Death returns to Mount Vernon

From 1962 to 2018, Mount Vernon in the Upper Aljunied area was synonymous with death. It was home to Mount Vernon Crematorium, Singapore’s first and only public crematorium until Mandai was constructed in the 1980s, and Mount Vernon Columbarium, which opened in 1976.

Mount Vernon Crematorium in 2018. Credit: TODAY.

Mount Vernon Columbarium in 2018. Credit: TODAY.

Alas, in land-scarce Singapore, the dead make way for the living. The crematorium closed in 2004, while the columbarium closed in 2018; both have been torn down for Bidadari town. However, death will be making a comeback to the area:

An eco-friendly burning chamber for paper offerings that will reduce the unpleasant effects of open-air burning and wake halls designed to offer families privacy from public view will be among key features of a new funeral parlour complex in Bidadari estate.

An artist's impression of the funeral parlour complex. Credit: Housing & Development Board.

The Housing Board said yesterday that it has awarded the design consultancy tender for the project to a team led by Laud Architects.

The new funeral parlour complex to replace Mount Vernon Columbarium Complex was first announced in January 2018 in a bid to meet growing demand for after-death facilities and services as the population ages.

Back then, HDB and the National Environment Agency (NEA) said the future complex will be modern and “integrated with the topography and surrounding landscape”.

The new funeral parlour complex will occupy 1.1ha of the 7.1ha previously occupied by Mount Vernon Columbarium Complex.

Slated to be completed in 2025, it will be located near an existing Gurkha cantonment, a proposed Chinese temple and proposed residential areas.

A memorial garden will sit next to the site and the new Bidadari Park will be located directly opposite the funeral complex across Sang Nila Utama Road.

Mr Ang Zisheng, president of the Association of Funeral Directors Singapore, said: “The new complex minimises disamenities arising from funerals held at void decks and available open spaces in public estates. It may also set a benchmark for the funeral profession.”

There will not be a columbarium and crematorium in the low-rise complex. Instead, a centralised eco-friendly burning chamber will be built inside for paper offerings as open-air burning will not be permitted.

Apart from 12 funeral wake halls, there will be shops selling flowers as well as funerary goods and paraphernalia, a seminar room and a food and beverage outlet for the public.

Entrances to wake halls and funeral trade shops will be designed to face inwards toward the complex’s internal courtyards.

Funerary activities and processions will be blocked from public view, through the building layout and design elements such as screens.

Mr Ang hopes the bidders for the tender for another funeral parlour complex in Woodlands, which is closing tomorrow, will “do more than just provide functional spaces for funerals”.

“They must also make sure to provide a conducive environment for grieving,” he said.

The funeral parlour complex in Woodlands Industrial Park E8 is the first of four such sites that the NEA will roll out over the next decade to cope with the demands of the ageing population.

The 5,002.8 sq m parcel will house 10 to 14 wake halls, embalming facilities, as well as florist shops, a food and beverage outlet, and shops selling funerary goods and paraphernalia.

The site is expected to be operational about four years after the award of the tender.

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What caught my eye too was that the funeral parlour complex would be located along a new road, Sang Nila Utama Road.

Credit: The Straits Times.

Finally, more than 700 years after the prince from Palembang founded the ancient kingdom of Singapura, he would finally have a road in Singapura’s modern successor bearing his name.

However, I believe the road is taking its name after the school that once existed nearby - Sang Nila Utama Secondary School. It officially opened in 1961 as Singapore’s first Malay-medium secondary school, but closed just 27 years later, in 1988. Like Mount Vernon Crematorium and Columbarium, the school has also been demolished; an HDB development, ParkView @ Bidadari, is currently being built on the site.

Sang Nila Utama Secondary School in 1968. Credit: Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Sang Nila Utama Road will be the latest in a series of road changes in the area. In the development of Bidadari town, the northern end of Upper Aljunied Road has been shifted south; part of the original road will be conserved and converted into a heritage walk. As for Sang Nila Utama Road, it will cut through the former Mount Vernon Columbarium complex, connecting Mount Vernon Road and a relatively new road, Alkaff Crescent.

The area in 1975.

The area in 2020. Credit: Streetdirectory.com.

Currently, the road called Vernon Park looks rather redundant on the map; once the funeral parlour complex opens, it is possible that the road may be expunged.

A new road, an ancient name, hosting a complex on death. Fitting.

The end of Lim Chu Kang

Today, we explored the northern end of Lim Chu Kang Road, from the Lim Chu Kang Lane 4 junction to the sea.

The northernmost part of the Lim Chu Kang area, facing northwest. Blue marks the roads we explored. Base picture credit: Google Maps.

This area is as rural as Singapore can be, and compared to much of the rest of the Republic, not much has radically changed since the trunk road was completed in the early 1930s. This area is still largely used for farming, many rural tracks branching off the trunk road still exist (but are unfortunately out of bounds, within the Mindef training area), and the trunk road itself remains a single-lane dual carriageway (albeit paved, painted with road markings, and lit).

We took the opportunity to check out Bahtera Track, which runs west from Lim Chu Kang Road to near the coast. The track is one of Singapore Island’s last unpaved, unlit roads - a great example of how the island’s rural roads were once like. The track is relatively new, though - I guess it was carved out around 20 years ago, to serve the adventure camps facing the sea. Bahtera Track took its name after Jalan Bahtera (“Ark Road”), which is far older; most of the latter has survived development, but lies inside the Mindef training grounds.

