Singapore's Colonial Black and White Houses: Seah Im Road
- Karien van Ditzhuijzen
- Sep 25
- 8 min read
Updated: Oct 5
Telok Blangah is one of the more fascinating areas in Singapore. Having reputedly been a pirate's nest for centuries, it became the seat of a Malay ruler in the early 19th century (the Temenggong I wrote about earlier). Of course its natural deep water harbour did not go unnoticed by the British either, and from 1841, New Harbour (later renamed Keppel Harbour) was developed here, as we have seen in my previous post on the development of Telok Blangah.
With all these developments the residents of the area changed during the course of the 19th century as well. Originally it was mainly occupied by Malay kampongs, but as the harbour grew, many residences for colonial expats sprung up, houses now known as the famous colonial Black and White Houses of Singapore. Most of them have been demolished, but pockets of them have survived around Mount Faber and Bukit Chermin. We tend to associate Telok Blangah with either Malay or colonial heritage, but it was a Chinese businessman that left a big mark on the area in the early 20th century. In this post I want to tell you about a particular group of colonial Black and White Houses, those on a road named after this man: Seah Im Road.
Last post we ended with the map below from 1907. Apart from the ferry terminal, shipyard and coaling station we also see that more colonial houses have popped up on Bukit Chermin and Bukit Ayam, as well as a house on what is now called Keppel Hill. These hillside locations are preferred by the colonials, as not only as the high up locations were felt to signify high status, they tend to get the best breeze from the sea. Even within an estate the highest locations were reserved for the higher ranking individuals. It is not surprising the next colonial developments take place on the foothills of Mount Faber.
The story of Seah Im Road starts in 1907, so right after this map was made. By now the Temenggong family has moved to Johor, and has sold most of the land to either the British or local Chinese businessmen. The foothills of Mount Faber are still mostly undeveloped, maps label the area as having pineapple and rubber plantations, the latter still evident in many remnant rubber trees on Mount Faber (fun fact: have you ever heard rubber seeds pop? The sound is like a gunshot, and the husk and seeds can fly as far as a few hundred meters. I hear them hitting our roof regularly, it is quite spectacular).
In 1907 much of the land adjoining Keppel Harbour is owned by a wealthy Hokkien Chinese businessman called Ang Seah Im. He made a fortune in tin mining in Malaya and now becomes a project developer and real estate magnate in Singapore. He was a prominent part of the community, and a member of the Poh Leung Kuk ('office to protect virtue'), a committee under the Chinese protectorate. The committee carried out inspections and registrations for prostitutes in Singapore, and also helped victims of forced prostitution and those wishing to leave the brothels. They ran a shelter to house these prostitutes, as well as other vulnerable women like mui tsai, young girls from poor families sold as domestic slaves. Being part of this committee shows not only Ang Seah Im's standing in the community but also his philanthropic contributions.
In 1907 Ang Seah Im starts developing the area, building shophouses and godowns along Telok Blangah Road which he rents out.
He also builds two roads leading up the hill. One road he names after himself, Seah Im Road. He gets lighting and fences installed, as decreed by the municipal committee. The second road is as yet unnamed, but will become Pender Road in 1908 when the Telegraph company starts building there, which I will share more about in a next post.
Not only wealthy Europeans wanted to live on breezy hillside locations, one of the first houses he builds on Seah Im Road is for himself. Ang Seah Im's house stood halfway up the road and was of an elaborate style. He made regular extensions to the house in the following decade, and it became quite a mansion with stables, outbuildings and a circular driveway. From a telephone directory we know he had a telephone connection in 1916.
Just off Seah Im Road the remains of the gate of this house can still be found in the jungle. It was demolished in the 1970s, when the cable cart to Sentosa was built - one of the pillars stands close to where the house was.
