The civic district encompasses the locations where members of the East India Company first set foot in Singapore in 1819 and where the first commercial, administrative, military and religious buildings of the British colonial government were established.
Raffles Town Plan (Jackson Plan) of 1828. Source: https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/maps_building_plans/record-details/f9926418-115c-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad
The area around the mouth of the Singapore River was where Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles decided to establish the main town area when he arrived in 1819. Based on his early town plan, the north bank was reserved for government buildings while the south bank was set aside for commercial purposes. Such a planning arrangement had a lasting legacy on the development of the downtown area. Today, the north bank forms the old civic quarters, where many colonial administrative structures have been gazetted as national monuments. The south bank has developed into a busy commercial district with many towering skyscrapers.
Commercial Square from the Swissotel, February 2006
Raffles Place
Raffles Square was Singapore’s earliest commercial centre that bustled with offices of agency houses and department stores. Soon after the founding of modern Singapore in 1819, traders from all over the world began to arrive here.
Raffles Square was assigned by Sir Stamford Raffles as a commercial square in 1822. Raffles had decided to re-locate the business sector across the Singapore River to its southwestern bank. This area, however, was swampy and had to be reclaimed. A hill was levelled to form Commercial Square and the earth was in turn used to fill in the swampy ground to form Boat Quay. Indian convicts filled in the swamps and laid out plots for building purposes. This area eventually became the commercial heart of the city. Big Asian and European shops, offices and godowns adjoined one another. Naraina Pillai and Tan Che Sang were among the first to move their premises to Commercial Square. Prosperous Asians and Europeans were encouraged to live and trade side-by-side.
Between 200 to 300 coolies (unskilled labourers) and convicts toiled to level and clear the hill. Its soil was used to fill drains, holes, gaps and the swampy southwestern bank of the river, upon which Fort Fullerton later stood. The soil was also used to raise the ground level of Battery Road and other streets leading up to Commercial Square. Raffles personally supervised this project in 1823.
Commercial Square was created from the reclamation of the swampy southern bank of the river, with the development of business and commerce along the waterfront. Many of the merchants ran their businesses in Commercial Square and lived above their offices. Commercial Square was officially renamed Raffles Place, after Raffles, on 8 March 1858.
I have documented six areas in the Civic District:
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