Along Artillery Avenue on the island of Sentosa stand several of these colonial structures that once formed part of a military fort. If you're familiar with Sentosa and its history, you may know that nearly the entire island consists of several military fortresses.
The most famous one- the only one that still remains open to the public for us to understand a bit of colonial military history- is Fort Siloso, located at one end of the island near Siloso Beach.
Other forts that once used to be on this island- Serapong, Silingsing, Imbiah and Connaught- either no longer exist (I think) or are not open for public access. Imbiah does have a couple of OPs and bunkers hidden amongst the thick undergrowth of the forested trees, but they're closed to public and of course you're not advised to climb in. According to Google, parts of Serapong still exist, except that you'll have to climb a steep hill (whose entrance is marked No Entry) to get there, and those structures are just as unstable- if not more- as Imbiah's anyway.
These structures here most likely belonged to Imbiah or Connaught. Chances are they belonged to Imbiah given their nearness to the hill, but then again, I don't really know. What I do know is that they were artillery barracks of an outpost and were also used as a POW camp during WWII.
Seventy years have come and gone, and today, what used to be a cluster of abandoned, unused buildings has been granted conservation status, gazetted as National Heritage Buildings, and transformed into The Barracks Hotel by Far East.
I haven't had a staycay at The Barracks Hotel- not yet- but seeing its transformation and its present-day purpose, I'm glad.
Because I have wandered onto these grounds a couple of times in years past, and I can tell you what a pity it was to see these beautiful buildings shut and sealed with their staircases boarded up and their exteriors faded and peeling.
There they had stood (defiantly) for decades in a sort of time suspension between the late 1800s to the 2000s, and yet under-used, under-utilized, and literally cast aside they were.
It puzzled me.
It wasn't as if Singapore didn't preserve and re-use buildings left behind by the British Armed Forces.
Why then was this a different story?
Did it have a history? Did it have an event not suitable to be remembered? Had people forgotten what these buildings once used to be? The barracks square where uniformed personnel (and maybe others) used to stand- was it not worth a second look? Were the entire grounds not worth conserving? Why would no one restore them to their former look (at least)? Why would no one bother to restore these buildings to a state where at least they held a bit of resemblance to what they used to be?
It might have had a history- sure- but we are a small country and where is there on this island that has had no history in one way or another?
I used to wonder what was behind those walls.
I used to wonder if anyone would come and make this place suitable for further use.
And so it made me glad- very glad- when this hotel opened in early December last year, and thus granted me an opportunity to step onto its grounds, look at the trees, admire the pool, and take a bit of time to peruse its militant past.