I was very excited to be able to participate in the free walking tour organised by National Heritage Board in commemoration of the 78th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore. In today's tour, we will be visiting the Old Admiralty House and the highlight of the tour would be a chance to enter an underground bunker that dates all the way back to WW2.
Before I go into the details, I want to do a shout out to Andrew, the student volunteer from National University of Singapore History Society for doing a wonderful job in guiding us through the tour as well as providing us with loads of interesting information about this place. Good job!!!
Where is the Old Admiralty House?
The Old Admiralty House is located at Old Nelson Road which is on the top of a hill very close to the Sembawang MRT Station.
Why is the House build here?
As part of their military strategy to fortify Singapore, the British Administration built a naval base in Sembawang, in the north of the island.
The Old Admiralty House was build here for defensive and supervision purposes as it allows elevated view of the surrounding naval base. As such, the first residence of the house was Real Admiral Ernest John Spooner and his wife in 1941. Touring the House
The Old Admiralty House have seen multiple change in occupants through time. With it were various modification made to the house. Luckily Mrs Megan Spooner (spouse of Mr Ernest John Spooner) documented some of her thoughts about the house in her diary which allows visualisation of how the house originally looks like.
From her diary, we can see that she really have lots of negative comments about this house which I think demonstrated that people from the colonial times are not used to the Art And Craft Architecture Style that this building was designed on.
For example through her diary, we know that the striking orange red roof and much of the exterior of the building was preserved since day 1 as she wrote that they can see the red roof while driving up the driveway.
Also through her diary, we can identified that some infrastructures such as the blinds at the balcony were only added much later.
Other interesting part of the house includes this dark narrow stairs which is meant for servant use (You can feel how servants are being treated as lowly and not something they would want their guest to see during those times)
Touring the Underground Bunker
My heart sank when the first thing that Andrew said was: "It is drizzling a bit. So we are going to amend the tour and we are not going into the bunker" WHAT!!!! That is the highlight of this tour (ToT) He explained that we cannot go down into the bunker when it is raining because the ventilation shaft needs to be closed to prevent rainwater from going in.
Luckily when we came out from the house the rain has stopped and so we can proceed with the tour of the bunker. Yay!!! (≧∇≦)/
The existence of this bunker was not known until the 1990s when they were doing some development works in the area.
Interestingly there is a lamp post near the entrance of the bunker which I think suggested that there used to be a driveway here.
The bunker is very small (online search indicates 30sqm). There were not enough evidence to determine whom actually builds this underground bunker. However the presence of a squatting toilet which is a very Jap thing in the past is suggestive that this bunker was actually build by the Japs during WW2)
My Verdict
The Old Admiralty House and the Underground Bunker is a historical treasure among the constantly developing Sembawang town. I really feel that one should take advantage of such tours (DO NOT try to trespass these site on your own as they are private properties) to see, feel and learn from the stories behind these historical sites.
Once again I thank the National Heritage Board and National University of Singapore History Society for bringing us on this educational tour.
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KelvinYo. I am from Singapore. I love to travel. Follow me as I share my experiences and tips for budget travelling as well as my hunt for Ho Kangs around Singapore. Archives
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