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📷: The Fullerton Hotel (The Fullerton Hotel Singapore)
The Fullerton Hotel is a resplendent landmark at 1 Fullerton Square, presiding over the mouth of our Singapore River. When it opened in 1928 as the Fullerton Building, the eight-storey granite structure, with its massive classical colonnades and elaborate ornamentation was “a monument worthy of the city”, declared Singapore’s then-British Governor, Sir Laurence Guillemard.
Fullerton Building was built on the site of the former Fort Fullerton (named after Robert Fullerton, the first governor of the Straits Settlements) and hosted significant tenants -- most memorably for Singaporeans, the General Post Office (GPO).
To enable GPO’s postal service before airmail became common, a unique 35 metres-long underpass was built beneath Fullerton Road to link the GPO to the pier, making transportation of mail between ships and the post office more efficient. Inside the building, a 300-feet long post office counter was built, reputedly the longest in the world at the time!
Fullerton Building was also known as “Mile Zero”: during our colonial days, miles were used to measure distances and the GPO was an important reference point for public roads in Singapore.
When WWII happened, Fullerton Building became the headquarters of the Japanese Military Administration Department, as well as a hospital with makeshift operating rooms in the last days before the fall of Singapore. Over the years, Fullerton Building was home to the Exchange, the Singapore Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and several government departments including the Marine Department, the Imports and Exports Department and the Inland Revenue Department. Pioneer leaders, including Dr Goh Keng Swee and Mr Hon Sui Sen, planned and built Singapore's prosperity from here.
In 1996, Fullerton Building was acquired by Sino Land, who did extensive restorations costing $400-million over two years, to turn it into a deluxe hotel. Fullerton Building was reopened in 1998 as the grand 400-room Fullerton Hotel, and gazetted as Singapore's 71st national monument in 2015.
Today, the iconic The Fullerton Hotel Singapore is part of the Fullerton Heritage -- a cluster of legacy properties spanning One Fullerton, Customs House, The Clifford Pier, The Fullerton Pavilion, The Fullerton Waterboat House and The Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore.
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