The Goodwood Park Hotel (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

: 良木园酒店) is a heritage hotel in Singapore, situated in a 6-hectare landscaped garden on

Scotts Road Scotts Road () is a road located in Central Area of Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north o ...

. It was first built as the club house for the Teutonic Club serving the expatriate German community in Singapore, and later converted into a hotel. The hotel was the first in Singapore to have a swimming-pool on the premises, and an air-conditioned wine cellar. The Tower Block of the hotel has been gazetted as a national monument of Singapore.

Architecture

The Goodwood Park Hotel building was built in 1900 to the design of

R. A. J. Bidwell Regent Alfred John Bidwell, or R. A. J. Bidwell, was an English-born architect noted for his colonial era buildings in Singapore. His best-known works include the Raffles Hotel and the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall in Singapore, and Sultan A ...

, of Swan and Maclaren. Its architecture has an eclectic Victorian flavour, with its

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

s and decorated façade. The Tower Block has elements of the Queen Anne Revival style, and the tower itself may have been influenced by those found on castles in Germany's

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

region. The building was constructed for the sum of St$20,000.

History

The Teutonia Club was an exclusive enclave first established on 28 June 1856 for the expatriate German community in Singapore. The club was housed in a couple of different locations until it purchased a piece of land on

in 1861 to build a club house. Additional plot of land adjacent to the site was later purchased to enlarge the compound and construct a new building for the club. Construction of the new clubhouse began in 1899. On 21 September 1900, the new clubhouse opened as the Deutsches Haus (German House) with a ball attended by about 500 guests, including James Alexander Swettenham, then Acting Governor of the Straits Settlements. However, when the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

broke out, the British government in Singapore classified all

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

as enemy forces. Most of the Germans in Singapore either fled or were shipped to Australia, and the Teutonia Club seized by the

Custodian of Enemy Property The Custodian of Enemy Property is an institution that handles property claims created by war. In wartime, civilian property may be left behind or taken by the occupying state. In ancient times, such property was considered war loot, and the le ...

. In 1918, the building was auctioned off by the Custodian of Enemy Property to three Jewish brothers – Morris, Ezekiel and Ellis Manasseh, who also bought five other houses behind it. The entire estate was renamed Goodwood Hall, after the famous

Goodwood Racecourse Goodwood Racecourse is a horse-racing track five miles north of Chichester, West Sussex, in England controlled by the family of the Duke of Richmond, whose seat is nearby Goodwood House. It hosts the annual Glorious Goodwood meeting in la ...

in England. A bar was added, as well as a restaurant and café, and it was registered in 1922 as a restaurant-café-entertainment establishment, It served as a venues for social gatherings and entertainment, hosting for example a performance by the ballerina

Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20t ...

. It also host sports amenities. In April 1929, the building was turned into a hotel named the Goodwood Park Hotel, with rooms added to the Tower Wing and the houses at the rear used as suites. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the Goodwood Park Hotel used as a residence for high-ranking officers of the

Japanese Imperial Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor ...

. After the war, the Singapore War Crimes Court conducted war crimes trials in a tent on the grounds of Goodwood Park. Ezekiel Manasseh died during the war as a prisoner of the Japanese, and the hotel was returned to Ezekiel's

stepson A stepchild is the offspring of one's spouse, but not one's own offspring, either biologically or through adoption. Stepchildren can come into a family in a variety of ways. A stepchild may be the child of one's spouse from a previous relationshi ...

, Vivian Bath, after the war in 1947. Bath spent about $2.5 million in revamping the hotel, adding for example the first swimming pool in a hotel in Singapore. The renovations were completed in 1963, and Bath sold the hotel to the Malayan Banking Group the same year. The new owner had intended to demolish the old building and build a new hotel, shopping mall, and high rise apartments, but the plan was shelved after it was met with criticisms. The Tower Wing was again extensively renovated in 1978, and its original roof replaced. The hotel was also extended to include more guest rooms, with 17 suites were added on the first floor, including the

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

Suite. On 23 September 1989, the Tower Block of the Goodwood Park Hotel was

gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspaper ...

d as a national monument. In late 2005, the hotel lobby was renovated to give it a modern look. In June 2013, Goodwood Park Hotel launched a renovated Mayfair Wing and rooms, refurbished at an estimated cost of SGD$2million. The Mayfair Wing has 77 rooms and suites over three floors, and a Balinese-inspired Mayfair Pool. The interior was designed by Ernesto Bedmar of Bedmar & Shi who was also responsible for the hotel's past renovation and upgrading projects since the nineties.

Facilities

Goodwood Park Hotel has 233 rooms and suites which are divided into four wings – Lobby, Mayfair, Tower and Parklane. The hotel has two outdoor swimming pools (Main and Mayfair).

Food and beverage outlets

Goodwood Park Hotel offers guests five restaurants, including the one-Michelin-starred Alma by Juan Amador restaurant.

References

*Preservation of Monuments Board, ''Know Our Monuments'' *Norman Edwards, Peter Keys (1996), ''Singapore – A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places'', Times Books International,

External links

Goodwood Park Hotel SingaporeWorldhotelsGoodwood Park Hotel Wedding Banquet Packages 2015
* {{Authority control Hotels in Singapore Landmarks in Singapore National monuments of Singapore Hotel buildings completed in 1900 Orchard, Singapore Heritage hotels Art Nouveau architecture in Singapore Art Nouveau hotels