(Side view of the mysterious Bunker entrance)
It is quite near to the YangTze Cinema ("Art" & "R" Movies theatre - haha) and the Pearl Bank apartments that stood there now. But does anyone know there is a mysterious bunker that exists in the past??
2) Closeup view of the main entrance (sealed up)
3) Top view of the square roof opening (sealed up)
4) View behind the bunker
Do you know where Peal's Hill City Park is?
It is quite near to the YangTze Cinema ("Art" & "R" Movies theatre - haha) and the Pearl Bank apartments that stood there now. But does anyone know there is a mysterious bunker that exists in the past??
For me, I get to know of this Mysterious bunker @ Pearl's Hill City Park since I was young back in the 1980's to 1990's when I used to live near there in the past. But until now, I am still not sure the purpose of this bunker in the past, since there is no indication of any history to it.
By the way, the bunker has a large door opening and square roof opening in the past (but too bad I don’t have the photos in the past), and I actually entered it before when I was young, but there is nothing inside, except a steel ladder fixed at a corner leading up to the roof opening on top. (FYI = the bunker is quite small, about the size of 2 x normal HDB flat toilet, but not sure whether there is any secret passage linked to it, since it was built on the slope)
But the openings were sealed up in the later year after the 1990's when I walked past there again. (Cannot remember when it was sealed and done by which authority and for what purposes –SLA? NPark?) Since then, I thinkthis bunker has been since forgotten by many.
Until now I am still quite curious about the purpose of this bunker and I was guessing it maybe used by the British during WW2.
Does anyone come across this bunker and has any idea what it was used for in the past??? It will be good to know about it. Do share your comment/knowledge if any.
Below are some photos of the bunker that I took 2 years ago in year 2007:
Below are some photos of the bunker that I took 2 years ago in year 2007:
1) Overall view of the bunker.
2) Closeup view of the main entrance (sealed up)
3) Top view of the square roof opening (sealed up)
4) View behind the bunker
Sketch of the bunker internal layout from my memory
2 years ago, I read about some of the history of Pearl's Hill and Pearl's Hill City Park from online website and also coincidentally from a thesis found inside National Archives of Singapore.
From the website, it mentioned that Pearl's Hill was named after a person called Lt. James Pearl, Captain and owner of the Indiana.
The articles mentioned about the 1st Tan Tock Seng hospital was built on the hill in 1844 and the imfamous Outram Prison (Pearl's Hill Prison) built at the "FOOT of the hill" in 1847, where the previous rainbow colored HDB flats used to be. But the prison was demolished in 1968.
Then in 1857 when Tan Tock Seng hospital was shifted from Pearl's Hill, the colonial government erected army barracks on the hill to house the Sepoys.
However it still cannot conclude what are the remains of the mysterious bunker from the photos that I have taken. Still no answer.... Anyone has the answer??
Below are the URLs that I found online about Pearl's Hill
History of Pearl's Hill City Park
9 comments:
interesting. i didn't know the existence of the bunkers. at one time, the police operations hq and the ministry of interior and defence were at pearl's hill terrace. do these have anything to do with the bunkers?
I don't think it has anything to do with the police hq previously stood there. From what I guess, it may have something to do with the
colonial government erected army barracks on the hill to house the Sepoys. But there is no evidence to it.
Anyway, please inform me if you know the answer to the mysterious bunker at Pearl's Hill City Park from any of your old friends. Really hope there is some good news to it.
Btw, after reading your older blog posts and saw your photo posted, I realised I know who you are. Mr Ong. ha So coincidence. Ü I was a student at MHSS from 1994 to 1997.
Although you may not know me or taught me PE before, but I think I remembered you took over 1 PE session when my PE teacher is not free. ha
hi kiatsan, i had checked with one of my older, former monk's hill colleagues (mr victor samuel, don't know if you know him) but he was clueless about the bunkers.
are you still in contact with any of the monk's hill teachers? i meet up with mr sethi (technical teacher), mr rama (geog tr) and mr balendra (biology tr) at least once a year. some of them are on facebook like ms tay siu hua, ms norwita, mrs lilian goh, mdm seow (ch lang tr) and ms tan chew moi.
hi Mr Ong, I don't know Mr victor samuel. Too bad. Seems like the mystery of this bunker will still remains, unless someone really senior and live near there before in the past gets to unearth the mystery.
Does your other friend, Mr Lam Chun See (from the other blog) knows anything about this bunker?
I went back to the official MHSS closing ceremony on 23 Nov 2006
http://kiatsans.blogspot.com/2006/11/official-closing-of-monks-hill.html
The day, I only met some of the teachers who taught me before, like Mrs Lim Siew Hong (Chinese), Mrs Han (Tech), Mrs Ching (Geo), Mrs Kwok, (A Maths) and Mdm Ng (E Maths). I only have Mrs Lim contact no.(chinese - is this mdm seow you are refering to?)
Yes. Mr Sethi and Mr Balendra taught me before tech and bioin sec 1 respectively. The rest of the teachers that you mentioned, I was not taught by them. I don't know that so many MHSS teachers have facebook too. hehe.
i have tried asking mr lam but so far, no response from him.
yes, mdm seow siew hong is the same mrs lim s h. i think mr balendra also has a facebook acct.
ok. hope there is something that he may know about the bunker.
oic. i have tried to add mdm seow in FB.
But last time, we normally called her 萧老师. hehe
kiatsan, it seemed that the pearl's hill police barracks were requisitioned by the military authorities in 1858 to provide accommodation for the european militarymen coming to man fort canning. after proper quarters were built for them, the site was used for some years for the commissariat store and arsenal. so, the old bunker could have been used for this purpose.
Hi Mr Ong,
Thanks for the info. Ü
Where did you manage to get that piece of news from? National Archives of Singapore or from your other older friends??
Another usage of that bunker that I have thought of is "observation post" (OP) that we come across during army days.
Pearl's hill was fortified in 1800s.in 1889, the fort was turned into a service reservoir when clean water was not available for chinatown. the bunker u mention was probably part of the plans to fortify the hill, together with the old and beautiful reservoir we have now.
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