Ang Seah Im built several more houses around the area, which were rented out, in particular to the Singapore Harbour Board. Many SHB pilots lived in the area, it was their job to guide ships through the treacherous waters of the Singapore Strait, and to the harbour - a job carried out in previous centuries by the Orang Laut, the indigenous people of the islands in the region (orang laut literally means sea people). In the middle of Seah Im Road stood two large houses known as Wynyard and Sobraon. An interesting resident of Sobraon House was a SHB pilot called Captain William Ladds who lived there from 1907, and was likely responsible for naming the house as his father was captain on the famous Australian clipper Sobraon. Newspaper articles shows us snippets of Captain Ladds life, his marriage in 1904, his joining of the SHB pilot service in 1905 and the birth of a son at Sobraon House in 1907. In 1910 he sells his horse and carriage and the house is again offered for rent, though his furniture isn't auctioned off until 1919, so it isn't clear when exactly he left. He dies in London in 1924.
From other newspaper clippings it seems likely the large house was later turned into a mess, or communal house where multiple SHB staff stayed. Both Sobraon and Wynyard house were later demolished and replaced with apartment blocks, which still stand at 33 and 37 Seah Im Road respectively.
Many more houses were built in the area by Ang Seah Im, too many to discuss here, so let's focus on the more notable ones, - the ones that are still there. At the top of the road he erected a series of houses, some of which remain. Several single story bungalows were built for staff from the engineering firm Topham, Jones and Railton who had an office in Telok Blangah. This firm was responsible for many public works, most famously the construction of the causeway to Johor in the 1920s.
In 1911 Seah Im Road looks like this map below ( the houses Sobraon and Wyndham are not pictured, but we know that are still there as they can be seen on a map in 1959, they were in the gap in the middle )
Another interesting house sits on the top of the road, its roof can be seen from the Marang Trail leading up Mount Faber. It was built in 1908.
The more observant reader might note that the house in the photograph looks different from that in the drawing. You are right, and some more digging in the archives gives an explanation for that, as is seen in this drawing from 1923 below.
The house was extended and altered in 1923. But we can note something else here: the house is no longer owned by Ang Seah Im, but by the Alkaff company. The Alkaff family is a wealthy Arab-Singaporean family that owned much real estate across the island, the most well known still standing being the Alkaff Mansion on top of what is now called Telok Blangah Hill, just besides Mount Faber. In the image I shared above showing alteration to the Sobraon House in 1924 we can see that this house by then was owned by the Telegraph company, also no longer by Ang Seah Im.
So what happened to Ang Seah Im? In the 1910s Ang Seah Im’s businesses started to go downhill. In 1914 he was first declared bankrupt. He managed to get back on his feet initially, but was back in the bankruptcy court in 1922. He died a few years later, in 1927 and is buried in Bukit Brown cemetery (his grave is pictured above).
I saw rumours online that Ang Seah Im was a gambler and opium smoker, and that that is what caused his bankruptcy. Was this the case, or it this simply gossip? As we've learned before he was a man of standing and a philanthropist helping vulnerable women, and it would be a shame if his legacy is smeared unjustly. I've traced the rumour down to a blog who references an article in The Singapore Free Press, 12 August 1922. But when you read this actual article you see that multiple cases were handled in court that day, and the mentions of opium and gambling refer to another case handled just before that of Ang Seah Im. Ang Seah Im tells the judge he has two wives and eleven children. He has recently sold a house in Terengganu for 16.000 dollars. It was built for the employees of his tin mining business, which he managed together with his son Hock Seng. He later sold the mine to the Malay, and shares were issued, but Ang Seah Im claims he can't remember what he got for that.
A shorter summary of the proceedings published a few days later is shown below. There is no indication Ang Seah Im was an opium or gambling addict.
After Ang Seah Im's bankruptcy his real estate was sold, and until the massive upheaval of Telok Blangah Road and the construction of the Mount Faber cable cart in the 1970s many of the houses he built were still standing. And even now, hidden in the jungle, a few still remain. From the cable cart to Sentosa you have a nice view of the houses, several of which are being renovated at the moment, and hopefully will be inhabited again in the near future.
Sources:
Maps all come from the National Archives of Singapore: https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/
Building drawings also comes from the National Archives, but have to be seen in person as they are on microfilm.
Some images from National Library Board
Two books by Julian Davison have a lot of information on the history of the Black and White houses of Singapore:
Swan & Maclaren: A Story of Singapore Architecture
Black and White, The Singapore House 1898-1941
Newspaper clippings to be found at: https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers
All modern photos by author
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