Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, Singapore

Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall, Singapore (8 July 2006)


Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall (GPS: 1.28842, 103.85161) is a set of two heritage buildings in downtown Singapore. It is on Connaught Drive. The first of these two buildings was originally the Singapore Town Hall. It was completed in 1862, when the Victorian Revivalism style was in fashion in Great Britain. It was the first building in Singapore to adopt that style, with its Italianate windows and rusticated columns.

In 1901, the Victoria Memoral Hall was constructed next to it, in memory of Queen Victoria. The foundation stone was laid in 1902, and the Victoria Memorial Hall was officially opened by Sir John Anderson, Governor of the Straits Settlements, on 18 October 1905. The Victoria Memorial Hall was designed by Major Alexander Murray of the Public Works Department, with additional input from R.A.J. Bidwell from the architectural firm of Swan and McClaren. To bring the Town Hall and Victoria Memorial Hall together in style, the Town Hall was then renovated.

In 1906, the clock tower was added. It is 54 meters tall, and holds a clock donated by the Straits Trading Company. When the Anderson Bridge a couple of years later, the bridge was aligned on the same axis as the clock tower.

On 6 February 1919, on the occasion of the centenery of Singapore's founding, the statue of Stamford Raffles, which was sculptured by Thomas Woolner in 1887 in conjunction with Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, was transferred from its original located at the Padang, to stand in front of the Victoria Memorial Hall. This is the first of two statues of Stamford Raffles in the immediate vicinity. A second one was erected at the Raffles Landing Site on 1972.

During the start of World War II, the buildings were used as a hospital for victims of Japanese bombings. Although it did sustain some damage to its columns, it was well intact throughout the war. Raffles's statue was however taken to the National Museum for safekeeping, and was only reinstalled in 1946, after the war. The buildings were subsequently used as the venue for Japanese war crime trials.

The Victoria Memorial Hall was renovated in 1954 by Swan & McClaren. The PAP, the People's Action Party that today governs Singapore, was founded there on 21 November of that year. The town hall was also renovated, and became known as the Victoria Theatre. In 1979, the Victoria Memorial Hall was renovated again to house the the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO), and it too was renamed, as the Victoria Concert Hall.

The Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall was gazetted as a National Monument of Singapore on 14 February 1992.

Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall on Google Street View

Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall, Singapore (8 July 2006)


Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall, as seen from St Andrew's Road (28 August 2017)


Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall at dusk (28 July 2017)

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Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.