Museum sights in Singapore
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Chinatown Heritage Centre
Set on three floors of an old shophouse, the Chinatown Heritage Centre is an engaging museum focusing on the arduous everyday lives of Singapore’s Chinese settlers. Reconstructed living environments are festooned with artefacts. The cramped quarters of shophouse living are decked out with startling reality (right down to the fake poop inside the bucket toilet – thankfully, scent-emitting technology won’t be invented until 2050). The oral and video histories of local people are genuinely moving…if the projectors and screens decide to work.
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Asian Civilisations Museum
Inside a grand old Empress Place building (1865) named in honour of Queen Victoria, this museum is a must for any Singapore visit – escape the humidity, put your watch in your pocket and enter a timeless realm. Ten thematic galleries explore traditional aspects of pan-Asian culture, religion and civilisation, with exquisite, well-displayed artefacts from Southeast Asia, China, India, Sri Lanka and even Turkey. The exploration of Islam and its influence in the region is particularly compelling, though the boys might be more interested in the large display of krisses (daggers).
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Singapore Art Museum
The Singapore Art Museum occupies the former St Joseph’s Catholic boys’ school. The gallery champions the arts in an economics-obsessed nation, with exhibitions ranging from classical Chinese calligraphy to electronic arts, though it seems content to hide away its permanent collection. The exhibition spaces are in a constant state of flux, always closed for maintenance or in preparation for the next show. You might get lucky and chance upon some of the S$70-million worth of Wu Guangzhong’s donated art.
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Changi Museum & Chapel
The Changi Museum & Chapel poignantly commemorates the WWII Allied POWs who suffered horrific treatment at the hands of the invading Japanese. Stories are told through photographs, letters, drawings and murals; tales of heroism and celebration of peace temper the mood. There are also full-sized replicas of the famous Changi Murals painted by POW Stanley Warren in the old POW hospital. The originals are off limits in what is now Block 151 of the nearby Changi Army Camp.
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Museum of Shanghai Toys
Who knew that toys played such an integral role in 20th-century Chinese history? Marvin Chan, founder and curator of the Museum of Shanghai Toys, certainly did, and his expertise shows in the impressive assortment of antique toys in this renovated three-storey shophouse in Little India. You can shop for contemporary toys on the 1st floor after visiting the collection on the second. Don’t forget to chat with Marvin, who’ll be able to explain the cultural and historical importance of various items.
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Bukit Chandu
Atop Bukit Chandu (Opium Hill), is a moving WWII interpretive centre inside a renovated villa. The focus is on the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Malay Regiment who bravely defended the hill against the Japanese in the Battle of Pasir Panjang in February 1942. This was the last major battle for Singapore, the Malay battalions no match for 13,000 Japanese soldiers. Hi-tech displays, films and audio effects transport you to the battle scene.
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Malay Heritage Centre
This dignified terracotta-tiled heritage centre is set back against a large garden and was once the Malay royal istana (palace), built in 1843 for Singapore’s last sultan, Ali Iskandar Shah. An agreement allowed the palace to stay in the sultan’s family as long as they continued to live there. This was repealed in 1897, but the family stayed on for another century, the palace gradually sliding into ruin.
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Singapore City Gallery
The Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Singapore City Gallery provides a rather compelling insight into the government’s resolute and much-admired policies of high-rise housing and land reclamation. Highlights include an 11m x 11m scale model of the city, and a voyeuristic bird’s-eye-view roof camera. Would-be property investors would do well to visit for the displays detailing future plans for suburbs in Singapore.
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Battle Box Museum
Visit the Battle Box Museum, the former command post of the British during WWII, and get lost in the eerie and deathly quiet 26-room underground complex. War veterans and Britain’s Imperial War Museum helped recreate the authentic bunker environs; life-sized models re-enact the fateful surrender to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. Japanese Morse codes are still etched on the walls.
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Singapore Science Centre
The endearingly geeky Singapore Science Centre is chock-full of exhibits covering a variety of themes, from optical illusions to maths (ugh), the human body and even climate change. Many displays are of a push/pull/twist-and-see-what-happens variety but our favourite is the gi-normous Tesla coil that frenetically shoots up sparks to the ceiling. No touching, kids!
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Labrador Secret Tunnels
In addition to old gun placements on top of casemates, there’s the intriguing Labrador Secret Tunnels. This series of storage and armament bunkers leads to the base of a 9.2in-circumference gun emplacement. Look for the buckled and caved-in walls from a direct hit from a Japanese bomb. Ring before visiting, as the tunnels aren’t regularly manned.
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Live Turtle & Tortoise Museum
Inside the large compound of the Chines & Japanese Gardens, near the bonsai display is a Live Turtle & Tortoise Museum, where, among other things, you can see a live two-headed, six-legged turtle – one of the few in the world ever to have survived – and a large pond literally teeming with the little, one-headed fellows.
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Peranakan Museum
Singapore’s newest museum stands as a testament to the Peranakan (Straits-born Chinese) cultural revival in the Lion City. Opened in 2008, it has 10 thematic galleries featuring over 1200 artefacts and a variety of multimedia exhibits designed to introduce visitors to historical and contemporary Peranakan culture.
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Singapore Tyler Print Institute
The white-walled, polished concrete spaces of the Singapore Tyler Print Institute hosts international and local exhibits, showcasing the work of resident print- and paper-makers. Exhibitions often have a ‘how to’ component, and there’s an impressive program of visual arts courses year-round.
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Singapore Philatelic Museum
Housed in the attractive former Methodist Book Room Building dating from around 1895, this museum holds a well-presented collection of rare and not-so-rare stamps from Singapore and around the world. While some of the artwork and design is impressive, the museum is a must-visit for stamp collectors only.
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Malay Cultural Village
The Malay Cultural Village is a complex of traditional Malay-style houses built as a cultural showpiece, but it's been a bit of a flop; desultory t-shirt vendors grimace optimistically as you traverse the aisles. The admission fee is for a small kampung museum.
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Civil Defence Heritage Gallery
The Civil Defence Heritage Gallery, which is devoted to fire fighting and civil defence in Singapore, will be of interest to few. This gallery is based in the handsome red-brick and white-plaster Central Fire Station, built in 1908, which is still in use today.
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Memories At Old Ford Factory
Site of the humiliating British surrender to Japanese forces in 1942, this excellent museum, designed to appeal to young and old alike, tells the story of the Japanese occupation - a watershed period Singapore clearly doesn't want its youth to forget.
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Nei Xue Tang
This museum offers the largest collection of Buddhist artefacts in the city, including relics from China, Tibet, India, Japan, Burma and beyond. Pieces range from statues and jewellery to assorted esoteric devotional items.
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Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research
If examining stuffed animals and creatures preserved in large jars gets your pulse racing, the small Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, on the NUS campus, will give your adrenal glands a workout.
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