Raffles Hotel

Coordinates: 1°17′41.60″N 103°51′16.13″E / 1.2948889°N 103.8544806°E / 1.2948889; 103.8544806
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

1°17′41.60″N 103°51′16.13″E / 1.2948889°N 103.8544806°E / 1.2948889; 103.8544806

Raffles Singapore
Map
General information
Architectural styleColonial
Location1 Beach Road, Singapore 189673
Opening1887; 137 years ago (1887)
Renovated1894,1899,1906,1989-1991, 2017–2019
OwnerKatara Hospitality
ManagementAccor
Technical details
Floor count3
Design and construction
Architect(s)Regent Alfred John Bidwell
DeveloperSarkies Brothers
Other information
Number of rooms115
Number of suites115
Number of restaurants8
Website
www.raffles.com/singapore
Designated4 March 1987; 37 years ago (1987-03-04)
Reference no.20

Raffles Singapore is a

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore.[1]

It is the flagship property of

AccorHotels after Accor acquired FRHI Hotels & Resorts. The hotel is owned by Qatar-based, government-owned Katara Hospitality.[2]

History

Raffles Hotel Singapore started as a privately owned beach house built in the early 1830s. It first became Emerson's Hotel when Dr. Charles Emerson leased the building in 1878. Upon his death in 1883, the hotel closed, and the Raffles Institution stepped in to use the building as a boarding house until Dr. Emerson's lease expired in September 1887.[3]

Almost immediately after the first lease expired, the Sarkies Brothers leased the property from Syed Mohamed Alsagoff, its owner, with the intention of turning it into a high-end hotel. A few months later, on 1 December 1887, the ten-room Raffles Hotel opened. Its proximity to the beach and its reputation for high standards in services and accommodations made the hotel popular with wealthy clientele.[3]

Within the hotel's first decade, three new buildings were added on to the original beach house. First, a pair of two-story wings were completed in 1890, each containing 22 guest suites. Soon afterward, the Sarkies Brothers leased a neighboring building at No. 3 Beach Road, renovated it, and in 1894, the Palm Court Wing was completed. The new additions brought the hotel's total guest rooms to 75.[3][4]

A few years later, a new main building was constructed on the site of the original beach house. Designed by architect

Swan and Maclaren, it was completed in 1899. The new main building offered numerous state-of-the-art (for the time) features, including powered ceiling fans and electric lights. In fact, the Raffles Hotel was the first hotel in the region to have electric lights.[3][5]

Raffles Hotel in 1932, showing the extended veranda

The hotel continued to expand over the years with the addition of wings, a veranda, a ballroom, a bar and billiards room, as well as other buildings and rooms.

In 1902, a tiger that had escaped from a nearby circus was shot in a storage place under the Bar & Billiards room, which was originally constructed at an elevation.[6][7]

The Great Depression spelled trouble for Raffles Hotel and, in 1931, the Sarkies Brothers declared bankruptcy. In 1933, the financial troubles were resolved, and a public company called Raffles Hotel Ltd. was established, taking over from the Sarkies.[3][8]

Raffles Hotel, Palm Court Wing

Upon the start of the Japanese occupation of Singapore on 15 February 1942, it is said that the Japanese soldiers encountered the guests in Raffles Hotel dancing one final waltz.[9] Meanwhile, staff buried the hotel silver—including the silver beef trolley—in the Palm Court.

During

ryokan, the name for a traditional Japanese inn.[3] The hotel was reclaimed in 1945 during Operation Tiderace by the British Navy. Stanley Redington raised the British Naval Jack
on top of the Raffles Hotel.

In 1987, a century after it first opened, Austrian writer and researcher Andreas Augustin discovered the long lost original drawings of Raffles Hotel, hidden in a Singaporean archive. That year these drawings were published for the first time in the book The Raffles Treasury. Raffles Hotel was declared a

In 1989, the hotel closed to undergo an extensive renovation that lasted two years and cost $160 million. The hotel reopened on 16 September 1991. While the hotel was restored to the grand style of its 1915 heyday, significant changes were made. All guest rooms were converted to suites. In addition, Long Bar, which was a favorite spot of celebrities such as

Singapore Sling, was invented by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon.[13]

On 18 July 2005, it was announced that

Colony Capital LLC would purchase Raffles Holdings the entire chain of Raffles Hotels, which included the Raffles Hotel, for $1.45 billion.[14]

In April 2010, it was reported that a

Fairmont Raffles Hotels International in exchange for a 40% stake in the luxury hotel chain.[15]

At one time, Raffles Hotel maintained a hotel museum. It displayed memorabilia such as photographs, silver and china items, postcards and menus, as well as old and rare editions of the works of the famous writers who had stayed there. The museum also displayed photographs of its famous guests and visitors.

