Deadpoet’s Cave

I was at the Raffles Hotel for the MIS Asia IT Excellence Awards today. While I was there, I noticed that the hotel has a museum *!

It is a small gallery on the 3rd level which focuses on the history of the hotel and the romance of travel. There are artefacts from the hotel - old cutlery, furniture, fittings and equipment.

What caught my attention were the old photographs - lots of them - of the hotel and its surrounds. People who know me know that I love to compare old cityscapes to the current lay of the land. The photos and paintings on display at the Raffles Hotel Museum show such a different Singapore. So hard to imagine, yet captured in black and white.

A huge map of Singapore Town - so big it comes in four sections - from the late 1800s hangs on the wall near the entrance. After my recent discovery, I zoomed in to Bencoolen Street. Despite the map being huge and the fact that individual units were numbered, I couldn’t make out 159 Bencoolen Street. It was above my eye level. I had to tip-toe to get a closer look. Also, the numbers were tiny.

Reason for a follow up visit then. =)

Since I’m on the topic of museums and galleries beyond the Museum Roundtable, there is another little-known gallery on the other end of Bras Basah Road: The Cathay Gallery is tucked away on the second floor of The Cathay.

This corner - turn left as you exit the lift on the second floor - tells the story of Loke Wan Tho, his family and the Cathay Organisation. He’s quite the Renaissance Man. Go visit to find out more about this incredible person. His family is very much at the heart of the Cathay firm. And Cathay is synonymous with local films.

There are lots of exhibits to keep cinema fans happy. Classic old posters (look out for the photo of the Jedi Kembali poster - ‘Return of the Jedi’ just doesn’t have the same ring in Malay), manual ticket stubs, retro cinema chairs and other movie memorabilia. I feel that this gallery works better in telling the story of the local film industry than the National Museum’s film exhibit.

Besides documenting our film heritage, there are art works from the Loke’s collection (if I remember correctly). Loke Wan Tho was also an avid photographer and naturalist, so expect to see his collection of cameras (still and video) as well as some biodiversity sketches.

So, there you have it - two private galleries, not part of the Museum Roundtable, which are tucked away in historic buildings. I say the galleries are reason enough to visit the Raffles Hotel and The Cathay. Most people will probably visit these galleries incidentally, perhaps after lunch at one of the eating establishments at the hotel or after a movie at the once-tallest building in South-East Asia.

*I found the museum’s webpage through Google. It’s not very obvious if you try to look for it from the main page of the website. Back to top.

Technorati Tags: raffles hotel, the cathay, cathay building, loke wan tho, museum, gallery, singapore, heritage

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