An 1846 watercolour by John Turnbull Thomson depicts a view of Singapore from Fort Canning. It celebrates the presentation of a state sword by the then Governor Lt Colonel Butterworth to Daing Ibrahim, Temengggong of Johore, for his efforts to suppress piracy. The ornamental round in the foreground, probably imaginary, has an Agave as a centrepiece, while in the background the godowns of the harbour and the neatly planted colonial core are clearly executed. Image courtesy of Antiques of the Orient.
The Garden City
"'Singapore ahoy!' exclaimed the man at the mast head as the white houses and shipping rose above the horizon while we were abreast of the large red cliffs.... Hundreds of Chinese junks, and Malay prows, lay further in shore. Behind these stretched a sandy beach, glistening in the sun, and overhung by the graceful palm trees, the glory of Singapore planters. In the centre of the landscape was Government Hill, with its verdant lawns and snug bungalow; and at its base were the warehouses and mansions of the merchant princes. Behind these was to be seen the comely undulating background, alternately covered with the mighty forest trees and gambier and pepper gardens."
Such were the views that greeted John Turnbull Thomson, a young Englishman who came to Singapore in 1838, just two decades after the settlement was founded. Today the relatively rare visitor who arrives by sea encounters an almost solid facade of skyscrapers along the shore, many of them built on land reclaimed from the very waters where Thomson sailed. A few palms might still be glimpsed here and there among the buildings, perhaps even the top of Government Hill (now known as Fort Canning), but the mass of wild jungle and cultivated plantations that once covered all but small portions of the island appears to be gone as thoroughly as the rest of that early 19th-century world.
Yet such an impression would be misleading. A resoundingly modern city Singapore certainly is, one of the great success stories of contemporary Asia; but it can also lay claim to another kind of triumph just as significant to its residents. Scattered among those gleaming downtown towers, more impressively on display elsewhere, are the results of a deliberate campaign to transform Singapore into a literal "Garden City", one unequalled by any other great Asian city and by few in the Western world.
The Swiss Club, one of Singapore's many private clubs. Extensive lawns, a selection of palms including Cocos nucifera, Livistona chinensis by the porte-cochere, and Ravenala madagascarensis, grace the grounds.
Singapore in colonial times liked to think of itself primarily in terms of material achievements, but it was always a tropical city close to the equator, a place where things grew with startling speed and luxuriance; and aside from the original jungle there were, increasingly, man-made arrangements of nature. In the beginning, these were largely devoted to commercial crops - plantations of rare spices like nutmeg, clove and pepper as well as such useful plants as gutta percha (Palaquium spp, particularly P. gutta) which yielded a rubberlike latex. None proved very successful for the growers in the end, but the idea of using Singapore as a kind of huge botanical resource was never wholly abandoned. Most famously, it found expression at the Botanic Gardens from which the Brazilian para rubber tree was first introduced to Malayan plantations. But gradually, as Singapore assumed its role as a great entrepot of international trade, gardening became more of a personal pursuit, principally for pleasure.
The ruling British for the most part lived out of the Civic District in large bungalows, with spacious verandahs and surrounding gardens. Given the heat and regular, year-round rains the gardens were always vividly green - keeping them halfway tamed was a major job - but seldom displayed much originality of design. A few more serious gardeners did emerge, however, prompted by new ornamental plants being introduced through the Botanic Gardens and possibly by a growing sense of confidence. Hoo Ah Kay, an immensely rich Chinese businessman better known by his trade name of "Whampoa", (see pages 25-26) who had owned part of the land on which the Botanic Gardens were established in 1859, was noted as a gardener himself. A foreign visitor invited to see his creation in 1869 describes its "straight paths, winding walks, and labyrinths, a wonderful variety of tropical vegetation... a place where the florist or botanist might find...pleasure."
Under the leadership of RE Holttum, director of the Botanic Gardens, the Singapore Gardening Society was formed in 1936 by a group of local enthusiasts. The Society's main concern in its early years was the organization of annual plant shows, the first of which was held at the Victoria Memorial Hall in 1938. Such events came to an abrupt end during the Japanese occupation - when, according to one past president of the Society, gardens were "put to food-productive use wherever possible" - but were revived with
