Sailing by Maritime House

A slice of urban and maritime history in the Cantonment Road area will soon be lost to urban renewal.

The Maritime House building in Cantonment Road, known as a hotel exclusively for seafarers transiting through Singapore, will be torn down and redeveloped by late 2024, according to tender documents put up by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

A project brief in the tender, which closes on April 23, estimates $30 million in construction costs for the revamp. The redeveloped Maritime House will continue providing accommodation for seafarers as well as be a one-stop venue for international training, research and forums...

Maritime House housed the head office of the former National Maritime Board from 1984 till 1996, when the board merged with other government departments to form MPA.

According to the tender, the 15-storey building’s gross plot ratio is set to increase from 2.75 to 3.5. Values above 2.8 indicate the potential for a very high-density development, to be built to above 36 storeys.

“MPA’s preliminary plan is to increase the floor space of Maritime House by about 30 per cent in order to better serve the accommodation needs of seafarers and to set aside space in the building for complementary use such as training,” a spokesman said...

This expansion will cater for about 2,160 sq m of amenities, 1,030 sq m of office space and 190 hotel rooms, up from the current 46...

Besides accommodation for seafarers, the building currently also houses Mariners' Corner, a Hainanese Western restaurant founded in 1984, along with a clinic, lounge, gym, student enrichment centre and the Singapore Maritime Foundation.

With perhaps three years left before demolition, we recently visited Maritime House for a closer look.

The 37-year-old, 15-storey pink and white landmark.

The lobby was small and nondescript, and we could wander around the ground floor without being stopped by security.

The ground floor was mainly occupied by the Singapore Mariners’ Club general office and the Seafarers’ Lounge (both with restricted access), and the Mariners’ Corner Restaurant.

Apparently, the restaurant’s very popular, with its rustic decor and good food. We were foolish not to enquire about making a reservation before turning up, but a kind waiter squeezed a table for us.

The restaurant also has a sense of humour, too!

I had the chicken cutlet set meal, which came with a salad, soup, dessert, and coffee - way too much for a Saturday brunch!

We had an excellent lunch and I hope the restaurant has a spot in the future building rising on this site.

After lunch, we decided to take the lift and explore the rest of the building.

The second floor was occupied by the Singapore Maritime Foundation, the Maritime Dental Surgery, and two medical centres.

The ceiling was remarkably low - I could easily reach it, and I’m not exactly very tall.

The 5th to the 12th floors were serviced apartments for seafarers. The corridors were narrow and spartan, reminiscent of an austere past where practicality overruled opulence. I wondered what the rooms looked like.

There was a Maritime Lounge on the 12th floor, but the doors were locked. All was deathly quiet.

This was when our exploration came to an abrupt end. A cleaner had spotted us earlier; she must have reported us to security, because an officer appeared and politely asked us to leave. Apparently, the serviced apartment levels were not open to public access. We had not seen any signs informing us of this, and one was free to take the lift up to any floor, but we had seen almost all floors by now, so we decided to make a graceful retreat.

The neighbouring HDB block, 4 Everton Park, offers a good view of Maritime House.

We’ll be back! For the restaurant, of course.

The skyscrapers of Shenton Way

Recently, I met a friend for lunch along Shenton Way, a major thoroughfare inside Singapore’s Central Business District. It was named in 1951 after Governor Sir Shenton Thomas.

Shenton Way, facing north.

Facing south.

At first, Shenton Way was a coastal road with few landmarks, and the largest structure in the area was the iconic octagonal Telok Ayer Market, known today as Lau Pa Sat. The area in 1956:

Base picture credit: National Archives Singapore.

In the 1970s, the stretch between Boon Tat Street and Maxwell Road became the freshly-independent city-state’s newest commerce belt.

From a 1972 New Nation article:

In Shenton Way where there is now a building spree, five towering commercial complexes are being built at a total cost of about $100 million.

There are the $45 million 50-storey Development Bank of Singapore building, the $23 million 36-storey United Industrial Corporation building, the $15 million 26-storey Robina House, the $12 million 24-storey Shenton House and the $10 million 18-storey Shing (Kwan) House.

These multi-storey office-shopping complexes are scheduled for completion within the next two years.

In all, six high-rise buildings came up on either side of the aforementioned stretch of Shenton Way:

1. Robina House, 26 storeys, completed 1971.

2. Shenton House, 24 storeys, completed 1973.

3. UIC Building, 36 storeys, completed 1973.

4. Shing Kwan House, 18 storeys, completed 1973.

5. ICB Building, 10 storeys, completed 1974.

6. DBS Building, 50 storeys, completed 1975.

A second 36-storey tower, Tower 2, was completed next to the original tower in 1994.

Base picture credit: Singapore Press Holdings.

Shenton Way in the 1970s with its six skyscrapers, Robina House on the left.

The new skyline of Shenton Way in 1976.

Credit: Singapore Film Locations Archive.

In the Central Business District, where buildings are mostly owned, purchased, and sold by private organisations for commercial reasons, urban renewal happens at breakneck speed. Barely 50 years into Shenton Way’s life as a commerce belt, five of the six buildings above have either been torn down and redeveloped, or renamed and revamped.

