Misplaced Pages

#475524

75-863: The Fullerton Hotel Singapore is a five-star luxury hotel located near the mouth of the Singapore River , in the Downtown Core of the Central Area , Singapore. It was originally known as the Fullerton Building , and also as the General Post Office Building . The address is 1 Fullerton Square. The Fullerton Building was named after Robert Fullerton , the first Governor of the Straits Settlements (1826–1829). Commissioned in 1924 as part of

150-402: A national monument of Singapore . The northern end of the building covers the site of Fort Fullerton, a fort built in 1829 to defend the settlement against any naval attacks. The fort consisted of an Artillery Barrack, a house for the officers, barracks for soldiers and a 68-pounder gun guarding the entrance to the river which used to stand on the location known as Fullerton square. In 1843,

225-478: A "worthless" movie. Roger Ebert occasionally gave zero stars to films he deemed "artistically inept and morally repugnant." Scheuer's guide calls "one and a half star" films "poor", and "one star" films "bad". Not all film critics have approved of star ratings. Film scholar Robin Wood wondered if Sight and Sound readers accepted "such blackening of their characters." Jay Scott of Canada's The Globe and Mail

300-457: A film critic used a star-rating system to grade movies. "The one-star review of The Port of Missing Girls launched the star system, which the newspaper promised would be 'a permanent thing.' According to film scholar Gerald Peary , few newspapers adopted this practice until the French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma "started polling critics in the 1950s and boiling their judgment down to

375-529: A game or stage's difficulty (such as in the SNES version of Street Fighter II and its updates), or to rate the attributes of a selectable character or, in sports games , a team. Restaurant guides and reviewers often use stars in restaurant ratings . The Michelin system reserves star for exceptional restaurants, and gives up to three; the vast majority of recommended restaurants have no star at all. Other guides now use up to four or five stars, with one-star being

450-669: A licence to operate in New York. In 1923 the Great Kanto earthquake destroyed Chartered Bank's office in Yokohama , Japan , and killed a number of its staff. In 1927 the bank acquired P&O Bank , which had offices in Colombo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Guangzhou (Canton). P&O Bank also owned Allahabad Bank . The operations of P&O Bank were merged with Chartered Bank. But Allahabad Bank continued to be run as

525-489: A pier. From there, a lift would bring bags of mail to the Master Attendant's Pier, for transferring onto ships. Special mail was sent to neighbouring countries via sea, thus requiring at least 2 months to reach United Kingdom. Before postal workers were allowed to work, they had to pledge to uphold their integrity. As public servants, they were not allowed to leak any information on what went through them (including

600-412: A purely mathematical basis, 2 1/2 stars would be the dividing line between good and bad on a 0–5 scale. Common Sense Media uses a scale of one to five, where 3 stars are "Just fine; solid" and anything lower is "Disappointing" at best. There is no agreement on what the lowest rating should be. Some critics make "one star" or a "half-star" their lowest rating. Dave Kehr believes that "one star" indicates

675-572: A rating. Star ratings are also given out at stand-up comedy performances and theatre productions. Star ratings are given at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe , the largest arts festival in the world. Since 2010, the British Comedy Guide has collected over 4,300 reviews of around 1,110 different acts, across 83 different publications in the form of a star rating. The use of star ratings is controversial because

750-458: A scale of zero to three stars, representing O'Brien's notion of their "literary permanence." He further listed stories with a ranking of three stars "in a special 'Roll of Honor.'" In this list, O'Brien attached an additional asterisk to those stories that he personally enjoyed. Oliver Herford 's essay Say it with Asterisks , quips "Never, I think, were a mob of overworked employees so pitifully huddled together in an ill-ventilated factory as are

825-694: A separate entity. The bank was greatly affected by the Second World War . Their UK office had an established sports ground in East Molesey in Surrey, which included an active rugby club. The site had once been a large country estate and the house known as the ‘Wilderness’. It was demolished when the park was developed into a high-class residential estate in 1876. The new ‘Wilderness’ was a red brick house, built in 1881 in Jacobean style. In 1929

