Singapore: Shophouses

Shophouses in Pagoda Street

One of the things we most wanted to see in Singapore were the Shophouses. "The archetypal Singapore shophouse is a two or three-storey building with a commercial shop on the ground floor and living accommodations above. The ground floor sits back from the road, while an overhanging veranda is supported by a brace of columns – creating the distinctive five-foot way, a feature introduced by Sir Stamford Raffles through the Town Planning Committee of 1822, as part of his town plan for early Singapore" (from roots.com, Singapore) I read somewhere that despite the relentless modernisation and redevelopment there are still 5,000 shophouses in existence, from a range of historical periods.

We probably din't do enough research before we arrived, but we knew that Chinatown, a mile from where we were staying, had a good number, so we started our exploration there. The ones in Pagoda St, the epicentre of Chinatown, were a good introduction, with the elaborate columns and capitals and bright contrasting colour schemes on full display. The shops on the ground floor extended out into the road.

Further along Pagoda St, this group had keystones over some of the arches and the middle one had an entertaining non-traditional colour scheme.

There were further nice examples in nearby Mosque St and Temple St.

At right angles to these three streets is South Bridge Road, where we admired this harmonious three-storey building of 1910.

Further along South Bridge Road we turned right into Erskine Road, where there is a terrace of earlier shophouses with much less decoration. They date from about 1840. At the top of the road a number of former shophouses have been consolidated into the Scarlet Hotel.

We headed round the corner and down Ann Siang Hill, where we walked down the 5 ft way. Several of these had been converted into bars and restaurants.

A ride on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit system - Singapore's excellent metro) took us to Dhoby Gaut station from where we walked along Orchard Road to find Emerald Hill, one of Singapore's most celebrated concentrations of shop houses. Despite this, or perhaps because of the impending thunderstorm, it was remarkably quiet.

Unlike in Chinatown, these shophouses had all been converted to purely residential use and the five foot way was very much more visible.

As we walked up the hill a new range of styles and colours became visible, including the group on the left with triangular pediments over the first floor windows.

A group on the left had front gardens.

This was probably our favourite, with its elaborate plaster work.

Near the top other examples had the upper storey supported on thick columns. The one on the right was the most modern we had seen.

Finally, on the way back down the hill, we noticed these art deco ones with interesting decorations at the top of the pilasters.

It would have been good to have explored further locations for shophouses, but we ran out of time. There are some in Keong Saik Road, Tanjong Pagar, Little India and Kapong Glam, no doubt among many other locations.

Conditions: hot, humid, cloudy, eventually very wet.

Distance: about 3 miles.

Rating: four stars.

Singapore: The Colonial District

The Singapore River and Clarke Quay

We are en route to the Philippines for our son's wedding, but stopping off on the way for a few days in Singapore. We started our exploration at Coleman Bridge, over the Singapore River. Behind us was a nice view of the river and Clarke Quay. We then followed the South Boat Quay Promenade, passing an array of inviting Chinese fish restaurants, and soon having a panoramic view of part of the the Colonial Quarter. This picture shows the Empress Place Building, the oldest part of which dates to 1864. It now houses the Museum of Asian Civilisation. The white statue on the left marks the very place where Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, is thought to have first landed in 1819. (I saw something very similar in Philadelphia last year: the spot where William Penn landed two hundred years earlier.)

Further on, we started to see examples of public art. I rather liked this statue of a bird by Fernando Botero (1990).

Now it was time to cross the river over the Cavenagh Bridge, opened in 1858 (and so Singapore's oldest bridge) and commemorating Orfeur Cavenagh who had been Governor of what was then called the Straits Settlements from 1859-67.

 After crossing the bridge, I headed off to the right to the next bridge (Anderson) to photograph the wonderful Esplanade: Theatres on the Bay. It was completed in 2001 and designed by DP Architects of Singapore and the London-based Michael Wilford & Partners, although the latter left the project in May 1995. The fantastic cladding of aluminium sunshades was added to the final design and is clearly reminiscent of one of Singapore's emblematic fruits, the durian (we saw some in a market this morning). It is apparently the marmite of fruits - you love it or you hate it.

 Returning to the main purpose of the walk, we admired the elegant symmetry of the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall with its landmark clock tower. It was built as the Town Hall in 1862.

Over to the left is a simple obelisk, presumably a war memorial.

