Ordinary Guy wrote a post about SJI, where he studied in the late 70s.
The first thing that a student had to brace himself was the incessant noise from the traffic during lessons. SJI was bordered by busy Bras Basah Road, Waterloo Street and Queen Street shown in the map below. It was a challenge to both teachers and Josephians to rise above the roar of engines and honks from impatient motorists especially during peak hours, to steer our concentration during lessons.
By the time I studied in SJI, the school had already moved to Malcolm Road. During a camp in Secondary 3 (1992), Brother Michael Broughton brought us around the derelict old building (just before it was closed off for restoration and conversion to the Singapore Art Museum).
He told us stories about his school days and the history of the school. We went up to the attic and even up to the dome! Sadly, I have no photos of that very exclusive tour.
The story which stuck in my head was about the bomb that fell in the main courtyard during World War II. The school was used as a hospital during the war. While it was derelict, grass had grown in circle from the courtyard, corresponding to the bomb crater. Amazingly, no one was killed from the explosion. A piece of shrapnel got lodged in a grandfather clock, which was on the 2nd storey. I believe this clock is now in the administration building at the current SJI premises.
I have to admit, my memory of the story may not be 100% accurate.
Even though I never studied in old SJI, I have great affinity for that building. I used to pass by it every day on the way to school - Saint Anthony’s Boys’ School a short hop away on Victoria Street - telling myself that one day, I will study there.
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Hello Acromatic,
Cheers from one fellow Josephian to another. I’m sure you will relish the memories of yesteryear as a Josephian eventhough your secondary education was at Malcolm Road. Have a nice day.
P/S : You may like to browse the places around old SJI in my posts under the category of “places” or at Flickr.
Beautiful shot of a beautiful building. They don’t build them like this anymore.
Everything else along Bras Brasah seems to have disappeard. I went to SMU last month and the whole place is just o different from the old days.
That part of Spore has a lot of beautiful old buildings. I have taken quite a few. Haven’t got around to sharing with my readers yet.
Nice post and a good walk back memory lane for old school boys. I studied in St Andrews Secondary and remembered that we also had an old bell tower which was supposedly haunted. I guess there is something creepy about all the old mission schools which adds up to their mystique and history.
Where was the statue of the priest telling the boy to go?
Across the road?
To where?
I studied in ACS Barker Road. The icon was the clock tower. When they pulled the building down to rebuild the school, many old boys (me not included) objected fiercely.
Can’t believe how fast time flies. The ‘new’ SJI has been in the Whitley/Malcolm Rd location for quite a few years already.
@ Lam Chun See It’s really hard to go wrong when the building is beautiful. Yes, the whole area is very different now, even compared to 20 years ago when I was studying at Saint Anthony’s Boys’ School along Victoria Street. I remember there was an AKAI store along the shophouses where SMU’s admin building currently stands. Wah… you have to share those soon!
@ Walter Yes, old ghost stories abound. There are lots of quite famous ones about the old SJI…
@ Teutoburg The priest is St John Baptist De La Salle. And there’s a joke about where he is pointing to. I really can’t remember though. The area across the road used to be SJI’s school field - just an open patch of land.
@ Lam Chun See I’m glad that SJI has been preserved. I think even those who are not old boys appreciate the architectural and aesthetic value of the building. Unlike, say, the lond demolished Raffles Institution down the road. Incidentally, they’ve repositioned (and made more prominent) the small memorial scale model of the old RI. It used to be at the Bras Basah Road-North Bridge Road corner. Now, it is diagonally across from Capitol building, with a much larger write-up.