BIBLIOASIA OCT – DEC 2016 Vol. 12 / Issue 03 / Feature wall and Fort Fullerton, with a botanical and European traders to promote commerce. acknowledgement of the contributions of Dr Lai Chee Kien is an Adjunct Associate experimental gardens in between, and Bukit One of the concessions the first British Singapore’s founder and served to further Professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, and a registered Larangan or “Forbidden Hill” (subsequently Resident in Singapore, William Farquhar, reinforce the might of the British Empire – architect. His research interest lies in the renamed by Raffles as Government Hill). granted to traders was permission to occupy the statue depicting Raffles with his arms history of art, architecture, settlements, urban The three man-made landscape ele- prime land along the fringes of the Padang folded in quiet assurance, as if surveying planning and landscapes in Southeast Asia. ments designed by the British conspicu- − as in case of the Bousteads who built their the physical manifestations of his legacy. ously displayed to its indigenous settlers family home there and the Sarkies brothers Ironically, the statue was often struck by how nature could be manipulated to form who leased the building that became the stray footballs kicked by overeager players a flattened field (the Padang), a garden Raffles Hotel.3 when matches were held at the Padang, and setting where trees and shrubs were regi- These buildings went against Raffles’ the authorities decided to move it in 1919 The One of the more enduring legacies of the mented, and defensive structures arranged instructions that the northern banks of the to a more dignified site closer to Victoria colonial era in Southeast Asia is the spatial strategically on a hill.2 The construction of Singapore River should be reserved strictly Memorial Hall. design and metropolitan planning that structures on this strip of artificial landscape for government use. Together with John Although the Supreme Court was the oWestern powers left behind in the cities was deliberate: a church, a court house and Crawfurd, the second Resident of Singapore, last building to be built on the Padang’s they occupied. Spatial design principles that government offices between the square Raffles moderated Farquhar’s generosity edge, its history predates all of the other developed in European cities were super- and gardens, and Raffles’ own residence and began to lease land instead to the trad- grand structures around the field − dating imposed onto the landscapes of colonised on the hill. ers. On this basis, the houses of colonial back to 1823 when the English merchant Southeast Asian cities, replacing the indig- In time, the enlarged rectilinear Espla- merchants such as Robert Scott, James Edward Boustead was given land to build enous land and water forms that existed for nade − from the Latin word explānāre, Scott Clark, Edward Boustead and William his family home. The palatial house was centuries. In Singapore, the Padang – the meaning “to make level” − became the first Montgomerie located around the Padang subsequently turned into a series of hotels Padang expanse of green opposite the National semblance of a landscape interface between were to serve as temporary residences before it was demolished to build the Grand Gallery Singapore and bookended by the British colonials and native residents in and hotels until the Town Hall, the Supreme Hotel de l'Europe in 1905 which, together Centrepiece of Colonial Design Singapore Cricket Club and the Singapore Singapore. When the Esplanade (which was Court and the Municipal Building (later City with the Raffles Hotel, was regarded as one Recreation Club – is one such example. how the British referred to the Padang back Hall) were eventually built to establish the of the finest lodgings in Southeast Asia. The then) was not used for military assemblies, government seat of power.4 hotel closed down in 1932 and the site was The Padang in Singapore drills and ceremonies, it served as a pitch The process of creating a visually acquired by the government to build the This expanse of green fringed by grand colonial for cricket, football and rugby matches. consistent neoclassical facade around the Supreme Court. The British occupiers of Singapore, led by Through military, recreational and cer- Padang’s edges was thus a gradual process The last Padang-facing structure to edifices in the city centre is a statement of Stamford Raffles, altered the coastal land- emonial uses, the Esplanade instilled and that took place over a century rather than be constructed, the neoclassical Supreme scapes of the island soon after their arrival in socialised concepts of colonial discipline a swiftly executed plan. The construction Court, was erected at a time when the British might, as Lai Chee Kien tells us. 1819. Recognising the defensive advantages and abidance among the British settlers. timeline began with the Parliament House transatlantic art deco and modernist move- of a hill overlooking the colonial settlement The space became a platform that displayed (1826–27) − originally planned as a private ments in architecture had already begun to and anchorage areas, Raffles commissioned different sides of the British colonial officers: home for the Scottish merchant John Argyle influence architectural design all over South- a hilltop fort for military surveillance over regimental and belligerent on occasion, but Maxwell; St Andrew’s Cathedral – first as a east Asia. Upon its completion in 1939, the the settlement plains.1 at other times, given to rest and recreation. church (1835–36) then a cathedral (1856–61); green expanse of the Padang with its grand In 1823, Lieutenant Philip Jackson, Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall – first as edifices of architecture on its edges evoked whom Raffles had appointed as Surveyor Edifices of Power Around the Padang the Town Hall (1855–62) and then Victoria the colonial vision of power and discipline. of Public Lands, drew a new urban plan for Memorial Hall (1902–09); the Cricket Club The periphery of the Padang where the town under his direction. The Raffles Around the Esplanade, or Padang, the con- (1860s); City Hall5 – originally the Municipal it met the sea, meanwhile, had become a Town Plan (or Jackson Plan as it was also struction of buildings along its edges further Building (1926–29); and lastly the Supreme colonial tree-lined promenade for the public. An 1851 oil painting by John Turnbull Thomson, Government Surveyor of the Straits Settlements (1841–53). It shows a view of the Padang from Scandal Point, a small knoll above the shoreline which originally known) – taking heed of the precedent set stamped colonial legitimacy and emphasised Court (1937–39). As a visitor in the 1850s remarked of the came up to the edge of the Padang. Gift of Dr John Hall-Jones. Courtesy of the National Museum of by the British in colonial Calcutta − showed the class divide between the British and the In between all these constructions, Esplanade: “The scene is enlivened twice Singapore, National Heritage Board. a contiguous strip of artificial landscape local peoples. As in Prince of Wales Island on Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Day on during the week by the regimental band, extending from the sea shore to the clos- (later renamed Penang), which the British 27 June 1887, an 8-foot bronze statue of on which occasions the old women gather est inland hill, which comprised an open, had earlier colonised in 1786, the British Stamford Raffles was unveiled at the Padang, together to talk scandal, and their daughters manicured square protected by a battery East India Company worked closely with facing the direction of the sea.6 This was an to indulge in a little innocent flirtation.”7 40 41 BIBLIOASIA OCT – DEC 2016 Vol. 12 / Issue 03 / Feature The port cities of Penang, Malacca Interestingly, there are implications that has been artificially constructed, with and Singapore (collectively known as the for the various sites that have taken turns its edges flanked by mostly new buildings Straits Settlements) in the Malay Peninsula to host the parade. For instance, the deci- that are key to Singapore’s next phase of became part of this British colonial network. sion to hold the newly independent nation’s development as a global city. Spatially, it is On the Malay Peninsula, the defensive form first National Day Parade at the Padang in a “liquid padang”, serving similar functions was first created in Penang after it was 1966 can be seen as a subversion of colonial but providing a view towards the city’s future, annexed by the British in 1786. The Padang rule, appropriating a symbolically potent especially since the colonial Padang and its was constructed alongside Fort Cornwallis site that had represented British authority period buildings have been mostly emptied at a strategic cape location with the Penang in Singapore for over a century. of their original functions – most recently the Cricket Club and government buildings at The construction of the National Sta- amalgamation of City Hall and the Supreme the other end.12 The arrangement would be dium in 1973 created an alternative congre- Court into the National Gallery Singapore. replicated in Singapore with the establish- gation space for national spectatorship.14 Collectively, the old and the new “padang” ment of Fort Fullerton along Battery Road, The key feature of the National Stadium is evoke the giant leaps of time and progress until Government Hill was deemed to be a a manicured flat green field, much like the that Singapore has made since Raffles first more strategic area and Fort Canning was Padang, but with people, instead of buildings, envisioned his town plan in 1822. constructed here in 1861. filling the spaces of its periphery. The staging of the National Day Parade Notes (Above) The statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, facing The Padang in Post-Colonial Singapore at Marina Bay is of interest because the site 1 Letter from Stamford Raffles to William Farquhar the sea, was unveiled at the Padang on Queen Vic- is spatially analogous to that of the Padang.