SECTION 10

#1732791351476

900-413: A star as a restaurant rating in 1926, which was expanded to a system of one to three stars in 1931. In 1915, Edward O'Brien began editing The Best American Short Stories . This annual compiled O'Brien's personal selection of the previous year's best short stories. O'Brien claimed to read as many as 8,000 stories a year, and his editions contained lengthy tabulations of stories and magazines, ranked on

975-488: A star rating to rank the safety of transportation. EuroRAP have developed a Road Protection Score which is a scale for Star Rating roads for how well they protect the user from death or disabling injury when a crash occurs. The assessment evaluates the safety that is 'built into' the road through its design, in combination with the way traffic is managed on it. The RPS protocol has also been adapted and used by AusRAP, usRAP and iRAP. Euro NCAP awards 'star ratings' based on

1050-466: A star rating, with a bullet reserved for movies that the magazine didn't like." The highest rating any film earned was five stars. The British film magazine Sight and Sound also rated films on a scale of one to four stars. Some critics use a "half-star" option in between basic star ratings. Leonard Maltin goes one further and gives Naked Gun 33 + 1 ⁄ 3 : The Final Insult a 2 + 1 ⁄ 3 star rating. Critics do not agree on what

1125-599: The British colony 's centennial celebrations, the building was designed as an office building by Major P.H. Keys of Keys & Dowdeswell, a Shanghai firm of architects, which won the project through an architectural design competition . The architectural firm also designed the Capitol Theatre , its adjoined Capitol Building and the Singapore General Hospital . In 2015, it was designated as

1200-750: The Condé Nast Traveler Gold List award. On 18 July 2001, the hotel received an architectural heritage award from the Urban Redevelopment Authority for its successful restoration of the former Fullerton Building. Star (classification) Similar systems have been proposed for electing politicians in the form of score voting and STAR voting . Repeated symbols used for a ranking date to Mariana Starke 's 1820 guidebook, which used exclamation points to indicate works of art of special value: ...I have endeavored... to furnish Travellers with correct lists of

1275-710: The Japanese Occupation of Singapore , Governor Sir Shenton Thomas and Lady Thomas sought refuge in the sleeping quarters of the Singapore Club. The Fullerton Building was also where General Percival discussed with Sir Shenton the possibility of surrendering Singapore to the Japanese . Subsequently, Fullerton Building became the headquarters of the Japanese military administration in Singapore. In

1350-712: The atrium courtyard , or face downtown Singapore 's skyline, the Singapore River promenade or the Marina Bay. The hotel has a 25-metre outdoor infinity swimming pool, fitness centre and a luxury spa . It also has five food and beverage outlets. For business travellers, the hotel has a 24-hour financial centre with the Bloomberg Professional service that provides financial reports and world news, and 15 meeting rooms equipped with conference facilities. The Fullerton Hotel Singapore won

1425-651: The "death doughnut". Roger Ebert used a thumbs-down symbol. Other critics use a black dot . Critics also do not agree on what the lower ratings signify, let alone the lowest rating. While Maltin's and Scheuer's guides respectively explain that lowest rated films are "BOMB(s)" and "abysmal", British film critic Leslie Halliwell instead writes that no star "indicates a totally routine production or worse; such films may be watchable but are at least equally missable." Like Halliwell and Dave Kehr, film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum believes one-star films have some merit, however unlike Halliwell, Rosenbaum believes that no stars indicate

1500-488: The 1900s, leading it to open branches across Asia. The bank's traditional business was in cotton from Bombay , indigo and tea from Calcutta , rice from Burma , sugar from Java , tobacco from Sumatra , hemp from Manila and silk from Yokohama . In the early 1900s, the bank opened offices in New York and Hamburg . When it established its New York branch in 1912, Chartered Bank became the first foreign bank to be issued

