Empress Place
South, Singapore
July 2014
After a four-year refurbishment costing $158 million, the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall opened its doors again. Singapore's oldest performing arts venue, the original architecture of the 152-year-old Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall was largely preserved.
First established as two separate buildings - a town hall and a memorial hall to honour Queen Victoria, the buildings are linked by a 54-metre high clock tower. Gazetted as a National Monument in 1992, the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall witnessed many significant moments in Singapore's history.
- During World War II, the Concert Hall (then known as the Memorial Hall) served as a makeshift hospital, and was also the venue for war crime trials in 1937.
- In November 1954, the People's Action Party's inaugural meeting took place in the Memorial Hall.
- In the mid-1950s, Singapore's national anthem was originally composed to celebrate the reopening of Victoria Theatre after its earlier refurbishment.
The central passageway between Victoria Concert Hall and Victoria Theatre which existed since 1905 was reinstated with the restoration of the Central Atrium. Located on the first storey and at the entrance of the thereat and concert hall, it presents two varied designs reflecting the new and the old - The Victoria Concert Hall with its ornate archways and rusticated columns contrast with the Victoria Theatre's new precast panels which are relief-etched.
Where a lift and a dark airwell used to bridge the space between the Concert Hall and the Theatre, the space now opens into a bright and sunny glass-ceiling courtyard. This was the original design between the renovation of the building in the 1950s...
The original marbled stairs leading upwards to the concert hall and theatre were preserved.
A coat of non-slip floor coating had been applied...
These were new staircases lining both sides of the Central Atrium. Although stretching only one floor, they were at least 1.5 times the length of your regular HDB staircase...
Porous granite stone slabs were used to line the surfaces of the walls to create a more neo-classical feel, with the ornate wall carvings and motifs...
To add a touch of modernism, the original lamps were replaced with metallic light fixtures and automated glass doors. Where traditionalism was required, yet similar mosaic tiles were no longer produced, floor laminates were used...
The cafe where many had a fond memory of snacks at the intermission of SSO performances...
The bronze plaque outside the old cafe - "to the memory of those who were killed during the mutiny in Singapore in February 1915"...
Opposite the "1915" plaque lies the all-famous foundation stone laid by Sir Frank Athelstan Swettenham, Governor of the Straits Settlements on 09 August 1902...
(Now you understand why our National Day falls on that day)
In 1947, the Straits Settlements coat of arms that was hung on the tympanum of both wings of the building was replaced by the newly formed coat of arms of the Crown Colony of Singapore. It was later brought down in 1959 to make a plaster cast of the Coat of Arms of Singapore, which was topped of with two flagpoles with the Flag of Singapore on it.
