[GPGT] Memory Lane

[Cynical Ape]

8 minutes ago, beyond said:

没料..... 

你没料了, 才会来这里 "友聊" 吗... 对不对? 

[Cynical Ape]

Sentosa Musical Fountain

Edited November 23, 2018 by Cynical Ape

[Cynical Ape]

It took a total of 10 years to build the iconic Sentosa Musical Fountain. Construction began in 1972, the same year Sentosa was officially slated for development. Costing as much as $3.2 million, the star attraction of Sentosa would be located at the northwestern part of the island named Imbiah Bay.

The Musical Fountain was officially opened in June 1982, and was at one time the largest outdoor fountain in Asia. Able to accommodate 5,000 people, the fountain became the popular venue for a series of shows, events and displays. In 1996, the gala dinner of the World Trade Organisation’s Ministerial Conference was held at the Musical Fountain.

For its 25 years of history, the fountain was regularly renovated and restored, with artificial cliffs, colonnades and waterfalls added. In 1996, the gigantic 37m-tall Merlion statue was built, and the laser light beams shooting from its eyes became part of the Musical Fountain’s shows.

Together with the Musical Fountain, the Fountain Gardens promenade was another attraction of the island. Opened in 1989, it was located between the former Ferry Terminal and the Merlion statue, and consisted of many features such as dragon sculptures and European-style gardens that were inspired by French and Italian Renaissance designs.

After years of decline in visitorship, the Musical Fountain, Fountain Gardens and Ferry Terminal were shut down in March 2007 and subsequently demolished. They were later replaced by the Resorts World Sentosa.

[Cynical Ape]

 

 

[Cynical Ape]

 

[Cynical Ape]

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by Cynical Ape

[invis]

thanks for reminding i'm old @Cynical Ape

[Cynical Ape]

Princess Theatre (formerly at Bedok)  

Edited November 30, 2018 by Cynical Ape

[Cynical Ape]

One by one, the good old (or bad, depending on your memories) cinemas of the eighties and nineties have closed down; their sites redeveloped or demolished. Bedok once had four cinemas – Bedok, Changi, Liwagu and Princess/Raja – at its town centre and within walking distances from the old Bedok Bus Interchange.

After their respective closures in the late nineties and 2000s, Changi and Bedok Cinemas were demolished and their sites redeveloped into the new shopping mall Bedok Point, whereas the building of the former Liwagu Cinema was first taken over by Geylang United Football Club and later used as a church premises for Bethesda Community.

By the late 2000s, the last old Bedok cinema standing was Princess, but even then it could not escape its eventual fate of closure. After screening Chinese movie Painted Skin in September 2008, Princess Theatre officially walked into history.

Princess was once a common name for cinemas and theatres. In the sixties and seventies, there were Princess Theatres at London, United Kingdom, as well as Kampar and Sungei Siput at Perak, Malaysia.

Bedok’s Princess Theatre began as Princess/Raja that was officially opened on 11 February 1983. It featured a dual screen cinema at the 1200-seat Princess Hall and 800-seat Raja Hall. In the eighties, the Princess Cinema was mainly used to show Chinese blockbusters while Raja Cinema screened a mixture of Chinese, English, Malay and Indian films.

The Malay movies, in particular, were popular among the large Malay communities living at the eastern side of Singapore. In 1990, Indonesian film Isabella stirred up some interest – a 10-second kissing scene between the male and female leads had been censored – when it was screened at Princess/Raja.

In 1995, after a year of renovation, the Princess/Raja Cinema was converted into a three-screen cinema and became known as Princess Theatre. The original cinema hall of Princess was split into the smaller Princess 1 and Princess 2, whereas Raja hall was refurbished to become Princess 3.

Movie goers of Princess Theatre in the nineties would remember that the cinema, by then, had relatively poorer amenities compared to the newer cinemas in the city area. The seats were cramped and squeaky, never mind that some were even broken due to lack of maintenance and had been left unattended for years.

If there was something positive about the cinema, it was the movie ticket prices, relatively cheap by the standards then. Weekday movie ticket prices were charged at $5, while watching a movie at Princess during weekends cost $7 each. Another “positive” thing was the cinema’s lax regulations. Outside food and drinks could be dabao (packeted) into the cinema halls for consumption. Hence, it was not uncommon to see some movie goers eating their favourite McDonald’s burgers or even Hokkien mee while watching the movies.

Things got unruly in the eighties and nineties, when the cinema premises became a favourite haunting place for teenage gangs and school dropouts in the Bedok neighbourhood. Fights and extortion occurred occasionally. In 1983, a robber gang overpowered the cinema’s watchman and got away with tens of thousands of dollars from the manager’s office.

After its closure in 2008, the cinema building was leased out to be used as recreational club, karaoke bar, LAN game shop and billiard saloon. McDonald’s, the longtime tenant at Princess Theatre, lasted another eight years until 2016.

The same year also saw Princess Theatre, previously owned by OCCB International, being mentioned in the news as a potential redevelopment target. True enough, it was redeveloped, and completed in 2018, as the new Djitsun Mall, a Golden Village cineplex equipped with six screens and 600 seats. After a 10-year gap, the Bedok residents can enjoy a movie in a cinema in their neighbourhood once again.

25 years of blockbusters, kungfu flicks, comedies and horror movies at the former Princess and Raja cinemas had become nostalgic recollections for the Bedok residents. It is now replaced by the new cineplex, which will provide another set of memories perhaps 20 or 30 years later.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Cynical Ape

[Cynical Ape]

Tanjong Pagar Railway Station

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cynical Ape]

Completed on 3rd of May 1932, Tanjong Pagar Railway Station is owned by Malaysia’s Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM). It is the southernmost terminal of the Malaysian Railway (West Coast Line).

