Robertson Quay Area

By Margaret Wallace / Photos by Sara Tanner & Isabel Jones

On May 25th, our “Out and About” tour was of the Robertson Quay area.  We met at the DeliFrance in UE Square Shopping Centre on Clemenceaux St.  UE Square was constructed to house United Engineers Ltd., one of Singapore’s pioneering listed companies which has played a prominent role since its creation in 1912.  This role is still visible today in many landmark projects, including the Supreme Court, Shangri-la Hotel and the Cavenagh Bridge.

After a short introduction to the morning’s program and the area of Robertson Quay our group of about 15 headed to the Hong San See Temple (meaning Temple on Phoenix Hill) on Mohammed Sultan road.  This Chinese temple in its current location was constructed starting in 1908 with materials imported from China and originally overlooked the sea.  In 1978 it was gazetted as a National Monument and following a major restoration project was granted the highest UNESCO award for excellence in heritage restoration, the Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2010.  We were very fortunate to have the temple’s manager and caretaker, Mr. Lim, provide a very in-depth tour, pointing out so many important aspects that we would never have understood without him.

Leaving the temple, we walked towards the Singapore River and on the way learned about some of the history of the river, including its commercial importance with its many go-downs (warehouses) and shops and how they were serviced by hundreds of bumboats.  We saw how some of the older buildings have now been converted to government and arts uses, e.g. the Singapore Repertory Theatre. 

We stopped to admire one of the most interesting pedestrian bridges across the river, the Alkaff Bridge.  Shaped like a Songkang it was named after a prominent Arab family, the Alkaffs, who were among the wealthiest in Singapore during the early 20th century.  The eye-catching bridge was repainted by Phillipine artist Pacita Abad, an artist in residence at the Tyler Print Institute, and her crew, using 52 different colours and more than 900 litres of paint in 2004.  Pacita envisioned the design and worked with the SIngapore government to obtain approvals to transfer her vision into a gift and legacy to the people of SIngapore.

This was a very suitable introduction to our next stop, the world-class Singapore Tyler Print Institute.  There we were very fortunate to have the services of not one but two wonderful docents from the Friends of the Museums guide program.  Our first young guide introduced us to and explained the current exhibition, David Hockney: Through the Eyes of the Artist.  A very interesting artist, his exhibition will be at the STPI until July 30th.   Our second docent took us to the learning wall which details the many processes which are used at the institute both to make paper and to produce the various types of prints they are renowned for.  Although we did not have the opportunity to actually tour the workshop area, many of us will return on our own for the tours which include the workshop offered each Saturday.

Enthused by all we had seen and learned, we sauntered over to the nearby Wine Connection for a lovely lunch to top off our morning.