Former City Hall, Singapore: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Supremecity.jpg|thumb|700px|City Hall & Old Supreme Court, Singapore]] |
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Revision as of 03:04, 10 October 2005
The City Hall in Singapore is a national monument gazetted on 14 February 1992.
Located in front of the historical Padang and next door to the Supreme Court of Singapore, it was designed and built by the architects of the municipal goverment, A. Gordans and F. D. Meadows in 1926 to 1929. A flight of stairs takes visitors from the Corinthian colonnade to the main building.
City Hall is a historically and politically important venue. It was here the Japanese surrender to Lord Mountbatten in 1945 and where Lee Kuan Yew’s declaration of Singapore's independence from Britain in 1959 and again in 1965 after split from the Malay federation.
Like Hong Kong, Singapore has no mayor nor a city council since the end of British rule. The ruling PAP abolished the City Council and the Rural Board in 1959 and the role of mayor disappeared. In place is the five Community Development Councils (Central Singapore, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest), established in 1997. The CDC is not an elected body, rather it consists of 12 to 80 members appointed by the People's Association Chairman or Deputy Chairman. The five CDCs are headed by a mayor.
In 1987, the building underwent a massive upgrade to allow the building to house governmental offices. This restoration work earned it a Good Effort Award in 1994 by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.