Before the completion of this terminal, passengers taking the trains boarded and alighted at Tank Road station, part of the Singapore-Kranji railway that was built in 1903. Other than Tank Road, the railway line also had eight other stations (Pasir Panjang, Borneo Wharf, Newton, Cluny Road, Holland Road, Bukit Timah, Bukit Panjang and Woodlands).

After the causeway was built in 1923, the railway in Singapore linked up with its Malaysian counterpart. Previously, passengers need to use ferry boats to cross the 1km straits.

The design of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station is modeled after Finland’s Helsinki Central Railway Station. The four giant figures at the entrance of the station representing Industry, Agriculture, Commerce and Transport were the works of Italian sculptor Rudolfo Nolli (1888 – 1963).

The interior of the railway station is spacious and houses many small eateries, including a famous Nasi Biryani stall dubbed as one of the best in Singapore. There used to be a lot of street hawkers at the carpark outside the railway station. They gradually disappeared in the 80s, after the station’s eateries opened up to public for leasing. For generations, a family business runs a small shop that is a money changer, book store and convenience shop all rolled into one. 

The railway station also houses the offices of Malaysian Custom and Malaysian Police.

Commuters can take the trains which travel along the west coast of Malaysia, passing by major Malaysian cities such as Johor Bahru, Kluang, Seremban, Kuala Lumpur (capital), Ipoh, Taiping, Penang and all the way to the Malaysia-Thailand border. The total distance is close to 950km. There is also another line that splits from Gemas and cuts through the heart and reaches the east coast of the peninsula.

In April 2011, the government announced that the station will be conserved as a national monument. Prior to this, there had been suggestions to turn the place into a museum, or refurbish it into a pub-and-restaurant.

The railway station is officially closed on 1st July 2011, bringing the curtains down on its glorious 80-year history. Commuters will have to catch the northbound trains and depart from the new Woodlands station in the future.

Edited December 6, 2018 by Cynical Ape

[Cynical Ape]

 

 

Old school cartoon figures... how many can you recognize?

Edited December 8, 2018 by Cynical Ape

[Palladium92]

Used to miss the indoor playground in HDB blocks until they decide to demolish it

[Cynical Ape]

5 minutes ago, Palladium92 said:

Used to miss the indoor playground in HDB blocks until they decide to demolish it

Those built at the void decks? They are quite rare. 

[Palladium92]

Just now, Cynical Ape said:

Those built at the void decks? They are quite rare. 

Yeah my area has it

[Cynical Ape]

"Captain Green"

[Cynical Ape]

Captain Green was created in November 1990 during Singapore’s first “Clean and Green Week” campaign to encourage Singaporeans to adopt a clean and green lifestyle. The mascot was often tagged along with a slogan ‘Green For Life”. A frog was chosen because they are amphibians that are known to be sensitive to changes in the environment.

In 1997, the mascot grew into a humanized frog as the “defender in the environment” to bring better appeal to the young. In recent years, under the National Environment Agency, Captain green is now back to being a regular frog as part of a book series, Adventures with Captain Green.

[invis]

1 hour ago, Cynical Ape said:

Captain Green was created in November 1990 during Singapore’s first “Clean and Green Week” campaign to encourage Singaporeans to adopt a clean and green lifestyle. The mascot was often tagged along with a slogan ‘Green For Life”. A frog was chosen because they are amphibians that are known to be sensitive to changes in the environment.

In 1997, the mascot grew into a humanized frog as the “defender in the environment” to bring better appeal to the young. In recent years, under the National Environment Agency, Captain green is now back to being a regular frog as part of a book series, Adventures with Captain Green.

and there's a website dedicated to clean & green SIngapore 
https://www.cgs.sg/

[Cynical Ape]

Hill Street Centre

 

 

 

[Cynical Ape]

Built at a cost of about $2.2 million, Hill Street Centre opened in 1984 and quickly became popular with the office crowd in the civic district. The hawker centre occupied the first two floors of Hill Street Centre, it was known back then as one of the places that offered the highest concentration of top local fare in Singapore, as Hill Street’s stallholders consisted mainly of relocated street hawkers from the food hotspots of Wayang Street, Bugis Street and Chinatown. Some of the best-known stalls from Hill Street included those selling ngoh hiang, mee rebus, bak chor mee, char kway teow, sour lemon drink and a now rarely-seen dish of pig skin jelly and boiled shark.

In 2000, Hill Street Centre pulled down its shutters for the final time, and shortly after, the building was demolished to make way for future developments.

Edited December 14, 2018 by Cynical Ape

[Cynical Ape]

Queenstown/Queensway Theatre

 

 

 

 

[Cynical Ape]

Situated opposite the Queenstown MRT Station, a white building stands abandoned for more than a decade along Commonwealth Avenue. Forgotten over the years, this is the remnant of the once-popular Queenstown/Queensway theatre.

Built in 1977 and closed in 1999, the cinema, equipped with two screens, reached its peak in the late eighties. The area used to be bustling with life in the evenings, where long queues were common sights as movie-goers lined up for tickets of their favourite movies.

Countless of blockbusters were screened at Queenstown theatre, a favourite haunt for the residents living in the nearby neighbourhoods. The building also served as an entertainment center that included a KTV and a bowling alley known as the Queenstown Bowl.

The crowds were long gone, and what is left is an empty building waiting for its fate to be sealed.

The building was demolished in late 2011 to give way to new development of Queenstown and Commonwealth.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Cynical Ape

[Cynical Ape]

Do these books look familar to you?

 

 

 

Used to save up my pocket money just to buy them... smfh.