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I spent the first part of the morning shooting images of the nearby Fort Canning Park. This will be my final photo essay in Singapore before we leave.
Fort Canning Hill or Bukit Larangan (Malay for Forbidden Hill) as it was originally is a very interesting place. It was called Government Hill and from 1819 was the site Raffles chose for his bungalow when he resided in Singapore. In 1859 it was renamed Fort Canning after Viscount George Canning, Governor of India.
Early images of Fort Canning (below) shows what a commanding position it had. Not many people appreciate that early Singapore had such elevated heights. Most have long since been flattened for reclamation but thankfully Fort Canning has remained largely intact.
Early images of Fort Canning (below) shows what a commanding position it had. Not many people appreciate that early Singapore had such elevated heights. Most have long since been flattened for reclamation but thankfully Fort Canning has remained largely intact.
An early view of Fort Canning Hill
A view of the Singapore River from Fort Canning Hill, 1860
The Fort itself was built in the 1860's and was obsolete by World War Two even though it served as General Percival's Battle Box. After a conference with his senior officers in this fortress he made the fateful decision to surrender Singapore to the Japanese.
5 comments:
Hi Roger
I have been a follower of your blog since you moved to Singapore and have enjoyed your regular downloads of information about life in the City State. Will you keep this blog live after you return to New Zealand (especially as it is full of such useful info) or will you start a new NZ blog?
Thanks for all the enjoyable reading you have provided over the years and good luck back in cold NZ.
Cheers
Warren
Thank you for your interest Warren. I think I will keep this blog going rather than start a new one - at least that is the plan at the moment.
Hi Roger,
Hope you're enjoying Singapore....
Yes, Fort Canning has a special place in my heart as I lived there when I was born (it's recorded in my birth cert!). There were 4 colonial houses at the foot of the hill then.
It used to be my elder brother and my favourite playground - the slope of the hill was our 'natural' slide, much to the dismay of our nanny as she'd a hard time washing our pants thereafter!
Then we always had imaginery hide-and-seek and war games with the soldiers at the top of the hill - there was an army camp there.
And when you think that fun wasn't enough, you'd have the occasional comotion where we had to duck the flying pots and pans and other 'weapons' thrown down by the delinquent girls at the girls' home in the middle of the hill....
And we have more.... we had about 10 dogs large and small - they were good guard dogs to ward off teenagers who tried to 'steal' our buah-long-log (a fruit) when they were ripe. We also had rabbits, chickens and a cat...
Yes, it was so much fun.
Cheers
Eileen Tan
Hi Eileen,
No wonder Fort Canning is a special place for you. I was interested that there was home for 'delinquent girls' at Fort Canning. I didn't think Singapore ever had any 'delinquent girls' :-)
And I should add..no doubt you have been a dog lover ever since those times!
It is ironic that it as taken me four years to discover the Hill. I enjoyed the place very much as you can see from the photographs.
HI Roger,
I'm interested in using your images for print. Can you please contact me? erica.wong@lux-mag.com or +65 6505 3987
Many thanks,
Erica
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