A major renovation of the hotel was undertaken starting January 2017,[19] and the hotel closed in December 2017 to allow renovation work to proceed.[20] The rooms were refurbished and soundproofed, and the number of suites increased from 103 to 115. New technologies were incorporated and a new marble floor was installed. Its various food and beverage outlets were revamped, and the Writer's Bar formerly in a corner of the lobby given its own space.[21] Its former Jubilee Theatre was transformed into a ballroom.[22] The hotel reopened on 1 August 2019.[23]

Arcade

Side view of Raffles Hotel

Raffles Hotel has a shopping arcade with 40 speciality boutiques.[10] The arcade also houses most of the hotel's restaurants.

In popular culture

  • Raffles is the setting for Ryū Murakami's novel and its film adaptation titled Raffles Hotel. The film was shot on location.
  • The hotel was featured as a Japanese stronghold in Medal of Honor: Rising Sun.
  • The hotel was where Nick and Rachel stayed when they arrived in Singapore in Crazy Rich Asians.[24]
  • Raffles Hotel was the subject of Paul O'Grady's Orient for Carlton Television.
  • Raffles Hotel featured in episodes of the BBC/ABC co-production Tenko, with the majority of series 3 taking place in the hotel.
  • The 2018 renovation was the subject of the TV documentary series, Raffles: An Icon Reborn[25]
  • In Malcolm Pryce's 2020 detective novel, The Corpse in the Garden of Perfect Brightness, the detective tracks down and interviews a contact at Raffles.

See also

References

  1. .
  2. ^ "Accor Buys Luxury Fairmont Brands as Hotel Deals Heat Up". BloomburgBusiness. Archived from the original on 16 December 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Raffles Hotel". Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board Singapore. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  4. ^ "Raffles Hotel, Singapore". Amassia Publishing. Archived from the original on 28 October 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  5. . Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  6. ^ Fergus, Molly (16 September 2012). "Memories and Photos of the Raffles Hotel Singapore on Its 125th Anniversary". Condé Nast Traveler. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Skeletons, Royalty & Pop Stars: Secrets Of Raffles Hotel, As Told By Their Resident Historian Who's Worked Here For 48 Years". 8 Days. Retrieved 7 February 2022.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ "The Sarkies Brothers: forming Asia's first hotel chain | Famoushotels.org". famoushotels.org.
  9. .
  10. ^ a b "Raffles Hotel – About Us". Raffles Hotel. Fairmont Raffles Hotels International. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  11. ^ Shenon, Philip (10 October 1991). "Singapore Journal; Back to Somerset Maugham and Life's Seamy Side". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 May 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  12. ^ Hinson, Tamara (30 July 2019). "How to make the Singapore Sling, from the hotel that invented it". The Independent. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  13. ^ "Raffles Hotel – Long Bar". Raffles Hotel. Fairmont Raffles Hotels International. Archived from the original on 5 October 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  14. ^ Ling, Chan Sue; Chua, Linus (18 July 2005). "Colony to Buy Raffles' Hotel Business for S$1.45 Bln (Update5)". Bloomberg. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  15. ^ "Raffles Hotel sold to Qatari Diar for $275 Million". SWFI. Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  16. ^ "Raffles Hotel, The Grand Old Lady of Singapore, Has Its Own Museum". Thai Airways. Archived from the original on 5 May 2018. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  17. ^ "Visiting the Long Bar at Singapore's Historic Raffles Hotel". Traveling With the Jones. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  18. ^ "Accor Buys Luxury Fairmont Brands as Hotel Deals Heat Up". Bloomburg Business. Archived from the original on 16 December 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  19. ^ Mayuko Tani (13 October 2016). "Raffles Hotel to close for 6 months for major renovation". Nikkei.
  20. ^ Wu, Daven (11 September 2019). "Inside the recently reopened Raffles Hotel: raise a Singapore sling to the marvellous makeover". South China Morning Post.
  21. ^ Bowers, Beatrice (3 September 2019). "Literature and history are transformed into cocktails at the new Writer's Bar".
  22. ^ Cai, Candice (1 August 2019). "New 'old' Raffles Hotel reopens after 2-year renovation. Here's how it looks inside". ASIAONE.
  23. ^ Cripps, Karla (3 August 2019). "Singapore's historic Raffles Hotel reopens following two-year makeover". CNN.
  24. ^ "Where Was 'Crazy Rich Asians' Filmed?". Condé Nast Traveler. 9 August 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  25. ^ "Raffles: An Icon Reborn". CNA. Retrieved 6 December 2020.

Further reading

External links