Preserving the past in print as well

Source : Straits Times – 12 Nov 2009

A SENIOR consultant at Singapore General Hospital, Professor Lee Seng Teik, has fond memories of the hospital grounds from when he started working there 35 years ago.

‘There were many low-rise buildings with plenty of green around. The hospital had a wonderful garden feel to it, and going there was like going to the Botanic Gardens, said Prof Lee, 68.

Back then, the three-storey Bowyer Block was the tallest building on the premises. Today that may no longer be the case but the historical importance of the building has not diminished.

Bowyer Block, named after Dr John Herbert Bowyer, a former chief medical officer who was closely associated with the hospital, is in the latest batch of six buildings that have been gazetted as national monuments.

Besides Bowyer Block, the other five new national monuments are Keng Teck Whay building at Telok Ayer Street, the former Command House at Bukit Timah, the former St James Power Station, Church of St Teresa and the former Raffles College, now part of the National University of Singapore.

With the addition of these six buildings, Singapore now has 61 national monuments.

Other national monuments include the Sultan Mosque, the Istana and Sri Temasek and City Hall.

Apart from Bowyer Block which has a distinctive clock tower, there are two more national monuments in the SGH grounds – the Tan Teck Guan Building and the College of Medicine Building.

‘The preservation of these three buildings is important, as they are the link to our past,’ said Prof Lee, who is also the director of the SGH Museum which is housed in Bowyer Block.

The news of the latest monuments was announced by Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew at the National Museum of Singapore yesterday.

He was speaking at the launch of a photography book published by the Preservation of Monuments Board. Titled Resonance – Songs Of Our Forefathers, it features photographs of 24 national monuments.

Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui said of Singapore’s preservation efforts: ‘Buildings and other physical structures are an important part of our collective memory and they serve as an important anchor for the younger generation.’

The Preservation of Monuments Board was formed in 1971 and it aims to preserve monuments of historic, traditional, archaeological, architectural or artistic interest.

Owners of non-commercial and non-government national monuments, such as religious institutions, can apply for a grant for urgent repair works.

Over at the former Raffles College, which is now the NUS Bukit Timah campus, six buildings including the Eu Tong Sen and Oei Tiong Ham Buildings are now national monuments. The former college was the first institution of higher learning in Malaya.

NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan said that NUS is ‘deeply encouraged that our heritage as Singapore’s home-grown leading global university is acknowledged and that these structures signify and speak to others as one of Singapore’s architectural merits.’

Real estate company Mapletree, which owns St James Power Station, Singapore’s first municipal-operated power station and now a nightlife complex of 10 clubs, said it was ‘conscious of the need to preserve this iconic 82-year-old building while ensuring that it was given a new lease of life’.

Ms Shae Hung Yee, its vice-president of corporate communications, said: ‘The fact that it is gazetted as a national monument has made St James Power Station an even more important destination for locals and visitors.’