| Pearl's Hill | |
|---|---|
  Pearl's Hill Location in Singapore | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 165 ft (50 m) |
| Coordinates | 1°17′04″N103°50′21″E / 1.28444°N 103.83917°E Coordinates: 1°17′04″N103°50′21″E / 1.28444°N 103.83917°E |
| Geography | |
| Location | Singapore |
| Geology | |
| Mountain type | hill |
Pearl's Hill, briefly Mount Stamford, is a small hill in Singapore. Located in the vicinity of Chinatown, it is one of the few surviving hills in the city area.
The hill was the location of gambier plantations owned by the Chinese who had occupied and settled there before Stamford Raffles' arrival in 1819. Captain James Pearl, the captain of ship Indiana which took Sir Stamford Raffles to Singapore in 1819, liked the look of the hill, and began acquiring plot after plot on the hill from the Chinese gambier planters until he owned the entire hill in May 1822. Pearl had the Chinese and Malay workmen built his house on top of the hill and cleared the slopes to plant pepper vines for him.
The hill was briefly named Mount Stamford by Pearl as a compliment to Raffles. When Raffles, having returned from Bencoolen, Sumatra in October 1822, heard how the hill had been acquired without his approval, he ordered its repossession by the British Government. Raffles immediately relented and accorded the ownership of the hill back to Pearl. Captain Pearl, disgruntled by Raffles' actions, renamed the hill after himself.
In 1828, Captain Pearl retired back to England and his agents had the hill sold to the British Government for Rs 10,000. His name had remained associated with the hill since then. [1] Pearl's Hill used to be higher than Fort Canning Hill, thus the British colonial engineers decided to have the coolies shave off the top of Pearl's Hill, therefore lowering its peak to ensure their enemies would not be able to use the hill as an attacking position against the newly built Fort Canning. [2]
Pearl's Hill is well known for once being the site of the former multiple notable institutional buildings such as the Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Seaman's hospital and the Pearl's Hill Prison. The Pearl's Hill Prison is located there because of the close proximity to Sepoy Lines as it was thought to provide protection and security for the prison.
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was a British statesman who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of the British East Indies between 1811 and 1816, and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. He is best known mainly for his founding of modern Singapore and the Straits Settlements.
Tan Tock Seng was a Malacca-born merchant and philanthropist from Singapore.
The Singapore River is a river that flows parallel to Alexandra Road and feeds into the Marina Reservoir in the southern part of Singapore. The immediate upper watershed of the Singapore River is known as the Singapore River Planning Area, although the western part of the watershed is classified under the River Valley planning area.
William Farquhar was a Scottish colonial administrator employed by the East India Company, who served as the sixth Resident of Malacca between 1813 and 1818, and the first Resident of Singapore between 1819 and 1823.
The Jackson Plan or Raffles Town Plan, an urban plan of 1822 titled "Plan of the Town of Singapore", is a proposed scheme for Singapore drawn up to maintain some order in the urban development of the fledgling but thriving colony founded just three years earlier. It was named after Lieutenant Philip Jackson, the colony's engineer and land surveyor tasked to oversee its physical development in accordance with the vision of Stamford Raffles for Singapore, hence it is also commonly called Raffles Town Plan. Raffles gave his instructions in November 1822, the plan was then drawn up in late 1822 or early 1823 and published in 1828. It is the earliest extant plan for the town of Singapore, but not an actual street map of Singapore as it existed in 1822 or 1827 since the plan is an idealised scheme of how Singapore may be organised that was not fully realised. Nevertheless, it served as a guide for the development of Singapore in its early days, and the effect of the general layout of the plan is still observable to this day.
The Singapore Stone is a fragment of a large sandstone slab which originally stood at the mouth of the Singapore River. The large slab, which is believed to date back to at least the 13th century and possibly as early as the 10th or 11th century, bore an undeciphered inscription. Recent theories suggest that the inscription is either in Old Javanese or in Sanskrit, which suggested a possibility that the island was an extension of the Majapahit civilization in the past.
