Fort Canning is a place that is rich in Singapore's colonial history, but its history goes further back than our country's founding by the British in 1819 to the early days of Singapura's first rulers in the 14th century. Back then it was called Bukit Larangan, which in Malay means "Forbidden Hill", for the Malays back then would not ascend the hill unless summoned by the ruler. Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore, was said to have been told of how local settlers were wary of ascending the hill as they believed it was the site of palaces built by their ancestral kings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Canning).
After the founding of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, built his first residence there, as well as Singapore's first botanical garden. The place served as a residence for the colony's governors, and the hill earned the name Government Hill. Not long after, however, Fort Canning was fortified as a military outpost and named after Fort Canning after Viscount Charles John Canning, the then-Governor-General, and has served as a military base through the Second World War up to the mid-late 1900s.
Today Fort Canning is a hill-park which serves as a venue for recreational, educational, and cultural activities.
In the following weeks, I hope to pay more visits and do more sketches of the different features and sites around Fort Canning Park. Here are 3 to start the ball rolling:
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| Fort Canning Light Copyright © Favian Ee March 2013 |
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| Back of Hotel Fort Canning Copyright © Favian Ee March 2013 |
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| Orchard 22 Copyright © Favian Ee March 2013 This row of colonial style buildings in the shopping district of Singapore lie a few hundred metres from the northern foot of Fort Canning HIll |
