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The Goodwood Park Hotel is a luxury heritage hotel located at 22 Scotts Road, off Orchard Road. Built in 1900, the building was originally the Teutonia Club for the expatriate German community in Singapore. The tower block of the building was gazetted as a national monument in 1989.
Early days as Teutonia Club
The German expatriate community in Singapore established the Teutonia Club in 1856, and in 1861 purchased a piece of land at what was then 7 Scotts Road, originally part of a nutmeg plantation, as the site of its new clubhouse. Built in 1900, the Teutonia Club was designed by architect R. A. J. Bidwell of Swan and Maclaren in the Queen Anne style, a mix of Dutch, French and English influences that was popular in England in the nineteenth century. Featuring a striking tower, the building included electric lighting installations that were considered advanced for its time.
The building was officially opened with a grand ball on 21 September 1900 by Acting Governor of the Straits Settlements Sir James Alexander Swettenham. The Teutonia Club became the centre of German social life in Singapore, hosting stage performances, gatherings and visiting dignitaries such as Prince Adalbert, son of the German Kaiser, in 1903.
War years and transformation into a hotel
With the onset of World War I and the issuance of the Trading with the Enemy Proclamation in 1914, about 300 German nationals in Singapore and Penang came to be regarded as alien enemies. In 1915, they were shipped to Australia and their possessions, including the clubhouse, were confiscated and liquidated as enemy property. Over the next four years, the clubhouse remained largely unused except when it briefly became a depot for troops during the 1915 Sepoy Mutiny. In 1918, the building was sold at public auction to the Manasseh brothers, Morris, Ezekiel and Ellis, for $61,000.
Due mainly to the efforts of Ezekiel Manasseh, the building was converted into a reception hall known as Goodwood Hall. A bar was installed, and the hotel became popular as a site of social events such as weddings, and entertainment such as dances, concerts and balls. A restaurant and café were also added to offer dining facilities. Equipped with what was considered the best concert room in Singapore at the time, Goodwood Hall was also the site of numerous stage performances, including that of the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in December 1922. In 1929, the Manasseh brothers converted the establishment into a full-fledged hotel and renamed it Goodwood Park Hotel.
After Japanese troops occupied Singapore in 1942, the hotel was converted into a residence for high-ranking Japanese soldiers. After the end of the Japanese Occupation in 1945, the hotel was requisitioned by the Army War Crimes Office and became the site of the British War Crimes Court, where more than 100 Japanese war criminals were tried and convicted.
Post-war years
On 31 August 1947, the British military released the building and it was returned to Vivian C. Bath, Ezekiel Manasseh’s stepson, who incorporated Goodwood Park Hotel as a publicly listed company. In anticipation of a rise in tourism, he undertook a $1.6-million redevelopment of the hotel between 1959 and 1960, including an expansion of room capacity and the installation of the first hotel swimming pool in Singapore.
During this period, the most distinctive feature of the building, the tower block, was also restored to its original position. Standing at nearly 30 ft high, the original central tower with its distinctive pinnacle had been removed in 1950 as it had been regarded as serving no useful purpose and had fallen into disrepair. The tower block was gazetted as a national monument on 23 March 1989.
In the 1960s, the hotel’s general manager, L. U. Dunn, installed a 45-ft bar, one of the longest in Singapore at the time.
The Khoo family
In 1963, the hotel was bought over by the Malayan Banking Group, and then by billionaire banker and hotelier Khoo Teck Puat in 1968. In 1969, and again in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Khoo felt that maintaining the hotel as a low-rise development was uneconomical, and contemplated plans to demolish the hotel so that the land on which it stood could be redeveloped into a hotel, shopping mall, office blocks and high-rise apartments. The plans came under public criticism, most notably from Mario Ruoscho, then manager of the Goodwood Group, and Mavis Oei, Khoo’s daughter and general manager of the hotel. Instead of redevelopment, the hotel was refurbished in the late 1970s. Under Oei’s management, the hotel’s low-rise concept was established as a guiding principle of any further development.
With Khoo’s death in 2004, Oei was named chairman of the hotel. The hotel is still owned by the Khoo family today. Now regarded as a luxury heritage hotel, it is well known for its durian cakes and pastries.
Author
Joanna HS Tan
References
An old Singapore landmark to be restored. (1959, December 9). The Straits Times, p. 7. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
A $22mil. tower to replace that tourist landmark at Goodwood Hotel. (1969, July 9). The Straits Times, p. 6. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Goodwood Park Hotel. (2010). Goodwood Park Hotel’s history – Luxury heritage hotel in Singapore. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from http://www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/history-en.html
Goodwood Park Hotel (Tower Block). (2010). Retrieved December 3, 2010, from Preservation of Monuments Board website: http://www.pmb.sg/
Goodwood studies plan to redevelop Scotts site. (1983, March 16). The Straits Times, p. 17. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Goodwood: Unique in service and efficiency. (1965, January 4). The Straits Times, p. 9. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Hint of big expansion plan by Goodwood. (1980, March 18). The Straits Times, p. 19. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Hotel's unusual wartime past. (2006, March 4). The Straits Times, p. H6. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Licensing justices meet. (1919, June 20). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942), p. 10. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore (pp. 222-229). Singapore: Landmark Books.
(Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU)
More hotel space for the jet age. (1960, August 3). The Straits Times, p. 11. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Old landmark. (1963, July 30). The Straits Times, p. 11. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Prince Adalbert in Sinqapore. (1903, November 20). The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Teutonia club sold. (1918, September 25). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942), p. 12. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
The Goodwood heritage 1900-1990. (1990). Singapore: Goodwood Park Hotel.
(Call no.: RSING 647.94595701 GOO)
The long, long bar. (1963, July 30). The Straits Times, p. 15. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
The new Teutonia Club. (1900, September 12). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942), p. 3. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
The Teutonia Club. (1899, March 21). The Straits Times, p. 3. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
The Teutonia Club. (1900, September 14). The Straits Times, p. 2. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
The Teutonia Club. (1900, September 22). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942), p. 3. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Trading with the enemy. (1914, September 16). The Straits Times, p. 10. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Untitled. (1922, January 20). The Straits Times, p. 8. Retrieved on December 3, 2010, from NewspaperSG.
Urban Redevelopment Authority for Preservation of Monuments Board. (1992). The Goodwood Park Hotel tower block preservation guidelines. Singapore: The Board. (Call no.: RSING 363.69095957 GOO)
Further reading
Wan, M. H. (2009). Heritage places of Singapore (pp. 119-120). Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 WAN)
The information in this article is valid as at 2010 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.