1575-552: The 1950s, the Fullerton Building became recognised as an unofficial public monument. With its recognizable lighthouse, it stood out of the skyline as the most prominent feature of the waterfront. In time, the Fullerton became a symbol of Singapore, appearing in many postcards, recognised by travellers and ship captains from all over the world. In 1965, Fullerton Square hosted a rally for Singapore's independence. Before

SECTION 20

#1732791351476

1650-463: The Asterisks in this Sweatshop of Twaddle." Literary editor Katrina Kenison dismisses O'Brien's grading systems as "excessive at best, fussy and arbitrary at worst." Book reviewers generally do not use a star-rating system though there are exceptions. The West Coast Review of Books rates books on a scale of one ("poor") to five ("superior") stars. According to editor D. David Dreis, readers love

1725-598: The Colonial Elite, an exclusive club that took up almost 7,000 square metres (75,000 sq ft) of the upper floors. A lighthouse was built on the Fullerton Building. Called the Fullerton Light, the lighthouse was used to guide ships ashore and anchor along the piers. It was built to replace the Fort Canning Light, which was decommissioned in 1979 since it was gradually blocked because of

1800-643: The Fullerton Building after that, it was only gazetted as a conservation building by the Singapore Government in 1997. In 1997, Sino Land (Hong Kong) Company Ltd, a sister company of Far East Organization , acquired the Fullerton Building from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). It spent close to another S$ 300 million converting Fullerton Building into a hotel and building the two-storey commercial complex One Fullerton opposite Fullerton Road. Renovation works on

1875-535: The Fullerton Building were completed on 8 December 2000. The Fullerton Hotel Singapore was officially opened by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong on 1 January 2001. The site, sandwiched between the Civic District and the central business district, was sold together with an underpass and the seafront site on which One Fullerton now stands for S$ 110 million. The two are linked by an air-conditioned underground pedestrian walkway with travellators. To ensure that

1950-471: The Fullerton Building. Subsequently, the Singapore Club relocated to Clifford House at Collyer Quay and then to Straits Trading Building on Battery Road near Boat Quay , vacating the Fullerton Building for use by the EDB and more government offices. In the last days before Britain's surrender to Japan in 1942, the building was used as a hospital, with makeshift operation rooms for wounded British soldiers. During

2025-608: The General Post Office gallery area on the ground floor, with bays that corresponded with the building's towering Doric columns on the façade, and the Straits Club Billiard Room. The post office gallery no longer exists, but has been subdivided to provide a bar, a restaurant and the hotel foyer. The Straits Club Billiard Room was kept, but without its wood panelling . The building's neo-classical columns and high-ceiling verandas were retained. It

2100-709: The General Post Office, The Exchange, Singapore Club (now Singapore Town Club), the Marine Department, and the Import and Export Department (later the Ministry of Trade and Industry ). It also housed the Chamber of Commerce, and various government departments dealing with agriculture, fisheries and forestry . One of the rooms in the Fullerton Building was where the late Finance Minister, Dr. Goh Keng Swee , wrote many of his budget speeches for Singapore. The building

2175-710: The Santa Claus Main Office even today. During Christmas seasons in the past, the post office would be filled with letters from children directed to Santa Claus. These letters were then sent to the Salvation Army, who would reply the children on behalf of Santa Claus. Presently, these letters are forwarded to the Santa Claus Main Office which is situated in the Santa Claus Village in Finland. The exclusive Singapore Club rents premises on

2250-719: The Singapore agency was upgraded to a branch. In 1862, the bank was authorised to issue bank notes in Hong Kong ; a privilege it continues to exercise (as Standard Chartered ) to this day. Over the following decades, it printed bank notes in China and Malaya . With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869; and completion of Indo-European telegraph line from London to Calcutta , and its extension to China in 1871; placed most British banks (including Chartered Bank) to expand and develop its business. The bank's expansion continued to

2325-624: The bank acquired Eastern Bank , giving Chartered a network of branches in Aden , Bahrain , Lebanon , Qatar and the UAE . Chartered also bought the Ionian Bank 's Cyprus Branches. In 1964, the government of Indonesia nationalised Chartered Bank's branch as a part of Konfrontasi . The branch was later merged into Bank Umum Negara, a state-owned bank. Bank Umum Negara then evolved into present-day Bank Mandiri . In 1969, Chartered Bank merged with

