Raffles' Landing Site - Where Colonial Singapore Began

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

The white statue with folded arms marks the spot where, by tradition, Sir Stamford Raffles of the British East India Company stepped ashore on 28 January 1819. He was looking for a port to rival the Dutch in the region. Within days, with the help of William Farquhar, he concluded a treaty with Temenggong Abdul Rahman and Sultan Hussein Shah that let the company set up a trading post.

Raffles did not discover an empty island. Malay communities and the sea-going Orang Laut already lived here, and the Temenggong's settlement stood nearby. What changed was the free port: traders and workers soon arrived from China, India, the Malay world and beyond, and Eurasian families of mixed European and Asian descent became part of the town too.

The statue was unveiled in 1972, cast from the original 1887 bronze, which now stands outside Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall nearby. Read the plaque, then look around you at what that trading post became.

Getting here: Continue upstream along the riverside walk past the museum, about two minutes, to the white statue at the water's edge.

Did you know?: Historians are not completely sure Raffles landed exactly here; the north bank of the river is the generally accepted spot, but at least one old account places his landing elsewhere on the island.

Photo op: Frame Raffles from the side so the Boat Quay shophouses and the skyscrapers of Raffles Place rise across the river behind him.

More on Wikipedia: Raffles's Landing Site · Stamford Raffles · William Farquhar · Hussein Shah of Johor

Raffles' Landing Site - Where Colonial Singapore Began

Stops on this tour