worth checking out as it has lots of information about the arts on display at the various galleries and the history of the buildings that are located along St. Andrews Road in front of Padang (the field).
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| Former Holding Cell at National Gallery |
There are two former holding cells within the former Supreme Court that is worth a look at. The museum has preserved two out of twelve former holding cells. There is also a cool Rotunda library inside National Gallery. The former City Hall was also the scene of many important events in the history of Singapore.
On 12 September 1945, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten accepted the surrender of the Japanese forces on behalf of the allied forces that took place in the City Hall. The first Prime Minister of Singapore, the late Lee Kuan Yew and members of his Cabinet, took their Oaths of Allegiance and Oaths of Office in 1959 also at City Hall. Designed by municipal architect F D Meadows, the City Hall building was built between 1926 and 1929 and was originally known as the Municipal Building.
And the Old Supreme Court with its green dome was one of the best-designed British colonial Neo-Classical buildings in Singapore. It was constructed between 1937 and 1939 and designed by Frank Dorrington Ward. The building was gazette as a national monument in 1992. The Old Supreme Court and the former City Hall together combined to become the National Gallery.
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| National Gallery Interior |
If you are at the National Gallery, go up to the roof at level 6, the sweeping view of the city from Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden is quite magnificent. There are Coleman Deck (facing Coleman Road) and Padang Deck (facing Padang or the field. You can see different sides of the cities from these decks. You can even see as far as Batam, Indonesia from there.
There is also Smoke and Mirrors restaurant at the roof-top if you fancy Singapore Sling (other than at Raffles Hotel) with a nice view of the city. Well, there are actually few other restaurants within the building. The National Kitchen by Violet Oon is at level 2.
An update: Singapore Art Museum is currently undergoing upgrading works, therefore is inaccessible. Chinatown Heritage Centre is closed as well, may not reopen.
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