The Fullerton Hotel Singapore - Misplaced Pages Continue

2400-465: The basement floors. A hollow cellular raft foundation was proposed by the original contractors in the 1920s to save cost because bedrock lies directly below the building. The Fullerton Building also possesses the one and only barrel-vaulted, coffered ceiling in Singapore. The Fullerton Building restoration project from 1998 to 2000 was a difficult conservation project that involved an institutional building. Architects 61, together with DP Consultants,

2475-438: The building of Fort Fullerton. Merchants thought that it was a waste to use the prime location of the city for military instead of trading purpose, which would have prevented Singapore from generating more revenue and boosting its trading business. They were also worried that they would be in the direct line of fire if there were any attacks on the fort because the offices along the Singapore River were situated in close proximity to

2550-406: The centre of the building. There is an indoor garden over the old Straits Club at the centre of the atrium which can double as a venue for cocktails . The main entrance into the hotel, where dignitaries and celebrities are received, is covered with a large glass canopy at the porch. Construction work in the interior was carried out to reinforce the beams and columns, while retrofitting done on

2625-500: The construction of more high-rise buildings in Singapore. The location of the previous lighthouse is now occupied by The Lighthouse Restaurant. The location of the Fullerton Hotel was once referred to as " Mile Zero " before the introduction of the modern road system. All locations in Singapore were measured and stemmed from "Mile Zero". The building was originally commissioned as the General Post Office (GPO). The GPO covered

2700-444: The cutoff is for a recommendation, even when they use the same scale. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert "both consider[ed] a three-star rating to be the cutoff for a "thumbs up" on their scales of zero to four stars. Film critic Dave Kehr —who also uses a 0–4 star scale—believes "two stars is a borderline recommendation". On a five-star scale, regardless of the bottom rating, 3 stars is often the lowest positive rating, though judging on

2775-552: The entire building now rest on the platform. The engineering team installed a new set of five drainage pumps to counteract the slow seepage of river water. As the building sits on solid rock foundation, no additional piling was required. The building was officially gazetted on 7 December 2015, as Singapore's 71st national monument . The building will be preserved under the Preservation of Monuments Act. The Fullerton Hotel Singapore has 400 rooms and suites which either overlook

2850-432: The exterior to restore the façade. Although studies carried out before the renovation work began showed most of the raft foundation was still in good condition, water from the adjacent Singapore River had seeped slowly into some of the foundation's cells over the years, flooding parts of the old basement. As a result, a new precast concrete platform was built over the cells, and waterproofing added. Pillars supporting

2925-450: The facilities provided. Some consider this disadvantageous to smaller hotels whose quality of accommodation could fall into one class but the lack of an item such as an elevator would prevent it from reaching a higher categorization. In recent years hotel rating systems have also been criticized by some who argue that the rating criteria for such systems are overly complex and difficult for laymen to understand. It has been suggested that

3000-421: The film has redeeming facets, and instead uses zero stars as his lowest rating. Examples of rating scales: Critics have different ways of denoting the lowest rating when this is a "zero". Some such as Peter Travers display empty stars. Jonathan Rosenbaum and Dave Kehr use a round black dot. Leslie Halliwell uses a blank space. The Globe and Mail uses a "0", or as their former film critic dubbed it,

3075-598: The fort was extended after a sandstone monolith , the Singapore Stone , with an inscription possibly dating back to the 13th century was demolished. The Singapore stone was, unfortunately, destroyed by the British. A fragment of this monolith was salvaged and preserved in the collection of the National Museum at Stamford Road . However, there were several criticisms as well as apprehensions regarding

The Fullerton Hotel Singapore - Misplaced Pages Continue

3150-542: The fort. The fort was also said to be incapable of deterring any potential attacks from the sea, and had very low efficacy. Following these criticisms, the fort was finally demolished in 1873. The fort gave way to the first General Post Office and the Exchange Building in 1874. Plans to erect Fullerton Building were drawn up in 1920. However, due to a lack of funds, construction only began in February 1924. During

