Fullerton Hotel

The Fullerton Hotel Singapore is a five-star luxury hotel located near the mouth of the Singapore River, in the Downtown Core of the Central Area, Singapore. It was originally known as the Fullerton Building, and also as the General Post Office Building. The address is 1 Fullerton Square. The Fullerton Building was named after Robert Fullerton, the first Governor of the Straits Settlements (1826–1829). Commissioned in 1924 as part of the British colony's centennial celebrations, the building was designed as an office building by Major P.H. Keys of Keys & Dowdeswell, a Shanghai firm of architects, which won the project through an architectural design competition. The architectural firm also designed the Capitol Theatre, its adjoined Capitol Building and the Singapore General Hospital.

The northern end of the building covers the site of Fort Fullerton, a fort built in 1829 to defend the settlement against any naval attacks. The fort consisted of an Artillery Barrack, a house for the officers, barracks for soldiers and a 68-pounder gun guarding the entrance to the river which used to stand on the location known as Fullerton square. In 1843, the fort was extended after a sandstone monolith, the Singapore Stone, with an inscription possibly dating back to the 13th century was demolished. The Singapore stone was, unfortunately, destroyed by the British. A fragment of this monolith was salvaged and preserved in the collection of the National Museum at Stamford Road. However, there were several criticisms as well as apprehensions regarding the building of Fort Fullerton. Merchants thought that it was a waste to use the prime location of the city for military instead of trading purpose, which would have prevented Singapore from generating more revenue and boosting its trading business. They were also worried that they would be in the direct line of fire if there were any attacks on the fort because the offices along the Singapore River were situated within close proximity to the fort. The fort was also said to be incapable of deterring any potential attacks from the sea, and had very low efficacy. Following these criticisms, the fort was finally demolished in 1873. The fort gave way to the first General Post Office and the Exchange Building in 1874. Plans to erect Fullerton Building were drawn up in 1920. However, due to a lack of funds, construction only began in February 1924. During the initial groundwork, excavations revealed the gun casements of the old Fort Fullerton. In fact, the Fullerton Building was built over reclaimed land. Built at a cost of $4.1 million and after delays of a few months, the building was completed in June 1928.

The Fullerton Building was opened on 27 June 1928 by the Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford, who suggested the building be named after Robert Fullerton. The building had five founding tenants: the General Post Office, The Exchange, Singapore Club (now Singapore Town Club), the Marine Department, and the Import and Export Department (later the Ministry of Trade and Industry). It also housed the Chamber of Commerce, and various government departments dealing with agriculture, fisheries and forestry. One of the rooms in the Fullerton Building was where the late Finance Minister, Dr Goh Keng Swee, wrote many of his budget speeches for Singapore. The building was designed to utilize natural ventilation, thus has four internal air-wells to cool the interiors.

Fullerton Square was an important commerce area in Singapore attracting many European immigrants and soon became the core of major business activity. Many European businesses were set up at Fullerton Square together with large banks such as the Chartered Bank and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banks. The Fullerton Building was built with Grandeur, Class and being the biggest structure built in Singapore displaying the authority and power of the British Colonial rule. In addition, The Fullerton Building operated with tax payers money meant as a government building, housed the Club for the Colonial Elite which was an exclusive club that took up almost 7,000 sq m of the upper floors which further elaborated the position and authority that the British has in Singapore.

There was also a lighthouse on the Fullerton Building, called the Fullerton Light, which was used to guide the ships ashore and to anchor along the piers. It was built to replace the Fort Canning Light, which was decommissioned in 1979 since it was gradually blocked because of globalization and the construction of more high-rise buildings in Singapore. The location of the previous lighthouse is now being occupied by The Lighthouse Restaurant, to keep up with the modern style of the Fullerton Hotel.

General Post Office
The General Post Office (GPO) was the purpose of the building as envisioned and it was this strategic purpose for which it was commissioned. GPO covered the two lower floors with postal halls, offices and sorting rooms. There were mail drops through which mail would fall to a band conveyor on the basement and dispatched up to the sorting room. One of the most memorable features is its curved service counter which was almost 90m long. The basement was linked to a 35-metre subway, also called the GPO tunnel that ran underneath Fullerton Road to a pier. From there, a lift would bring bags of mail to the Master Attendant's Pier, and then transferred onto ships that were anchored at the pier. Special mail was all sent to the neighbouring countries via sea, which was the main transport back then, thus requiring at least 2 months to reach United Kingdom. This is further delayed by the fact that all mail had to be personally sorted by hands.

Before postal workers were allowed to work, they had to pledge to uphold their integrity. As public servants, they were not allowed to leak any information on what went through them (including the origin of the mail). Everything at work was strictly confidential. In the past, there was no bank transfers available thus people often sent money by post using envelopes without using registered mail due to the higher cost incurred. Thus, it is extremely important that postal workers were honest and did not steal any items that went through the mail. To reinforce the importance of confidentiality, the comptroller of the General Post Office would stand at the gallery above the sorting halls to observe all postal workers and ensure none of the letters or mail were opened while being sorted.

The life of postal workers back then was incomparable with postmen working at Singapore Post today. Fridays used to be the day which overseas mail would arrive from Britain and postal workers had to work overtime with no extra pay, just to wait for the mail to arrive and then sieve through and sort them before ending work. Also, they were not entitled to any days off and had to work around the clock. They are also not required to personally separate local and overseas letters.

An interesting discovery from the history of the General Post Office is the presence of Santa Claus Main Office up till today. During Christmas seasons in the past, the post office would be filled with letters from children, which are all directed to Santa Claus. These letters were then sent to the Salvation Army, who would reply the children on behalf of Santa Claus. Presently, these letters are forwarded to the Santa Claus Main Office which is situated in the Santa Claus Village in Finland. This shows that the British's establishments of fulfilling children's wishes are still present today although many significant changes had occurred.

Singapore Club
The exclusive Singapore Club rents premises on the upper floors of the building to provide for their members' need and comfort. It only allowed entry to top European tycoons and British civil servants. There were rooms where members dined, lounged, conferred, and played billiards and cards. Bedrooms on the attic storey provide accommodaton for members. When the Economic Development Board (EDB) was formed in 1961, it evicted the Singapore Club from the Fullerton Building. Subsequently, the Singapore Club relocated to Clifford House at Collyer Quay and then to Straits Trading Building on Battery Road near Boat Quay, vacating Fullerton Building for use by EDB and more government offices.

The Fullerton Hotel Singapore has 400 rooms and suites which either overlook the atrium courtyard, or face downtown Singapore's skyline, the Singapore River promenade or the Marina Bay.

The hotel has a 25-metre outdoor infinity swimming pool, fitness centre and a luxury spa. It also has five food and beverage outlets. For business travellers, the hotel has a 24-hour financial centre with the Bloomberg Professional service that provides financial reports and world news, and 15 meeting rooms equipped with conference facilities.

Awards

The Fullerton Hotel Singapore won the Condé Nast Traveler Gold List award. On 18 July 2001, the hotel received an architectural heritage award from the Urban Redevelopment Authority for its successful restoration of the former Fullerton Building.

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