Nestled between Orchard Road, the Clarke Quay entertainment hub and Central Business District, The 86-room Hotel Fort Canning is a one-of-a-kind urban sanctuary amidst the ‘hustle and bustle’ of the city at Fort Canning Park.
Awarded the prestigious Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) Architectural Heritage Award (AHA) for carefully preserving and integrating a 1926 heritage icon – Hotel Fort Canning is the former administration building of the British Far East Command Headquarters.
Hotel Fort Canning is just a 5-minute walk from Orchard Road and a 10-minute stroll from Clarke Quay / Boat Quay entertainment hub, as well as the Museums & Civic District, and a 30-minute drive from the airport. The Hotel Fort Canning perfectly combines the best of modern amenities with timeless elegance and character with all guest rooms offering either beautiful park or pool views.
Fort Canning
is the most historic part of Singapore. The Fort
was named in 1861 in the honor of Viscount Charles
John Canning, the first Viceroy of India. The hill
underwent several name changes. The Malays called
it Bukit Larangan (Forbidden Hill) for several
possible reasons. (1) it reputedly contains the
tomb or keramat of Sultan Iskandar Shah, the Malay
ruler of the Kingdom of Singapura, who is said to
have forbidden ordinary people to come to the hill
because his concubines and wives used to bath at a
spring there. (2) the Malays were fearful of
climbing the hill as they thought the palace of
their ancestor kings had once stood there. (3) the
site had sightings of fabled lion for which Sri Tri
Buana, ruler of Temasek, later named the island
Singapura (Lion City). (4) besides the fabled lion,
the Malays believed that the hill is haunted by many
other ghosts and spirits.
Sir Stamford Raffles claimed the hill for his
residence, naming it Government Hill in 1822. Until
mid-19th century, Singapore's governors were
residents here; thus the epithet 'Government Hill'
as well as 'Central Park'.
The later Malay name for Fort Canning was Bukit Tuan
Bonham, after Sir Samuel George Bonham, Governor
1836-48. In the latter part of the 19th century it
was called Bukit Bendera (Flag Hill), because of the
signals made for shipping from its flagstaff, the
red ensign for the closing of the P&O mails for
Europe, a yellow flag for the China mails, for
Calcutta the blue ensign, and for Australia the
white ensign.
There is archaeological evidence of a 14th century
town at Fort Canning and along the Stamford Canal
and Singapore River. During the construction of the
30 million gallon capacity reservoir in 1928, Hindu
Javanese gold jewelries dated to about 1360 was
found. Ruins of ancient brick buildings were found,
that gave support to the legend of an ancient
palace.
Some 400 coolies were mobilized in leveling 3 hectares of hilltop and constructing the elaborate fort complex of barrack blocks, hospital, gunpowder magazines and supporting artillery. In 1867, the fort had seven 68-pounder guns, eight 8-inch guns, two 13-inch mortars and some 14-pounder cannonades. A cannon was fired three times a day (at 5am, 1pm and 9pm) in colonial times to announce the hour.
The Battle Box
The Colonial Building and park was once a British barrack before they were bombed by the Japanese during WWII. Construction of this Underground Far East Command Centre began in 1936. It was to be used in the event of war as the nerve centre for British Military operations in South East Asia. The Centre was a maze-like complex of 26 rooms and corridors 9 meters underground. It was there, during the WWII, on the morning of 15 February 1942 that Lt. Percival made the crucial decision to surrender to the Japanese. Today, a wax museum has been built bringing alive the days of the latest military operation complex in Singapore.