3225-488: The fourth storey, where the British Governor was first told of the British military's decision to surrender to the Japanese during World War II , was converted to an exclusive lounge. The room has a barrel-vaulted, coffered ceiling, which is the only one of its kind in Singapore, and is the only surviving interior from the original building. The building's historical lighthouse , which used to guide ships into

3300-517: The gallery above the sorting halls to observe all postal workers and ensure none of the letters or mail were opened while being sorted. Fridays were designated as arrival dates for overseas mail from Britain. Postal workers had to work overtime with no extra pay, just to wait for the mail to arrive and then sort it. They were not entitled to any days off and had to work around the clock. They were also forbidden from personally separating local and overseas letters. The General Post Office continues to hold

3375-544: The grant of a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria . In 1858, it opened its first branches in Calcutta , Bombay and Shanghai . The bank's operations were expanded to Hong Kong and Singapore in 1859, followed by Karachi in 1863. Chartered Bank was keen to capitalise on the huge expansion of trade between India and China and other British possessions in Asia; and the handsome profits that could be made from financing

3450-521: The ground. The building has Neo-classical architectural features which include a two-storey fluted Doric colonnades on their heavy base, and the lofty portico over the main entrance with trophy designs and the Royal Coat of Arms , crafted by Italian Cavaliere Rudolfo Nolli . Originally, there were five distinct frontages, each treated in the Doric order. 14 elevators served the four floors plus

3525-506: The half star is positioned to the left of one or more whole stars. Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (informally The Chartered Bank ) was a bank incorporated in London in 1853 by Scotsman James Wilson , under a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria . Though lacking a truly strong domestic network in Britain, it

3600-439: The historical Fullerton Building continues to be visible from Marina Bay , URA specified a low building height for One Fullerton across the road. This also ensured that guests at the Fullerton Hotel would have unobstructed views of the sea. Keys and Dowdeswell was an established British international architecture company, their design works can be seen in buildings throughout China and South East Asia from 1920s to 1940s, some of

3675-549: The house, together with the land on the other side of the river Mole, was laid out as a sports ground, firstly for the Distillers Company , and then for the construction group Trollope & Colls . Later the estate became the sports ground of the Standard Chartered Bank. A disastrous fire gutted the house in 1983. The ground was sold for housing development and their sports club closed. In 1957,

3750-560: The initial groundwork, excavations revealed the gun casements of the old Fort Fullerton. In fact, the Fullerton Building was built over reclaimed land. Built at a cost of $ 4.1 million and after delays of a few months, the building was completed in June 1928. The Fullerton Building was opened on 27 June 1928 by the Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford , who suggested the building be named after Robert Fullerton. The building had five founding tenants :

3825-499: The lack of a unified global system for rating hotels may also undermine the usability of such schemes. In the UK, providers and comparison websites often use stars to indicate how feature-rich financial products are. The most senior military ranks in all services are classified by a star system in many countries, ranging from one-star rank which typically corresponds to brigadier , brigadier general , Commodore or air commodore , to

SECTION 50

#1732791351476

3900-443: The lowest rating. The stars are sometimes replaced by symbols such as a fork or spoon. Some guides use separate scales for food, service, ambiance, and even noise level. The Michelin system remains the best known star system. A single star denotes "a very good restaurant in its category", two stars "excellent cooking, worth a detour", and three stars, "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey". Michelin stars are awarded only for

3975-639: The majestic background of the Fullerton Building, crowds declared their support for merdeka independence. From the 1970s to 1995, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore used the building as its headquarters. Internal alterations were carried out on the building by the Public Works Department in 1985. The General Post Office, under Singapore Post , vacated the building in March 1996. Though plans were initiated to conserve