The establishment of a British trading post in Singapore in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles led to its founding as a British colony in 1824. This event has generally been understood to mark the founding of colonial Singapore, a break from its status as a port in ancient times during the Srivijaya and Majapahit eras, and later, as part of the Sultanate of Malacca and the Johor Sultanate.
The Padang is an open playing field located within the Downtown Core of the Central Area in Singapore. It includes the Padang Cricket Ground. The Padang is surrounded by several important landmarks, which include Saint Andrew's Cathedral, City Hall, the Old Supreme Court Building and the City Hall MRT station.
Fort Canning Hill, formerly Government Hill, Singapore Hill and Bukit Larangan, is a small hill, about 48 metres (157 ft) high, in the southeast portion of the island city-state of Singapore, within the Central Area that forms Singapore's central business district. It is named after Viscount Charles John Canning, the first Viceroy of India. Although small in physical size, it has a long history intertwined with that of the city-state due to its location as the highest elevation within walking distance to the city's civic district, within the Downtown Core. It is also a popular location for exhibitions, concerts and outdoor recreation.
The architecture of Singapore displays a range of influences and styles from different places and periods. These range from the eclectic styles and hybrid forms of the colonial period to the tendency of more contemporary architecture to incorporate trends from around the world. In both aesthetic and technological terms, Singapore architecture may be divided into the more traditional pre-World War II colonial period, and the largely modern post-war and post-colonial period.
George Drumgoole Coleman, also known as George Drumgold Coleman, was an Irish civil architect who played an instrumental role in the design and construction of much of the civil infrastructure in early Singapore, after it was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. Only a few of his buildings have survived in Singapore, most notably Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, Maxwell's House, and Caldwell House.
Philip Jackson was a British Royal Navy lieutenant in the Bengal Regiment Artillery. Jackson has also served as assistant engineer, executive officer and surveyor of public lands in colonial Singapore and laid out the city plan for Singapore in 1822. He was a key person in Raffles plans for the settlement and the Elgin Bridge in Singapore was once named in his honour.
A Famosa (Malay: Kota A Famosa; "The Famous" in Portuguese, also known as Fortaleza Velha Portuguese: the old fortress, and Dutch: Slavenburgh & De Misericorde was a Portuguese fortress built in Malacca, Malaysia, in 1512. The oldest part of the fortress was a five-storey keep which gave its name to the fortress as a whole. Some time following the Battle of Malacca and the occupation of the city by the Dutch, the keep was destroyed but the outer walls of the fortress were reinforced. However, in 1807 the British destroyed most of the fortress. The Porta de Santiago gateway, and the restored Middelburg Bastion, are the only parts of the fortress that remain today. They are among the oldest European architectural remains in Southeast Asia and the Far East.
Stamford Road is a one-way road in Singapore within the planning areas of Downtown Core and Museum. The road continues after the traffic light junction of Nicoll Highway, Esplanade Drive and Raffles Avenue towards Orchard Road. It then ends at the junction of Fort Canning Road, Bencoolen Street and Orchard Road, which it continues to be Orchard Road. Stamford Road is home to several landmarks, including Swissôtel The Stamford and the National Museum of Singapore.
Narayana Pillai was a social entrepreneur and businessman, who spent most of his life in Singapore during the colonial period. Of Tamil origins, he greatly contributed to the Tamil community in Singapore.
A number of former cemeteries in Singapore were cleared of graves with the land redeveloped during the second half of the twentieth century. The cemeteries had closed when they were either full or were relocated. The records and histories of some of these cemeteries are now left.
Fame was built at Northfleet in 1818. She made one voyage under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). A fire destroyed her in 1824 during her second voyage for the EIC.
Raffles House is a single-storey building built on the Fort Canning Hill, Singapore. The original building was a wood and atap structure built in 1822 that was used as a place of residence by Sir Stamford Raffles. This building was later rebuilt as a neoclassical-styled Government House as the residence of subsequent colonial governors, but it was demolished in 1858 to make way for the construction Fort Canning. The present structure built on the same site is a brick and tile building constructed in 2003.
Sophia, Lady Raffles, born Sophia Hull, was the second wife of Sir Stamford Raffles, who was a botanist and known as the founder of modern Singapore.
Mercury was launched at Calcutta in 1806.