Fort Tanjong Katong stood adjacent to Katong Beach from 1879 to 1901 on what is now Fort Road and Meyer Road. This Military Fort was one of the oldest Colonial Forts on the island of Singapore and was built by the former British Colonial Government. The structure was designed by Henry Edward McCallum. The Fort is situated on the eastern side of Singapore and gave its name to the road that leads to the base of the Fort (Fort Road). This Fort was part of a series of defensive batteries and fortifications along the southern cost of Singapore, which protected the Singapore Town and busy port. The Fort was not built to be one of the foremost defensive fortifications on the island and after some time it was abandoned by the Military and later buried till it was rediscovered around 2001.
Fort Tanjong Katong stood adjacent to Katong Beach from 1879 to 1901. This Military Fort was one of the oldest on the island of Singapore and was built by the former British Colonial Government, it was designed by Henry Edward McCallum who was the Colonial Engineer and Architect of the Singapore History Museum on Stamford Road, then known as Raffles Museum.
History
The Fort is situated on the eastern side of Singapore and gave its name to the road that leads to the base of the Fort, Fort Road. This Fort was part of a series of defensive batteries and fortifications along the southern coast of Singapore that protected the Singapore Town and busy port and was surrounded by a moat of sea water.
The Fort was built because of the concerns the British Colonial Government harbored regarding a European military action (such as the Netherlands and Russia attacking the island due to the power the Dutch had in the rest of South East Asia, especially neighbouring Indonesia and Malacca).
Other Forts built on Singapore at the same time were Fort Siloso, Fort Serapong and Fort Connaught all located on Pulau Blakang Mati (Sentosa). The purpose of these locations were to guard the western and eastern entrances to the New Harbour, now known as Keppel Harbour.
The Fort Tanjong Katong was given two Armstrong 8-inch guns in 1888, shortly after it was upgraded, as the previous guns were outdated and the ammunitition was hard to come by. These were the two main guns defending the Fort at this time.
The Fort showed signs of failure from the start with it being nicknamed the “Wash-out Fort”, due to the soft ground it was built on. It was reported that each time guns were fired the range finding equipment didn’t have enough stability in the sandy soil and would shake necessitating recalibration before the next shot. The guns were new to Singapore and the ammunition was almost impossible to supply. Combined with the remoteness of the site this reduced the effectiveness of Fort Tanjong Katong as a reliable defence post.
Less than five years after the upgrades to the fort were completed (around 1888), it was suggested the fort should be demolished. This suggestion caused a debate lasting over ten years between the Colonial Defence Committee in London and the Local Defence Committee in Singapore. By 1901 the fort was rendered obsolete and it was then abandoned and the guns were removed and decommissioned. The fort at this time was not destroyed but buried as this was an easier proposal than dismantling the fort and wasting man power. The burying of the fort took place after WWI. Up to the 1960’s part of the bastion was still visible above ground and later a public park was built atop the fort for the community that was rapidly growing in this area. The bastion was later buried sometime in the late 1960’s when land reclamation start in the area along the East Coast.
In 2001 the outline of the bastion wall became visible during a time of no rain in Singapore, this prompted a local resident to ask the relevant authorities to investigate to what it as and its origins. In 2004 the Singapore Government approached a team of archaeologists to excavate the forgotten fort. These archaeologists from the Southeast Asian Archaeology group excavated the fort down to 2 meters of the foundations where the fort was in clear view with the moat surrounding the perimeter. Some of the fort has been reburied for future archaeological excavations while the Bastion has remained in view for visitors to the park.
The group of archaeologists are now lobbying for the site to be gazette as a National Monument and for it to be protected for future generations of Singaporeans.
Description
The fort was situated just off the peninsular atop a wet, low-lying coconut plantation which occupied an area of approximately two hectares, and had a small elevated battery of three 7-inch (180 mm) rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns facing the sea, along with bombproof shelters. The battery was surrounded by a ditch measuring 100 feet wide on the flanks. The fort's garrison included members of the Singapore Volunteer Artillery (SVA) that held regular gun drills and their annual training camps at the fort. In 1885, works began on upgrading the existing gun batteries in Singapore, and the three-gun battery at Tanjong Katong was replaced with a pair of more powerful and longer range breech-loading Mark VII 8-inch (200 mm) guns.
The Fort was fully uncovered in 2004 after an archaeological excavation with traces of a moat and near intact perimeter wall, the fort was considered by local archaeologists to be one of Singapore's most important archaeological finds of the 19th Century in Singapore.
Timeline
1879 : Fort Tanjong Katong was contstructed 1879-1881
1885 : Works began on upgrading the existing gun batteries;
1888 : Was suggested the Fort to be dismantled;
1892 : 30 Royal Artillery gunners were stationed at the Fort;
1901 : Fort was rendered obsolete and personal were moved out and the Fort was buried;
1960s : Fort was partially exposed and a park was built over the top of part of the Fort, rest was buried once more;
2001 : Resident discovers the Fort once more after a heavy down pour of rain and alerts local government office.
2004 : Fort is excavated with the support of the local Government and the Archaeological community of Singapore.
Variant names:
“Wash out Fort”, due to the location and soft ground it was built on.
Author
Katrina van Dinter
References
Makepeace, W., Brooke, G. E., & Braddell, R. St. J. (Eds.). (1991). One hundred years of Singapore (Vol. 1, pp. 339,382). Singapore: Oxford University Press.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 ONE)
National Heritage Board, (2006). Singapore the Encyclopedia. p. 204 Singapore: EDM
History of Fort Tanjong Katong. (9 April, 2006). The Straits Times. p. News section.
Au, Jeremy (9 April 2006). Buried, dug up—and buried again. The Straits Times. p. News section.
Other historical forts in Singapore. (9 April, 2006). The Straits Times. p. News section.
Further readings
Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2004). Toponymics—A Study of Singapore Street Names (2nd Ed). Singapore: Eastern Universities Press.
Fort Siloso other Gun Batteries, http://www.fortsiloso.com/batteries/batteries.htm.
$200,000 raised for excavation at Katong Park. (28 November 2004).The Straits Times. p. News section.
Lim, Chen Sian. (2005) Preliminary Site Report v1.2—Fort Tanjong Katong. South East Asian Archaeology.
A rare photograph of Fort Tanjong Katong; http://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2007/07/12/a-rare-photograph-of-fort-tanjong-katong/
Wan, M. H. (2009). Heritage places of Singapore (pp. 191-193). Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 WAN)
The information in this article is valid as at 2009 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.
