The Singapore River a century ago

Until the 1970s-1980s, the river was the commercial heart of Singapore, where coolies loaded and unloaded goods between the warehouses lining the banks (known as 'godowns') and lighters, small boats acting as a link to the larger ships anchored in the harbour beyond the river mouth.

This image is taken from a tiny snapshot no more than a couple of inches across, and dates from around 1910, from the look of it. The buildings on the left were government offices, and now house the Asian Civilisations Museum. Many of the those facing us in the centre of the picture have been replaced by high-rise blocks (mainly banks), although a line of godown buildings to the right of this shot (outside the frame) has been preserved. A promenade runs along the bank, lined with restaurants and bars. All the boats disappeared in the late 1980s, as part of a clean-up exercise.

The Singapore River in the early 1900s

The blog awakens: a book published in November

Well, the previous post was in May 2015 and now it's the beginning of January 2016 - just the sort of gap that I promised myself to avoid. So what has happened in the interim?

On the work front, November saw the publication of my latest book, Transformation of a River: The Singapore River and Marina Bay. It was commissioned by Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority, and the design and production were handled by the company I worked for until 2008, publisher Editions Didier Millet.

The book cover, with an aerial photo of the barrage by Richard Koh. Seen from this angle, the channel to the Singapore River is the left-hand branch of the water body; the right fork leads to the Kallang River basin. Virtually all the land you see here is reclaimed.

When first conceptualised, the book was to focus on the history of the Singapore River; as it developed the emphasis shifted, giving equal prominence to Marina Bay, an artificial, freshwater reservoir  created by reclamation and the installation of a barrage, keeping the reservoir water separate from the seawater beyond it. The reservoir is fed not only by the Singapore River but also the Kallang River further east.

Two pages from the book. This is the story of Singapore's first civil airport, built on reclaimed land at the mouth of the Kallang River. The site of the airfield (in green on the map) is now a modern sports stadium.

The whole bay project is a massively ambitious planning exercise. It has taken some 40 years to complete. From the book's point of view, this broadening of perspective meant that we covered not only the commercial and social history of the rivers, but also the water supply and sewerage system, pollution control, and the development of all the waterfronts as a place for people to visit and enjoy.

It's quite a big book, full of information and interesting photos (old and new), and graphics.

The book's on sale at the URA office. I am not sure at this point when or how they intend to distribute it to the public at large. Lets hope. It's ideal reading for anybody coming to live in Singapore, or doing business here, wanting to know how and why the city and its waterfronts look as they do today.

The buildings around Marina Bay, under construction in 2008 (top) and today. The upper shot was taken with a Pentax DSLR with Sigma 17-70 lens; the lower one with a Panasonic GX7, with 12-32  lens. Both consist of multiple images stitched together with Autopano Pro.

The second half of 2015 wasn't all work and no travel. In fact I made two visits to London, one to Bali, and three to Thailand. Can't complain. More on all of this shortly.