Famous Landmarks and History along River Valley
River Valley in central Singapore, was so named because the area lay in a valley between Fort Canning Hill and Pearl’s Hill. In the 1840s, there were two River Valley roads that ran along either side of the Singapore River. The one to the south of the river is now known as Havelock Road. The present River Valley Road runs from the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Hill Street to Delta Road.
Singapore River
Fondly referred to as “The River”, the Singapore River spans 3.2 km from the sea to its upper reaches at Kim Seng Road. Boat Quay was the first to have offices, warehouses, godowns and jetties built along its banks in 1823. Subsequent developments continued up-river, along the banks of Clarke Quay, Robertson Quay, and later even further upstream, near the upper reaches and the source of the Singapore River at Alexandra Canal (formerly a river), as demarcated by Kim Seng Bridge.16 The buildings on the seaward side of Commercial Square (today’s Raffles Place) had their own jetties for passengers and cargo until the reclamation of the Collyer Quay waterfront in the 1860s.
Times House ( Currently Cosmopolitan, a condominium)
Located at the junction of Kim Seng Road and River Valley Road, Times House was the home for Singapore’s English newspaper The Straits Times for more than four decades.
n November 1984, The Straits Times Press was merged with Times Publishing, Singapore News and Publications and Singapore Newspaper Services to form the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), whose headquarters was established at its News Centre at Genting Lane. In the subsequent decades, SPH grew and diversified its business from printed newspapers to magazines, radio stations, TV channels, digital media, event management and properties.
SPH moved its headquarters to a new $40m complex at Toa Payoh North in 2002, bringing down the curtains at Times House after 44 years. Its site was subsequently sold a year later to Marco Polo Developments (Wharf Estates Singapore today) for almost $120 million, which went on to demolish Times House in 2004 and build The Cosmopolitan condominium in 2008.
Great World Amusement Park (大世界) currently Great World Mall
located along Kim Seng Road was developed by Lee Choon Yung in 1931 and sold to the Shaw Brothers in 1940. It grew famous for its cabarets, Chinese and Malay opera halls, shops, restaurants, open-air cinemas, boxing arenas, and shooting galleries, attracted British servicemen and the upper classes, with free films and Peking operas to watch in addition to wrestling and boxing matches. The traditional song and dance performances were slowly replaced by getai which was slowly growing more popular. As the rubber industry boomed in the fifties, their visitors grew richer and their owners pumped in more money to spruce up the facilities and entertainment available.The boom period slowly came to an end in the seventies and eighties. With the invasion of television, night markets, cineplexes, shopping malls and game arcades, amusement parks became increasingly out of sync with the rhythm of life and people’s habits.
The Great World closed down in 1978. In 1979, Shaw sold the park to Robert Kuok, a Malaysian Chinese business magnate and investor, dubbed Malaysia’s “Sugar King”. The Kuok Group proposed to build a residential and shopping complex in 1981 but was deterred by the S$162 million development charge to re-zone the land into a shopping area. It abandoned the plan in 1984 but eventually paid a reduced charge of S$55 million in 1986. The group then resumed the construction of the S$600 million Great World City Shopping Centre.
Its five-football-fields-sized site is now home to the mega Great World condo-cum-office and shopping mall.
River Valley in central Singapore, was so named because the area lay in a valley between Fort Canning Hill and Pearl’s Hill. In the 1840s, there were two River Valley roads that ran along either side of the Singapore River. The one to the south of the river is now known as Havelock Road. The present River Valley Road runs from the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Hill Street to Delta Road.
Singapore River
Fondly referred to as “The River”, the Singapore River spans 3.2 km from the sea to its upper reaches at Kim Seng Road. Boat Quay was the first to have offices, warehouses, godowns and jetties built along its banks in 1823. Subsequent developments continued up-river, along the banks of Clarke Quay, Robertson Quay, and later even further upstream, near the upper reaches and the source of the Singapore River at Alexandra Canal (formerly a river), as demarcated by Kim Seng Bridge.16 The buildings on the seaward side of Commercial Square (today’s Raffles Place) had their own jetties for passengers and cargo until the reclamation of the Collyer Quay waterfront in the 1860s.
Times House ( Currently Cosmopolitan, a condominium)
Located at the junction of Kim Seng Road and River Valley Road, Times House was the home for Singapore’s English newspaper The Straits Times for more than four decades.
n November 1984, The Straits Times Press was merged with Times Publishing, Singapore News and Publications and Singapore Newspaper Services to form the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), whose headquarters was established at its News Centre at Genting Lane. In the subsequent decades, SPH grew and diversified its business from printed newspapers to magazines, radio stations, TV channels, digital media, event management and properties.
SPH moved its headquarters to a new $40m complex at Toa Payoh North in 2002, bringing down the curtains at Times House after 44 years. Its site was subsequently sold a year later to Marco Polo Developments (Wharf Estates Singapore today) for almost $120 million, which went on to demolish Times House in 2004 and build The Cosmopolitan condominium in 2008.
Great World Amusement Park (大世界) currently Great World Mall
located along Kim Seng Road was developed by Lee Choon Yung in 1931 and sold to the Shaw Brothers in 1940. It grew famous for its cabarets, Chinese and Malay opera halls, shops, restaurants, open-air cinemas, boxing arenas, and shooting galleries, attracted British servicemen and the upper classes, with free films and Peking operas to watch in addition to wrestling and boxing matches. The traditional song and dance performances were slowly replaced by getai which was slowly growing more popular. As the rubber industry boomed in the fifties, their visitors grew richer and their owners pumped in more money to spruce up the facilities and entertainment available.The boom period slowly came to an end in the seventies and eighties. With the invasion of television, night markets, cineplexes, shopping malls and game arcades, amusement parks became increasingly out of sync with the rhythm of life and people’s habits.
The Great World closed down in 1978. In 1979, Shaw sold the park to Robert Kuok, a Malaysian Chinese business magnate and investor, dubbed Malaysia’s “Sugar King”. The Kuok Group proposed to build a residential and shopping complex in 1981 but was deterred by the S$162 million development charge to re-zone the land into a shopping area. It abandoned the plan in 1984 but eventually paid a reduced charge of S$55 million in 1986. The group then resumed the construction of the S$600 million Great World City Shopping Centre.
Its five-football-fields-sized site is now home to the mega Great World condo-cum-office and shopping mall.
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