Taking a stroll along memory lane

This building with pink and white bricks may look familar to many but the name of the building (Vanguard Building) sounds alien but mention the old MPH Building it would be familar with many. MPH Building used to house the MPH Bookstore. I remember spending my teenage years browsing through the books. I especially like the greeting cards that they sold but as a student I was too poor to buy them then.

This building is located at the junction of Armenian Street and Stamford Road which is once the shopping hub of Singapore. But now the streets are so quiet.

The buildings are all very old and filled with many european designs. All these buildings are now preserved.

A street away from Vanguard Building(old MPH Bulding), is another old and beautiful building called Stamford House at Hill Street.

The building was originally built for Seth Paul for his tenant, the retail firm Whiteaway Laidlaw & Co, who carried out their business there. The Stamford House was originally known as the Oranje Building and served as an annexe to the Raffles Hotel. In 1933, it became the Oranje Hotel and was probably used by the Japanese forces as such during World War II. Basco Enterprises acquired it in 1963 and later renamed it Stamford House after refurbishment. Together with Shaw Building, it was once the shopping hub of Singapore. You can read more of its history from infopedia

Walking through the path, I saw many shops that are emptied at Stamford House. Another restoration or takeover is being discussed. Not sure what or who is taking over Stamford House along with Capitol Theatre which is adjacent to Stamford House. You can see my previous post about Capitol Theatre .

Doors of one of the empty shop.

Victorian designs on the top of the shop.

While passing by those empty shops, I happen to look at the pillars of Stamford House, I realised all the photos with hand prints in cement of actors/actresses and Singers from Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It was so long ago that these were created and judging from the photos of these actors, they looked so young but some of them are already in their forties or fifties now. I think most have already forgotten about these posters.

When they started these, they tried to have a kind of hall of fame for these actors/actresses but hmmm seems so deserted and nobody seems to pay any notice except me clicking photos of them hahaha.




Sorry for the little pink in this week's post.

For more pinky participants, please visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound.

Warehouses along Singapore River

These warehouses along Singapore River have a very long history. It used to be very dirty and filled with many cargoes. Many bum boats would arrived through the river and coolies (workers) would carried all these cargoes on their backs and carried them from the boats to the warehouses. I used to watch them cause these warehouses were near my late grandparents home.

In modern Singapore, bum boats dont come through the Singapore River anymore. Instead all the cargoes are shipped through huge ship berthed along the busy port in Pasir Panjang and Jurong. Nowadays bumboats are used to ferry tourists to view the sights of Singapore River.

I used the same photo to be printed as a sketch through a software. It really looked like a sketch by someone. I am not talented hahaha...cant sketch like the above. But am sure Mable can sketch better than the above. Mable is very good in drawing and sketching. She is so talented. You can view her drawings by clicking her name and looked at her sidebar for her sketches.

Skywatch Friday-Building Around Coleman Street (Part 4)-Central Fire Station

As I walked towards the end of Coleman Street, I saw this familar red and white building. Oh yes, I remember this. Each time when I visited my late grandparents during my childhood time, I would love to come here and watch the fire engines going out and coming in of the fire station.

It is one of the oldest fire station in Singapore and the building is so influenced with the colonial architectural designs. It is still in use today.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Buildings around Coleman Street (Part 3)-Capitol

This is a great old historial building and it existed even before the Japanese War. It survived. It used to be a cinema and I would always be so afraid to use the toilets in the cinema...lol. They are rumoured to be haunted. Inside the cinema are beautiful sculptures of angels in the ceilings.

Now the cinema is gone and it is now vacant and not sure what is the future plan for it.

The shops in Capitol Building have to shift out by end of this month for future planning of Capitol.

Side view of Capitol Theatre - used to come here for movies when hubby and me dating...lol. That's more than 20 years ago.

My World Tuesday-Changi Chapel

The Changi Chapel has a very long history. It used to be in Changi Prison but has now relocated to the present location (Upper Changi Road North) and it has a musuem beside it.

It was a source of comfort and focal point of social activities for Allied prisoners-of-war in Changi during the Second World War. Today the changi chapel is a point of pilgrimage for veterans and families of ex-POWs.

To read more about it, you can view the source from Infopedia.

I took these pictures from outside the musuem. Too bad, I could not take photos inside the musuem but you can view it at the official website of the changi museum.

This is a notice board where remembrance notes were pinned there. It is quite sad to read some of the notes.

I am thankful for these brave soldiers who fought for us and help protect Singapore during WW2.

These cranes were folded by visitors to the chapel. You can read the above photo on the origins of the cranes.

On a funnier note, my late mom told me during the Japanese Occupation when the siren sounded, my late grandmother told everyone to grab their stuff and run out of the house. My mom was about 12 or 14 years old back then and she was so happy and put on some face powder as she thought they were going on an outing. It was when grandma scolded her that she realised it was "run for your life situation".

They hid in trenches, covered with some banana leaves, built around the villages in Geylang and my youngest aunt who was a baby then, almost died of suffocation, because grandma covered her mouth to prevent her from crying so that the low flying Japanese plane would not be able to know their whereabouts.

After the planes left and it was safe to come out of the trenches. They could not go back to their homes incase the planes come back for them again. So they have to sleep in the outdoors. My mom was clever enough to grab a cooking pot before she run out of the house while most people (including my grandma) grabbed a sack of rice but they do not have a pot to cook. So everyone had to queue to borrow the "precious" cooking pot from mom. There are more horror stories of the war that mom told us. It would take me a long time to type them here.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Chinatown Shophouses 6 Final Part

Finally, this would be my last posting on Chinatown Shophouses. Hope you all enjoyed the photos of these shophouses.

This shophouse had very colourful windows.

You can't miss this shophouse with all the yellow flowers on its blue background in the heart of chinatown.

Chinatown Shophouses(5)

More photos of shophouses. Some are used as shops, residential and offices.

The above shophouses are converted to be a boutique hotel. To know more about The Scarlet-A Boutique Hotel, you can view their website.

I love the designs of these shophouses and very fascinated by their windows. I always love taking photos of wndows and doors.

Closer look at the foral designs.

Chinatown Shophouses (4)

I like this beautiful built shophouse. You could see that it was built in 1910. In the olden days, builders would engraved the year the building was built on them. I am glad the owner kept most of the original architectural designs except for a fresh coat of paint.

Another beautiful architecturally built shophouse in the heart of chinatown.

Inside this building are many different shops and offices.

Chinatown Shophouses (3)

This shop house is of the same design as the shophouse that I posted in my earlier post on chinatown shophouses (2), but the owner did not do a very elaborate painting and decoration on its building.

The shophouse with red and white paintings on its exterior was the one I posted in previous post.

A closer look and comparision on the windows of the two shophouses. The original shophouse bear some european designs while the newly painted shophouse was painted red to make it looked very chinese.

Another shophouse being renovated by a new owner. Look at the circled area, a plant decided to grow inside a crack of the wall. It must be planted by some birds carrying some seeds to the building. :)

I have more beautiful photos of shophouses in chinatown in later posts.

Chinatown shophouses (2)

More photos of shophouses in Chinatown. These shophouses had a long history and had been here since the British Rules. Many had been restored and renovated. Some are used as shops and restaurants while some are used as offices. The one above with the red windows is a chinese restaurant called Yum Cha, selling "dim sum".

Chinatown shophouses

This is just one of the very old shophouses presevered. These buildings were built during the British rule, that is why you could see many buildings with Victorian architecture. For more information of chinatown and its buildings you can view them here.

By night, some of the streets in chinatown would become a food street.