Kallang Park Fountain
First placed in Singapore: 1959
demolished
At the end of the Kallang Airport runway, near the Dakota Road flats
Patron: Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce as a gift to the City Council of Singapore
The 65-ft tall fountain was built in 1959, on the old runway of the Kallang Airport, as part of the grounds of a Singapore Constitution Exposition, organized and funded by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and supported by the Singapore City Council. It and a smaller companion were said cost S$ 65,000 and this larger of the pair was "said to be the only one of its kind in the Far East" according to the Singapore Free Press. The design, of four discs, was said to represent, yes, the four races of Singapore. The Fountain was evidently quite a landmark in the new Singapore landscape of 1959-60. After the Fair closed, Kallang Park was developed as a public part with many sporting facilities and playgrounds, described by The New Nation in August 1971 as "the Singapore version of Disneyland".
The Fountain is last mentioned in English newspapers in 1972. My guess is that the Fountain was destroyed in the building of the new National Stadium, which started around 1973.
The Singapore Remembers blog (https://remembersingapore.org/2014/10/26/iconic-fountains-in-singapore/) claims that the Fountain was designed by Mssrs H Sena, but I believe that is a misreading of an article in The Straits Times, 12 June 1959, Page 9, ("Army gets Fair Model") which mentions that a silver model of the entrance of the Exposition was presented to the Army by the Chinese Chamber, as a token of thanks for the Army's help in making the Exposition a success. The silver model was designed by Mssrs H. Sena, a well-known jeweller of the time in Singapore and Bangkok.
Images courtesy Roots.sg - postcard c. 1960 in the collection of the National Museum and a photo from the Collectie Familie Khouw, in the KITLV photography collection housed at the Leiden University Library, used under a CC-BY license.
Last updated: Aug-7-2022