4050-798: The most prominent buildings in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore were designed by them. Their design works are usually with major significance to a historical period, geographical place and local culture tradition, with many of their buildings in the classical style. Major Keys & Dowdeswell were established and distinguished designers of grand interior spaces and classical façades. They followed the principals of 20th-century Beaux-Arts tradition of classicism. Relating to some of their core principals in design, they are largely Monumental and Ornamental. The grey Aberdeen granite Fullerton Building sits on 41,100 square metres (442,400 square feet) of land. The height of its walls measures 36.6 metres (120 ft) from

4125-582: The most senior five-star ranks , which include Admiral of the Fleet , Grand Admiral , Field Marshal , General of the Army and Marshal of the Air Force —some five-star ranks only exist during large-scale conflicts. Recruits entering American college football are commonly ranked on a five-star scale, with five representing what scouts think will be the best college players. International organisations use

4200-548: The movement of goods from Europe to Far East . It competed with the other great British banks of that time— Oriental Bank Corporation , the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank and Mercantile Bank of India, London and China . The Shanghai branch of Chartered Bank began operation in August 1858. Initially, the bank's business dealt specifically with large volume discounting and re-discounting of opium and cotton bills. Although there

4275-639: The number of predicted stars. The Unicode Standard encodes several characters used for star ratings in the Miscellaneous Symbols and Arrows block: The STAR WITH LEFT HALF BLACK and LEFT HALF BLACK STAR are intended for use in left-to-right contexts where the half star is positioned to the right of one or more whole stars, whereas the STAR WITH RIGHT HALF BLACK and RIGHT HALF BLACK STAR are intended for use in right-to-left contexts (such as Arabic or Hebrew ) where

4350-492: The objects best worth notice...; at the same time marking, with one or more exclamation points (according to their merit), those works which are deemed peculiarly excellent. Murray's Handbooks for Travellers and then the Baedeker Guides (starting in 1844) borrowed this system, using stars instead of exclamation points, first for points of interest and later for hotels. The Michelin restaurant guide introduced

4425-408: The origin of the mail). Everything at work was strictly confidential. People often sent money by post using envelopes without using registered mail due to the higher cost incurred. Thus, it was extremely important that postal workers were honest and did not steal any items that went through the mail. To reinforce the importance of confidentiality, the comptroller of the General Post Office would stand at

4500-729: The performance of vehicles in crash tests, including front, side and pole impacts, and impacts with pedestrians. The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also uses a star ranking to rank the safety of vehicles in crash tests, including front, side, pole impacts, and rollovers, with 5 stars being the most secure. Some web content voting systems use five-star grades. This allows users to distinguish content more precisely than with binary " like buttons ". Many recommender systems , such as MovieLens or Amazon.com , ask people to express preferences using star ratings, then predict what other items those people are likely to enjoy. Predictions are often expressed in terms of

4575-508: The player to repeat and fully master previously beaten levels in order to receive a perfect 3-star rating, which may confer other benefits or bonus content. Another use of star ratings is to denote the rarity of characters in video games where players are tasked in collecting numerous characters, such as Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and Marvel: Contest of Champions , in which stronger and rarer characters are marked with more stars to make them appear more valuable. Stars are also used to rank

SECTION 60

#1732791351476

4650-525: The port, has been incorporated into a food and beverage outlet. The Fullerton Light, a revolving beacon of 540 kilocandelas mounted on the roof of the building, was installed in 1958 to replace the Fort Canning Lighthouse which was being demolished. The beacon could be seen by ships 29 kilometres (15.7 nautical miles ) away. The Lighthouse has been moved to a new location as an artefact near Harbour Front Tower. The Fullerton Building

4725-433: The public may ignore the reviews and concentrate more the star ratings alone. Star ratings are not often used to rate the quality of a video game but are rather used within certain games for varying purposes. One notable use of the star system is to grade a player's performance in completing a level with up to three stars, used in many modern multi-level games like Angry Birds . This three-star rating system challenges

