Thursday, March 5, 2009

some historic buildings along coleman street





on most sundays, i park my car at the registry of marriage car-park at canning rise. last sunday, after having parked the car, i decided to explore the area in the vicinity of the car-park. parking is free on sundays at this particular car-park.




first, from the car-park, i took the stairs to get to fort canning park. i particularly wanted to have a look at the 'flutes by the fort' because my nephew had taken his girlfriend there on valentine's day. the restaurant was not open in the morning. from the restaurant i had a view of the back of three or four buildings along coleman street.




the building nearest to the car-park is the national archives of singapore. i remember that it used to be one of the anglo-chinese schools. i think in the 70s, it was the anglo chinese junior school. i had a friend whose son attended the school, even though they were living in bedok. reason: the father was an old boy of the school.

questions: what is the present location of anglo chinese junior school?

answer: winstedt road, the former premises of monk's hill secondary school

how many anglo chinese schools are there in s'pore altogether?

six: acs junior, acs primary, acs secondary, acs independent, acjc & acs international





the building next to it, the singapore philatelic museum, used to be part of the same school and later, in 1970, it became the methodist book room. i remember browsing in the book room in the early 80s.





the other building, which is next to the central fire station, is the freemason hall also known as the masonic hall. it seems quite an exclusive place, as i do not see many people going in and out of that place.

membership is by invitation only and often entails a committee interviewing the prospective member, mostly to ascertain if he believes in a supreme being. the potential member's entry then depends on a secret vote done through the use of black and white balls. if the candidate is "black-balled" twice, he is disqualified from joining. only three or four new members are said to be initiated each year. in singapore, although there is no minimum income criterion to join, freemasonry is definitely a "professional outfit".

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

u forgo the former USIS Library? Good place for its air-con and also the chance to see the world through publications and audio-visual media.

yg said...

peter, that was one of my favourite hide-outs. like their magazines and all those fresh-smelling thick-cover books.

Anonymous said...

the national archives usedto be Anglo-Chinese Primary School instead of Junior School. The primary school is now located at Barker road while the junior school is at monkshill.