The junction of Bahtera Track and Lim Chu Kang Road.

The adventure camps served by Bahtera Track.

Bahtera Track.

The Singapore Scout Association Sarimbun Camp, served by the track. It was deserted.

Near the sea, there is a large bronze memorial marking the location where the Japanese stormed the beaches on the night of 8 February 1942 - the start of seven days of battle, culminating in the surrender of Singapore on 15 February. A quiet and solemn reminder that this remote, peaceful area was once the site of a bloody struggle between forces battling for the dominance of the Pacific.

The sea itself is not accessible today for security reasons.

From the Bahtera Track junction, we walked north along Lim Chu Kang Road to the sea.

This is Lim Chu Kang’s northernmost bus stop, B01.

It serves just one looping bus service, SMRT Bus Service 975. Buses halt at a bay just short of the stop for around five minutes, which allows the driver to take a pee break. They then make a three-point turn and return where they came from, all the way back to Bukit Panjang Integrated Transport Hub.

A short distance north of Bus Stop B01 is the end of Lim Chu Kang Road. A jetty lies beyond, but it is accessible only to the Coast Guard, and I guess inhabitants of the kelongs on the Straits of Johor.

And here’s a picture of me working hard, thanks to Tiak!

I hope the rural nature of Lim Chu Kang lives on indefinitely. Urban Singapore needs it.

The ghosts of Commercial Square

A sad, sad day for Singapore commercial history, as Robinsons - a department store founded in Singapore - is set to close after 162 years of existence.

Robinsons itself summed it up in a terse statement: “The overarching business model of department stores is outdated.”

The Straits Times put together a neat infographic summarising Robinsons’ history:

Credit: The Straits Times.

Actually, Robinsons is part of a bigger story which began in Raffles Place 178 years ago - in 1842.

At that time, Raffles Place was known as Commercial Square, because it was the commercial and mercantile heart of the Town of Singapore.

That year, John Martin Little, an 18-year-old Scot, and his uncle Francis S. Martin, set up a retail business there. Three years later, Martin sold his stock to Little and his new partner, Parsi businessman Cursetjee Frommurze; the company was renamed Little, Cursetjee & Co.

The company posted its first advertisement in The Straits Times on 2 September 1845, just one and a half months after the newspaper was founded on 15 July.

In 1853, Frommurze left the partnership and opened his own business, Cursetjee & Co., hiring an ambitious English businessman from Australia, Philip Robinson. Little replaced Frommurze with his brother Matthew, and renamed his firm John Little & Co.

Here’s an advertisement for John Little’s wares in the Singapore Free Press on 24 February 1854:

As for Robinson, he also decided to strike out on his own in 1858, setting up a firm with James Gaborian Spicer, a former keeper of the Singapore Jail. The firm’s name was a combination of theirs - Spicer & Robinson. It posted its first advertisement in The Straits Times on 25 February that year:

Like John Little, Spicer & Robinson was also located at Commercial Square, and it opened just two weeks before the area was renamed Raffles Place in honour of Sir Stamford Raffles, who had been credited as the founder of modern Singapore.

Just a year later, in 1859, Spicer left the business, so Spicer & Robinson became Robinson & Co.

By the early 20th century, John Little and Robinsons had become the shopping giants of Raffles Place, frequented by the European community. They occupied colonial-style buildings which faced each other in the august square.

The 1920s: Back when Raffles Place was beautiful. Robinsons was to the far left; John Little to the right.

During the Japanese Occupation, both department stores were closed; John Little’s premises were converted into a Japanese-only department store, Daimaru. However, Japanese rule was short-lived, and both reopened after the Occupation ended in 1945.

Their fates finally merged in 1955, when Robinsons acquired John Little.

Robinsons in 1955. Credit: The Straits Times.

John Little in 1960. Credit: The Straits Times.

Gradually, the shopping nexus of Singapore shifted from Raffles Place to Orchard Road. John Little moved out first, in 1960; then Robinsons in 1972, after that terrible fire which gutted its historic quarters. Both ended up in Specialists’ Shopping Centre at Orchard Road - and in numerous branches around the island.

The aftermath of the 1972 Robinsons fire. Credit: The Straits Times.

Specialists' Shopping Centre in 2006. John Little was the anchor tenant. Credit: Terence Ong, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Their original homes in Raffles Place eventually made way for skyscrapers - One Raffles Place (63 storeys) and the Singapore Land Tower (48 storeys) occupy the sites today.

The beginning of the end came in 2008, when Dubai’s Al-Futtaim Group took over Robinsons. From a peak of eight outlets in 2003, John Little closed its final outlet in Plaza Singapura on 2 January 2017, ending 163 years of history. And now, at 162 years old, Robinsons looks set to follow its former Commercial Square neighbour into the night.

Robinsons at The Heeren. "Everything Must Go" - including the brand itself.

The only physical reminder of these two institutions in Raffles Place today: The facade of Raffles Place MRT Interchange, which was modelled after the facade of the John Little building.

Credit: Land Transport Guru.