Fool on the Hill

Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets Exploring the Past, Reimagining the Future of Singapore’s Historical State Properties  Held in collaboration with the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets 2025/26 returns after the Singapore Heritage Festival with a visit to the beautifully laid out Adam Park estate. [Registration Opens on 25 May 2026 at 6…

Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets Exploring the Past, Reimagining the Future of Singapore’s Historical State Properties  Held in collaboration with the Singapore Land Authority and Kada, Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets 2025/26’s takes us next to the slopes of Mount Erskine to rediscover the former St Andrew’s Mission Hospital turned Medical Store, Outpatient Dispensary, and…

Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets Exploring the Past, Reimagining the Future of Singapore’s Historical State Properties  Held in collaboration with the Singapore Land Authority and the Danish Seamen’s Church, Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets 2025/26’s next discovery promises an elevated experience on the slopes of Mount Faber. With its “blood and bandages” appearance and an…

The 15th of February 2026 will mark the 84th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore. The date in 1942, marked an inauspicious start to year of the horse for members of the Chinese population, who would be subject to unimaginable atrocities in the weeks ahead. Fear and uncertainty, a lack of food, disease, poor nutrition, poor living conditions and a lack of vaccines were to be features of the three…

Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets Exploring the Past, Reimagining the Future of Singapore’s Historical State Properties  Discovering the former Bukit Timah StationThis visit is being organised in collaboration with the Singapore Land Authority and LHN Space Optimisation as part of the Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets 2025/26 series of tours. [Registration opens on 1 Feb 2026 at…

Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept SecretsExploring the Past, Re-imagining the Future of Singapore’s Historical State Properties Tucked away in a quiet corner of Dover Road, an area associated with educational establishments, Medway Park, escapes the attention of many. The value of the collection of late colonial era residences is the link that it provides to the area’s discarded military past, a…

Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept SecretsExploring the Past, Re-imagining the Future of Singapore’s Historical State Properties Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets 2025/26 contnues with a visit on 10 January 2026 to 179 and 450 Piccadilly. The two buildings are amongst a number of conserved structures associated with the former RAF Seletar / Seletar Air Base marking the site of the Royal…

Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept SecretsExploring the Past, Re-imagining the Future of Singapore’s Historical State Properties Discovering a Sembawang Arts and Crafts Inspiration20 Dec 2025  The second tour in the Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets 2025/26 series will provide an exclusive peek into an Arts and Craft Movement inspired residence. The residence belongs to a large cluster…

Exploring the Past, Re-imagining the Future of Singapore’s Historical State Properties  Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets State Property Tours are back—with a focus on adaptive reuse. Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept SecretsWhen I first embarked on my collaboration with the Singapore Land Authority on the Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets series of tours back in 2017, I was…

The Karim Family Foundation’s acquisition and careful restoration of the now resplendent House of Tan Yeok Nee (see also: The Last of the Grand Teochew Mansions), is truly a gift to Singapore. The 1880s house is now a unique example of a traditional southern-Chinese-style courtyard house here in Singapore and boasts an array of exquisite decorative craftsmanship. Gilded wooden carvings,…

I had the privilege of showing the BBC’s Carmen Roberts around the Battlebox in August. This was for a segment of ‘The Travel Show’ for which she came back to Singapore—the country of her birth for an episode related to Singapore’s 60th anniversary of Independence and the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The Battlebox, an underground command bunker located in Fort Canning…

Syonan Station From a New Straits Times article published in 2011. As a boy, H.A. Patrick Sinnappoo was sent to the island to work as a translator. He tells Shanti Gunaratnam about his years there, witnessing the good, bad and ugly that were committed during the Japanese occupation. “I saw a man pacing up and down, and when he told me that he was waiting for someone to arrive, I left him on…

A ceramic Buddha head found during an excavation at Empress Place in 2015. Genesis (1299 to 1869) Singapore’s emergence as a great 14th century port is recorded through the stories of the Malay Annals, which accords 14th century Temasek or Singapura with the status of the first great port of the Malay world. There is little doubt of Singapore’s place in the region’s rich maritime history. A…

Photographs of Panguni Uthiram 2025 Panguni Uthiram in previous years: Panguni Uthiram 2018: Panguni Uthiram and a sugarcane kavadi Panguni Uthiram 2016: The Full Moon of Panguni / Northern Singapore’s Chariot Procession Panguni Uthiram 2015: Panguni Uthiram 2015 in photos Panguni Uthiram 2014: Colours of April Panguni Uthiram 2013: The Silver Chariot returns Panguni Uthiram 2012: The sun…

Johor Bahru’s Chingay is quite a spectacle to behold. Where Singapore’s modern take on the southern Chinese tradition of youshen, or procession of dieties, is contained and choreographed, the JB parade is an unabashed expression of faith, unity, and community spirit. The JB parade, which has been around for some 150 years. Except for 1942, when the war came, JB’s Chingay has been held annually…