It’s not everyday that you get to meet the Prime Minister of a country. Ok, technically, it was not as much a ‘meeting’ as it was being present, along with a handful of other media personnel from across the globe and several dignitaries, in the same ballroom as Singapore’s dashing Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong. He has come to declare the graceful old Fullerton Hotel, an incredibly posh hotel in the country’s Central Business District where we are being put up, as the country’s 71st National Monument. It’s an event pegged as “a fitting conclusion” for a series of gazettes in celebration of the country’s Golden Jubilee.
The gazette’s a big deal, we learn, in a country where the old is always giving way to the new. Old buildings quietly make way for malls and behemoths of steel and glass. River banks, where once hundreds of fishing boats landed, have become picturesque promenades dotted with parks, benches, sculptures and bistros. Even the mouth of the Singapore River, once an expanse of brackish water, and a port where immigrants, seafarers, traders – and the odd pirate too – first stepped on Singapore soil, has had a makeover. Today, it’s a beautiful reservoir that supplies the city with fresh water, surrounded by hotels, restaurants, promenades, theatres and the like.
It’s here at the mouth of the Singapore River that the Fullerton Hotel is located — present-day One Fullerton — as is the Merlion, that half-lion, half-fish creature with water spouting from its mouth, that’s become the city-state’s mascot. Mile zero is also here – the point from where all roads and distances in Singapore are measured. Given this chequered history, the Singaporeans seem to be doing their best to conserve their heritage. The colonial-era Fullerton building is a prime example of this.
From the PM and the hotel staff, to the dignitaries present, everyone seems to swell with pride at the mere mention of the building. And with good reason too, it seems. Built in 1928 and named after Sir Robert Fullerton, the first governor of the Straits Settlements under British colonial rule, this impressive Neo-Classical building, with Greek embellishments, once housed the city-state’s General Post Office (GPO), and several administrative offices too. It is also where some of Singapore’s pioneering leaders began their careers, and it has witnessed many historic events from colonial and pre-independence times, including serving as the headquarters of the Japanese military administration in Singapore from 1942 to 1945. The PM’s father, Singapore’s founding Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, also held many of his political rallies in the Fullerton square just outside the building, where he expounded his ideas for independence. The Fullerton building became the five-star Fullerton Hotel as we know it today, only after it was extensively renovated and reopened in 2001.
Nonetheless, there are several subtle and not-so-subtle reminders of the building’s heritage just about everywhere you turn, even in its well-appointed suites, fine-dining restaurants, ballrooms, spa, and even in the corridors leading to the infinity pool (you can also see the equally historic Cavenagh Bridge, the oldest iron bridge in the country, from the pool).
Apart from the façade, the most obvious example is perhaps the two red pillar post-boxes that date back to 1873, and bear the insignia of Queen Victoria. And they are still in use. In fact, if you happen to be in the lobby at around 5 p.m., you might just see a postman in colonial-style uniform, collecting mail! From the helpful staff members at the hotel and the black-and-white photographs displayed in the lobby and all across the hotel, we learn that the GPO once occupied what’s now the entire lobby, and even had two 300-ft wooden counters used to sort mail. There was even a tunnel that ran from the building, across Fullerton Road, to a pier, from where it could be loaded onto mail boats. A smaller version of this is today to be seen in the underground walkway that connects the building to One Fullerton and new-age Singapore.
(The writer was in Singapore at the invitation of The Fullerton Hotel.)
