The collection
The Straits · A trading post that became a nation
Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam sit within a few minutes of each other and of the glass towers of the Downtown Core, each with its own temples, its own trade and its own food streets. The Botanic Gardens and the parks along Marina Bay run green almost without a break, and most of the city can be walked or taken by train without ever calling a car.
Traders knew this island as Temasek, sea town in Javanese, when a settlement stood here in the 14th century, and it was the seat of a kingdom called Singapura, lion city, before Malacca and then Johor absorbed it. The city's modern era began in 1819, when the East India Company's Stamford Raffles signed a treaty with the Sultan of Johor for a trading post on the island, and Britain took direct control as part of the Straits Settlements in 1867. Japan occupied Singapore from 1942 to 1945, and after the war the island moved through self-government, a short-lived merger with Malaysia, and full independence on 9 August 1965. There is no hinterland here and almost nothing under the ground, so the country has made more of itself instead: land area has grown from about 582 square kilometres in the 1960s to about 744 square kilometres now, nearly all of the difference pulled out of the sea. The country runs on 4 official languages at once — English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil — with Malay the constitutional national language and English the language of government, law and business.
Sculptor Lim Nang Seng built it from November 1971 to August 1972, 8.6 metres high and weighing 70 tonnes, and Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew opened it at the mouth of the river in September 1972. It moved to its current site, 120 metres away, in April 2002. The lion head stands for the old name Singapura, and the fish tail for Temasek, the fishing village the city began as.
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1 Beach Road, Civic District
A white colonial hotel from 1887 on Beach Road, with a butler for every suite and the Singapore Sling, first mixed here in 1915.
It opened in 2012 on the first of its 3 waterfront sections, Bay South — 54 hectares of reclaimed land beside Marina Reservoir — and the whole park now covers 105 hectares. Its 18 Supertrees stand 25 to 50 metres tall, several fitted with solar cells, and all of them catch rainwater for the gardens below.
Founded on its current site in 1859, the gardens run 82 hectares and are the only tropical garden on the UNESCO World Heritage list of botanic gardens. Inside them, the National Orchid Garden covers 3 hectares on the highest hill and holds over 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids, the largest orchid display in the world.
The two buildings — the former Supreme Court and former City Hall — are joined under a single canopy roof designed by Studio Milou, with a combined 64,000 square metres of floor space, the largest museum in Singapore. It holds more than 9,000 works of Southeast Asian and Singaporean art.
Singapore's oldest Hindu temple was founded in 1827 by Naraina Pillai, a government clerk who went on to set up the island's first construction company. Its Dravidian-style gopuram rises over South Bridge Road in the middle of Chinatown, and the temple is now a gazetted national monument.
A British military base and then a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, it was renamed and redeveloped as a resort island in the 1970s. It now holds a 2.5-kilometre sheltered beach, 2 golf courses, a cable car network and one of Singapore's two casinos, reached by causeway, cable car or a short boardwalk from the mainland.
1 The Knolls, Sentosa Island
A resort on Sentosa Island, built around 2 colonial bungalows from the 1880s, with 30 acres of rainforest framed by the sea and a plunge pool in every villa.
Marina Bay, opposite the Esplanade
On Marina Bay, opposite the Esplanade, with a 25-metre pool on the 5th floor and a club lounge on the 21st.
80 Collyer Quay, Marina Bay
A hotel of 100 rooms on the Marina Bay waterfront, beside the 1933 Clifford Pier.
10 Bayfront Avenue, Marina Bay
A 150-metre rooftop pool joins 3 towers, 57 floors above Marina Bay.
Two Temasek Boulevard, Marina Bay
A 31-floor tower over Marina Bay, with 3,400 pieces of Asian art on its walls and a 20-metre pool looking out at the Singapore Flyer.
Orchard
A building of 12 floors around John Portman's skylit atrium, with 10 restaurants and bars, one block from Orchard Road.
A short list of extraordinary places to stay.
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