The Fullerton Hotel - Singapore's Old Post Office

A stop on Singapore: Marina Bay to Chinatown, a free self-guided tour.

This grand granite-colored building with its long row of columns was built not as a hotel but as the Fullerton Building, which opened in 1928. It housed the General Post Office, the exclusive Singapore Club and the Chamber of Commerce. The name honors Robert Fullerton, the first governor of the Straits Settlements, the British colony that joined Singapore, Penang and Malacca.

The building has lived through the city's hardest days. In February 1942, just before the British surrender, it served as an emergency hospital, and during the Japanese occupation it became the headquarters of the military administration. For decades after the war, Singaporeans came here to post letters and buy stamps, and in 1958 a revolving beacon on the roof, the Fullerton Light, guided ships into harbor.

It reopened as The Fullerton Hotel in 2001 and was declared a national monument in 2015. Step into the lobby to cool off and look up at the soaring atrium.

Getting here: Walk west along the waterfront from the Merlion and under the road bridge; the long colonnaded building ahead is the Fullerton.

Did you know?: The Fullerton Light on the roof replaced the Fort Canning Lighthouse in 1958, and ships could see its beam about 29 kilometers out to sea.

Photo op: From the south end of Cavenagh Bridge, frame the Fullerton's columned river facade with the bridge's white ironwork in the foreground.

More on Wikipedia: The Fullerton Hotel Singapore · Robert Fullerton · Japanese occupation of Singapore

The Fullerton Hotel - Singapore's Old Post Office

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