1. Robina House - demolished 2007.

Replaced by One Shenton Way (comprising Tower 1 at 50 storeys, and Tower 2 at 42 storeys), completed 2011 (below).

Credit: Someformofhuman, CC BY-SA 3.0.

2. Shenton House - still stands to this day.

3. UIC Building - demolished 2013.

Replaced by V on Shenton (comprising a 54-storey residential tower and a 23-storey office tower), completed 2017.

UIC Building in 2009.

Credit: Nlannuzel, CC BY-SA 3.0.

V on Shenton.

Credit: UNStudio.

4. Shing Kwan House - demolished 1997.

Replaced by SGX Centre (two 30-storey towers), completed 2000 and 2001.

Credit: United Industrial Corporation Limited.

5. ICB Building - demolished 1997.

Replaced by SGX Centre.

6. DBS Building - renamed and revamped as OUE Downtown in 2010. It has a shopping mall named Downtown Gallery.

Credit: SCDA Architects.

The 21st-century Shenton Way.

Base picture credit: Google Maps.

Today, Shenton House stands out with its 1970s Brutalist architecture amidst newer glass and steel facades. I fear for its future. With just 47 years to run on its 99-year lease, it may go the way of many commercial buildings in Singapore - sale and demolition.

Credit: Google Maps.

Retracing the Jurong Railway Line

In my book, Jalan Singapura, I briefly mention Singapore’s Jurong Railway Line, which was laid down in the 1960s to facilitate the transfer of raw materials and goods between fledgling Jurong Industrial Estate and Malaysia. In all, 19 km of track connected Jurong to the main Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) railway tracks between Tanjong Pagar and Woodlands.

Here’s a 1975 map of the line, highlighted in green. The track highlighted in red is the main KTM line.

Photos of a train on the line in 1965.

Credit: Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Credit: Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

The Jurong Railway Line did not last long; it closed in the 1990s. Thereafter, the authorities removed most of the tracks as part of the usual process of urban redevelopment. I wrote:

Scattered remnants remain - tunnels, a truss bridge, some rusting tracks - tucked away in the footnotes of Singapore’s urban history.

My interest is searching for the footnotes of history.

And so I spent one afternoon searching for the remains of the Jurong Railway Line - its easternmost section, in the Clementi Forest, an 85-hectare green lung that is part of the Rail Corridor ecosystem. I wanted to see how much of the track still existed in the forest, and whether it was possible to explore it.

I travelled to Bus Stop 12089, opposite Maju Camp, along the southbound portion of Clementi Road (see Point A in the map below).

Base picture credit: Google Maps.

Behind the bus stop was a disused railway tunnel, with a stretch of track still laid on the ground.

Could this 1965 photo of the Jurong Railway Line be of this tunnel? Possible...

Credit: Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

The track ran west into Maju Forest, and east into Clementi Forest, so I headed in the direction of the latter.

Immediately, I realised how much the surrounding forest had reclaimed the site after three decades of abandonment.

Tall trees and palms encroached right up to and even on the track, soaring up to four storeys above me. The sun was out, yet its rays did not fully reach the tracks, because the canopy above was dense.

I managed to get a clear shot of the track.

It also became apparent to me that the track had been laid down in a cutting carved out of the terrain. There were rusted metal and crumbling wooden beams holding back the hilly terrain on both sides - in some areas, it looked as if they were on the verge of giving up. I hope no one will be around when the inevitable landslide occurs.

There were plenty of fallen branches lying across the track, but traversing them was not difficult.

Since the track was on the lowest point of the terrain, flooding was a problem. Stagnant water, thick with mud and decades of decaying plant matter, lay on both sides of the track.

The cutting in which the track was laid must have been on a gentle decline, because soon, the surrounding soil became muddier, and wetter - until I was wading in swamp-like conditions (see Point B below).

Base picture credit: Google Maps.

Fortunately, hikers had marked out an alternate path on higher ground to the right of the track, so I clambered up and continued on my way.

After a short distance, the track completely disappeared under deep, coffee-like water. I had no idea as to its depth, or whether anything lived in it. All was still and the air thick with stifling humidity. Nature had triumphed over human construction.

The muddy path on higher ground continued in an east-north-east direction for a good distance, and then I saw the track emerge again from the flood! (See Point C below.)

Base picture credit: Google Maps.

It was around here that I could clamber down from the path on higher ground, to the level where the track was. The soft mud gradually gave way to more solid, drier ground again.

Some of the wooden sleepers are still around - I’m not sure whether they’d survive another three decades, though.

Eventually, as I was nearing the Rail Corridor, the track abruptly ended (see Point D below).

Base picture credit: Google Maps.

This was the end of the track.

In the background of the photo above, there was a wall of bush as tall as me; after I charged through the bush, I emerged in a glade bathed in brilliant sunshine. There were immense trees all around me, and no further traces of railway track.

The glade was next to the Rail Corridor. The photo below was facing south. The former Bukit Timah Railway Station was around 600 metres to the north.

In all, about 600 metres of railway track still lie inside the Clementi Forest, of which close to 400 metres is permanently flooded. As of now, it is still possible to cover the entire length on foot.

Base picture credit: Google Maps.

As long as the forest survives, this footnote of Singapore urban and transport history will likewise live on.