22. Singapore

“The British created modern Singapore in the flush of their early Victorian vigour, transforming a fishing village into a great port, and celebrated stronghold, a rich and vital city. They founded their settlement on a swampy island at the southern tip of Malaya, partly to thwart their rivals the Dutch, partly to serve as a way-station used on the Eastern trade routes, partly to be a trade centre in its own right.

You must come to Singapore by sea, for this is a city of the ocean highways built upon navigation… a litter of low green islands, steamy and tangled, speckles the sea approaches to Singapore. The air is fiery, the sea seems thick and vegetable, and down every channel among the islets you can see the ships shimmering on a blue horizon, grandly down the archipelago, chugging inshore in a mesh of nets. A fort on a headland is the first you see of the city: tall, gaunt and deserted... a line of big freighters lies at anchor in the roads, the sampans flurrying around them…

All of the mystique of the place instantly assaults you. High upon the water-front stand the old merchant houses: some quaintly arabesque, with tumbled balconies and preposterous ornaments, some massively functional… Encouched in green lie the structures of Government, gracefully colonnaded…elegant, symmetrical buildings… Among the palm trees stand the churches of the place, from the episcopal splendour of the Anglican Cathedral to the little Armenian Church… and there beneath the bridge runs away the Singapore River, the hub of the emporium where a thousand rafts and sampans, day and night, shift the teak and the rubber, the spice and the skins, the steel bolts and the machinery from ship to shore.

A spirit of tenacious nostalgia still emanates from this vast and vivid water-front, the facade of Singapore. On the green padang, outside the City Hall, there is the cricket pitch and… (nearby stands Raffles Hotel)... Forbidding and predatory foliage sprawls over the small islands of the harbour. Brilliantly sensuous plants ornament the city gardens – orchids and frangipani, palms, gladioli, flaming creepers and curious cacti. Patches of dark woodland penetrate the very core of the place… Singapore is a city on the edge – on the edge of an island, on the edge of a jungle, on the edge of a continent.” *

Whilst this neatly describes the foundations of the island state as viewed in mid 20th century, at the time of the ‘Proclamation of Singapore’ after its separation from Malaysia in 1965, it really was the beginning of a new chapter of independence and sovereignty.

Now, in 2025, a visual overview of the city portrays the elevated built-up skyline, most often illustrated by Marina Bay Sands triple split tower development, with its daring elevated Skypark and cantilevered platform.

With its observation deck over the Straits, this building has taken on iconic status for the city.

Besides this structure, the island is recognised by its modern infrastructure and use of reclaimed land and the development of Changi International Airport with its new terminals, as well as the busy Port of Singapore with its container facilities.

With its comprehensive MRT rapid transit system and LRT lines, these integrate the densely populated island in carrying very high volumes of passenger traffic that would have overwhelmed the limited road network that is now controlled under a congestion pricing scheme.

With state support and focus on education at all levels for its multicultural population, this has enabled the country to develop an innovative industrial sector.

With diversification into telecommunications and IT and under strong political leadership, the economy has been transformed and has found a role in becoming a significant regional financial centre.

With its multiple activities, it has become a trans-national city that provides services to major companies around the world. ]

From its population of just 6 million people and having a GDP per capita of around US$90,000 per person, Singapore ranks as one of the top five leading global cities. Having reinvented itself, it truly deserves retention of its title as ‘Lion City’.

*James Morris – Cities – Harcourt, Brace & World – 1963.