No_6_December__1940_and_January__1941 — Page 27

Hong Kong Builder

SINGAPORE'S NEWEST BUILDING

BUILT FOR THE NETHERLANDS TRADING SOCIETY

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View of the Main Banking Hall

The building in course of erection. (From a newspaper clipping)

We have just received information from Singapore of the completion of a new bank and office building there. The building was started towards the end of 1938 and was originally intended to be completed before the end of 1933. The building was well on its way to completion when war broke out in September, when a large quantity of tiling and marble, which was required to complete the imposing banking hall, was interned on a German steamer on which it had been shipped.

Actually, the building was opened to the public in February 1940, Masonite being used for the temporary decorative work pending the arrival of the materials which had been detained. The release of marble and other materials was obtained in June 1940, and the final work was rushed to completion in September. This building, which ranks amongst the best in the Far East, was completed at a total cost of approximately six hun- dred thousand Singapore dollars. The banking hall occupies the full area of the ground floor and is most imposingly decorated with one of the best marbles ever imported in the Far East, being Napoleon Grand Melange used in combination with Belgian Blue. Not only was this material used for the main banking hall, but also in all other departments as well.

The building is situated at the corner of a square in which most of the Dutch institutions are located, the K.P.M., the Nederlandsch Indische Handelsbank and the K.L.M. all having offices therein. The main entrance to the bank faces Raffles Key with two entrances to the lift hall, one in Cecil Street and the other in d'Almeida Street.

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