We walked round the back of the Museum to get a closer look at the statue of Raffles. It turns out that this is a replica of the bronze statue outside Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall.

We headed away from the river passing  the Old Parliament House, originally built in 1827 as the private house of a merchant. It is the oldest building in the city.

This also provided an opportunity to look inside the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall. The central atrium was spacious and interestingly half modern. I loved the image of the fine clock tower through the glass roof.

We headed on past the granite City Hall and Greek Revival Supreme Court (now a museum) and looked across the grassy area known as the Padang towards the extraordinary Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

Soon we reached St Andrew's Cathedral. The original church was demolished after vulnerability to lighting strikes led to it being declared unsafe. The new cathedral was consecrated in 1862.

The stained glass was unusual and attractive.

Later we made the inevitable pilgimage to the famous Raffles Hotel, founded in 1887. We were surprised by just how big it is, occupying an entire city block. This is the main entrance, at one end.

 This is the view from the corner at the opposite end, near to City Hall MRT (metro) station.

 A long colonaded passageway runs along the side.

The entrance to the famous Long Bar is now from this side arcade: the Long Bar was relocated from being just off the lobby as part of a grand restoration in 1991. It is a fine bar and we naturally had a Singapore Sling, along with all the other tourists. It was expensive of course, but enjoyable and good fun.

Conditions: hot, humid, cloudy.

Distance: about 3 miles.

Rating: four stars. A great way to start exploring Singapore.

Walsall: The New Art Gallery

 The New Art Gallery

We read an interesting piece in The Guardian last year about how some towns and cities had hired a "starchitect" to build a new art gallery which had helped to put the place on the map - think of Bilbao with its Guggenheim Museum - while in other cases the same strategy had been unsuccessful. One such example was Walsall whose New Art Gallery, designed by Peter St John and Adam Caruso of the Caruso St John partnership, was in danger of closure only 16 years after it was opened. We immediately felt we must make a visit and inspired our friends Dave and Chris to join us.

The permanent collection of the Gallery is centred on the Garman Ryan Collection which was bequeathed to the Borough of Walsall in 1973. It was assembled by Kathleen Garman and her friend Sally Ryan. Kathleen Garman had three children by the artist Jacob Epstein and married him in 1959 after the death of his wife. Sally Ryan was the granddaughter of a wealthy American and an artist in her own right (there are several works by here on display). The collection they built up had 365 works of art and was arranged by subject. After the initial bequest it was housed in the civic Museum and Art Gallery attached to the central library.

The New Art Gallery building (above and below) is quite dramatic from the outside, even on a dreay misty day.

Inside, it is airy and spacious, with a lot of wood. One very nice touch is that the banisters are all covered in brown leather, a reflection of Walsall's industrial heritage as a major centre of leatherwork.

We focused on the Garman Ryan collection which is housed in nine or ten rooms of various sizes on the first and second floors. The entry point was a hall extending over two floors.

 One of the conditions of the bequest was that the Collection should continue to be displayed by subject and it must be said that this is enormously effective, allowing you to see side by side works would never be displayed in this way in a conventional gallery. This was enhanced by a current initiative of enhancing the collection by hanging complementary works loaned from the Tate Britain beside them, often by the same artist. Thus in the first room, which deals with Landscape and Townscape, there was lovely pair (to the right in the photo) of landscapes by John Nash (younger brother of the better known Paul Nash) and John Constable. The window in this room was also a very welcome feature, containing a nice townscape.

For me, the highlight of the next room (Animals and birds) was this fabulous eagle, captured in a few decisive strokes by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, killed during the First World War at the tragically early age of 23.

For some reason, I found that it was drawings that touched me most. I just loved this pair of tree studies, the first by Constable and the second by Corot.

 Given Kathleen Garman's connection to Jacob Epstein, it is no surprise that there is quite a lot of work by Epstein. I was especially thrilled by this design for Oscar Wilde's tomb, as we saw and admired the finished work in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris last year.

I realise that these subjective highlights have failed to give an overall sense of the collection, which contains works by a great range of artists including Rodin, Picasso, Braque, Degas, Dufy, Gainsborough, Modigliani, Lucien Freud, Augustus John, Robert Bevan, Odilon Redon. And also there are many fine artifacts from around the world. It is a small, but wonderful collection, chosen with rare taste.

