2014 Unpublished, Now Published #6: Victoria Theatre & Victoria Memorial Hall

It started as a Town Hall which was completed in 1862. Around 40 years or so later in the early 1900s, Victoria Memorial Hall was added. In the following year, the clock tower was completed, joining both identical buildings together.

A few years after the completion of the clock tower, the Town Hall was converted into a Theatre. At some point of time in history, both the theatre and the memorial hall started their journey as a performing arts venue, slowly evolving to what we know and see today. However, it was not all about performing arts. During war, it was turned into a makeshift hospital for about 3 years.

Major renovations took place at various junctures of its more than 100 years of history so as to accommodate various changes such as the requirement of air-conditioning. Despite all that have happened since 1800s, the buildings were thankfully identified as a national monument and was gazetted in 1992. Without this identity, the buildings might have been long gone and replaced by something else.

In 2010, a major refurbishment project was carried out to the buildings. It was really major to the point I found myself wondering why do they even bother to conserve the buildings when all I saw was just the "skin" or façade at the Victoria Theatre side. Everything behind the walls seems to have been demolished. Is such an act really justifiable to a conserved building? But soon in 2014 after all the refurbishment works was completed and the venue reopened, various information about the project team's intention and purpose of their "actions" to the refurbishment works were shared with the public. It is at this point that I realised it wasn't all horrific actions by the project team.

Generally, throughout its history, there were major renovations done to the buildings. This, in some instances, altered the building far from what might be seen as "should have been". After all, I don't think reverting it back to a Town Hall concept makes much sense in today's context. And so, there must be some area of suitable reference point for the project team to look into and work on. I think the project team's decisions to its latest major refurbishment works is done in a way that could be seen as one injecting greater respect to the building's rich history.

Without a doubt, I am awed with the result just from my short, quick and random tour in and around the buildings during its open house in July this year. The restored and the new does not in anyway snatch each other's limelight away. Instead, they blended in beautifully. The Victoria Theatre was actually re-built, whereas the Victoria Memorial Hall was restored. The passage way below the clock tower has been opened up, allowing seamless flow from one end to the other for not only people, but also natural lighting from its glass panels that opens up a view of the clock tower.

This recent refurbishment project is definitely one in recent years that I'm proud to speak about regarding to what the country is able to achieve. We have gone beyond demolishing and replacing it with brand new things. Perhaps not far enough yet, but it's heartening to know of projects such as the Victoria Theatre & Victoria Memorial Hall.

A view that opens up to the clock tower from the inside of the building. I think this was taken from level 3 with me looking through another layer of glass panels or possibly this could be a reflection on the glass panels. I can't remember exactly.

These are the seat backings of the red chairs that once filled the theatre before its latest refurbishment works. Even though the "inside" of the Victoria Theatre was re-built, former features were retained and incorporated into its design. Not only as a means to educate and inform new users of its history, but these also allowed people with fond memories of the place to reminisce what they were once familiar of.

The original columns and the new added ones standing side by side.

Walking towards the "new" Victoria Theatre. A new façade covers the indoor portion of the re-built theatre section. Despite it being new, it is designed in a way that blends in to the whole building rather than striking out and grabbing all of the limelight.

With natural lighting accompanied by glaring sun, shadows are created.

The clock tower from the outside. I know the complete view of all the 3 buildings are much nicer than this tightly crop one. But I happened not to have an angle wide enough for that.

That's all for the 6th entry of 2014's Unpublished, Now Published series. I know these photographs aren't really justifying the amazing work by the team behind this latest refurbishment project. But my aim during that visit wasn't to capture every detail in detail. It was just a trip of exploration and capturing of random stuff.

2014 Unpublished, Now Published #5: ⇐ A trip to Punggol

View it bigger: Click on images
Month taken: July 2014
Time taken: Afternoon
Photo size above: 640 pixels - Longer side