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Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church

Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church235 Telok Ayer St, Singapore 068656

About

Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church (Chinese: 卫理公会直落亚逸礼拜堂) is a church located in the Asian nation-city of Singapore belonging to the Chinese Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Singapore. The church is found at two locations, one (TA1) that is located along Telok Ayer Street near Chinatown in the Downtown Core, in Singapore's central business district and the other at Telok Blangah Road known as TA2. The main church building was completed in 1924 and its Telok Blangah church building in 2004.

Architecture


The sanctuary of the church, which is on the second floor of the building

Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church is considered one of the earliest Chinese Christian churches in Singapore. Several features differentiate it from the traditional church. Unlike traditional churches which are oriented east, this church faced constraints imposed by the position of the plot of land. Thus, the main entrances face west.

Also, unlike the traditional church, it does not have a cruciform plan. Instead, the church reflects its Chinese environment and the time in which it was built. The church is a highly mannered, somewhat eccentric building. The body of the church is demarcated at its four corners by large, full-height tapered buttress-like forms, within which access is gained to offices and other accommodation on the upper storeys. These "buttresses" are punctured by rectangular and circular window openings and broken by projecting tiled porch roofs at first storey level.

The church itself is arched, lit through large arched, quasi-Byzantine windows and crowned with a continuous tiled roof loggia. Art Deco was popular in the 1920s and Art Deco features can be seen in the ornate window styles. The roof of the pavilion atop the last storey of the building is distinctly Chinese.

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