We quizzed the staff about the impact of the Guardian article, and were delighted to discover that it had been followed by a marked increase in visitor numbers. We devoutly hope that Walsall Borough Council will lift the threat of closure of this fine gallery.

Wolverhampton

The statue of Prince Albert in Queen Square

Yesterday's visit to Walsall offered us an opportunity to advance my Cities project and see Wolverhampton. Wolverhampton was named a Millennium City in 2000, along with Brighton & Hove and Inverness, having several times applied for the status. We followed the Wolverhampton City Trail, which can be downloaded from the Council website. I will try to avoid simply repeating what it says.

The trail is designed as a figure of eight and starts in Queen Square where there is an equestrian statue of Prince Albert. It was unveiled in 1866 and was Queen Victoria's first public engagement following Prince Albert's death in December 1861.

We left the Square via Exchange Street to see one of the very few timber framed buildings left in the city, now a pub. The building on the right, presumably a Victorian pub, had lovely plaster flowers on its exterior.

You emerge into a rather soulless square dominated by the rather ugly 1979 Civic Centre. Over to the right however is the city's main church, St Peter's.There has been a church in this site since 994 AD, but the present one dates mainly from the 15th century. In front of the church is a statue of Lady Wulfrun who granted land for the original church. This led to the town being renamed Wulfrun Heuntun (high place) - and this is the origin of the modern name Wolverhampton. Nothing to do with wolves!

Nearby are the buildings of Wolverhampton University (once Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire Technical College). We very much liked the glass-fronted Harrison Learning and Resource Centre.

Turning away from this brought us to Giffard House, a handsome early 18th century house built as a Mass House and priest's residence (this must have been a way of getting round the ban on building Catholic churches initiated by Elizabeth I and not repealed until 1791).

The house has been extended several times and in the 19th century a rather ugly church was built on the back, although the interior is said to be fine. This pattern of extension is even more apparent in the Molineux Hotel just off to the right. The core of this is a rich ironmaster's house of 1720, but the subsequent extensions, not least the modern one on the left, have created an awful hotchpotch.  At least I can now deduce while Wolverhampton Wanderers ground, just out of shot to the right, is called Molineux.

We headed now along North Street passing the Civic Hall of 1938, by Lyons and Israel in a sort of simplified classical style.

Beyond it lies the old Town Hall, 1857, by Ernest Bates, in the Second Empire style.

Blossom's Fold (what a great street name, which apparently commemorates the wool trade)  brought us to Darlington St and the massive Methodist church of 1901. This too apparently has a fine interior. We admired the cupola.

On the opposite corner is this wonderful modernist building of 1938-39 by local architect Richard Twentyman, built as a showroom and offices for the gas company. Clock Chambers still looks modern, although it is a shame that the first floor windows seem to be papered over.

School St brought is to Skinner St, where stands a seemingly unchanged Odeon cinema from the 1930s, the work of Harry Weedon. It is not exactly beautiful, but it is a remarkable survival of a style once found in many towns and cities. It is now a banqueting hall.

Victoria St brought us past the Mander Centre shopping precinct to the wonderful art deco facade of Beatties department store on the corner at the top. The stylised elephant heads were fabulous. The very helpful walk description explains  that this was once a separate building belonging to Burton tailoring. 

Outside Beatties was this rather lovely clock, not mentioned in our guide. It was apparently installed only in 1993.

Now back into Queen Square and past Lloyds Bank (1878) with a nice frieze depicting coal miners, farmers and metal workers.

In nearby King St we passed the attractive 19th century Old Still Inn ...

... and turned into Queen St which has a nice concentration of 19th century buildings. However, the first one of note was the 1930s Express and Star building with a wonderful relief depicting Mercury.

Further along the street is the handsome former County Court building, with the former Dispensary building visible to the left.

Passing the new bus station you come to the Chubb building, dating from as late as 1898. It is now a media centre. The brickwork seems to have been painted, which is a bit odd.

Across the railway line I noticed this rather jolly block, seemingly made out of giant Duplo bricks. It is student accommodation provided by Union State.

Finally, in Lichfield St, was the Grand Theatre, an imposing building of 1898. From here we passed the Art Gallery and the gardens by St Peter's church to return to Queen Square.

Conditions: grey and a bit misty.

Distance: a couple of miles.

Rating: Three and half stars. Our overall impression of Wolverhampton is that is a bit down-at-heel and lacking a strong overall character, but there are some very attractive buildings scattered around the city.