4800-510: The quality of food and wine; the luxury level of the restaurant is rated separately, using a scale of one ("quite comfortable") to five ("luxury in the traditional style") crossed fork and spoon symbols. Hotel luxury is often denoted by stars. Other classifiers, such as the AAA Five Diamond Award , use diamonds instead of stars to express hotel rating levels. Hotels are assessed in traditional systems and rest heavily on

4875-468: The ratings but publishers don't. In the 31 July 1928 issue of the New York Daily News , the newspaper's film critic Irene Thirer began grading movies on a scale of zero to three stars. Three stars meant 'excellent,' two 'good,' and one star meant 'mediocre.' And no stars at all 'means the picture's right bad,'" wrote Thirer. Carl Bialik speculates that this may have been the first time

4950-501: The two lower floors with postal halls, offices and sorting rooms. Large mail drops placed mail on a band conveyor in the basement to be taken up to the sorting room. All mail was sorted by hand. One of the most memorable features of the GPO was its curved service counter which was almost 90 metres (300 ft) long. The basement was linked to a 35 metres (115 ft) subway , also called the GPO tunnel, that ran underneath Fullerton Road to

5025-501: The upper floors of the building to provide for their members' need and comfort. It originally only allowed entry to European tycoons and British civil servants. There are rooms where members dined, lounged , conferred, and played billiards and cards. Bedrooms on the attic storey provided accommodation for members. When the Economic Development Board (EDB) was formed in 1961, it evicted the Singapore Club from

5100-457: Was clad in Shanghai plaster panels, which have been restored. The owners converted the windows back to be housed in timber frames. Part of the tunnel under Fullerton Road, which was used to transfer mail onto ships waiting in the harbour, has also been kept. While the building's exterior has been conserved, the architects had also to transform the interior into a five-star hotel. The room on

5175-654: Was a gradual rise in opium cultivation in China , the imports of opium still increased from 50,087 picul in 1863 to 82,61 picul by 1888. Transactions in the opium trade generated substantial profits for Chartered Bank. Later, the Chartered Bank also became one of the principal foreign banknote-issuing institutions in Shanghai. In 1859, the bank opened a branch in Hong Kong and an agency in Singapore . In 1861,

5250-456: Was an opponent of using symbols to summarize a review and wrote in 1992 that "When Globe editors first proposed the four-star system of rating movies about a year ago, the response from Globe critics was, to put it mildly, underwhelming." More recently, Mark Kermode has expressed a dislike of star ratings (assigned to his online reviews but not his print or radio reviews) on the grounds that his verdicts are sometimes too complex to be expressed as

5325-402: Was designed for natural ventilation before the age of air-conditioning ; one of the architectural devices used to provide this was the internal air-wells. There were four air-wells along the central longitudinal axis, divided by three internal bays of offices, linking the front façade with the rear. These no longer exist as most of the interior was demolished to create a single large atrium. It

5400-520: Was designed to utilize natural ventilation, thus has four internal air-wells to cool the interiors. Fullerton Square was an important commercial zone in Singapore attracting many European immigrants and soon became the core of major business activity. Many European businesses were set up at Fullerton Square together with large banks such as the Chartered Bank and HSBC . It also housed the Club for

5475-497: Was engaged to convert it into a 400-room luxury hotel. The hotel rooms were designed by Hirsch Bedner Associates . During its redevelopment, the historical building had most of its exterior architectural features retained and restored. The conservation work was coordinated by the URA, which had certain stipulations that the new owners had to comply with. Several features of the original building had to be restored faithfully. These included

5550-515: Was influential in the development of British colonial trade throughout the East of Suez . In 1969 Chartered Bank merged with Standard Bank, which did business throughout Africa. The merged enterprise was incorporated in London under the name Standard Chartered . The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China—a bank incorporated in London , was founded in 1853 in London by James Wilson ; following

5625-410: Was the largest and the last example of this kind of architecture in Singapore. As air-conditioning became increasingly common, the air-wells became redundant. Two parallel sets of guest rooms now ring the hotel's central triangular sky-lit atrium . One row faces out towards the harbour and the tall buildings of the central business district. The rooms of the inner ring have views of the courtyard in

#475524