The Fullerton Hotel at 1 Fullerton Square stands near the mouth of the Singapore River. It was built as the General Post Office Building, and it honors Robert Fullerton, the first Governor of the Straits Settlements. The Shanghai firm Keys and Dowdeswell won the design competition, with Major P.H. Keys leading the Neoclassical design. Planning began in 1920, construction started in February 1924, and it opened on June 27, 1928 at a cost of about 4.1 million Singapore dollars.
The building is about 121 feet (37 meters) tall, uses grey Aberdeen granite and has Doric colonnades. Its barrel-vaulted, coffered ceiling is the only one of its kind in Singapore.
It later housed the Exchange, the Singapore Club and the Inland Revenue Authority. After a conservation renovation, it reopened as a hotel on January 1, 2001, and became a national monument in 2015.
Comments