Raffles's Landing Site is the location where tradition holds that

Sir Stamford Raffles Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British statesman who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816, and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. He is ...

landed in on 28 January 1819. The site is located at

Boat Quay Boat Quay is a historical quay in Singapore which is situated upstream from the mouth of the Singapore River on its southern bank. It spans from the shophouses near UOB Plaza, stretching along one bank of the Singapore River, all the way till El ...

within the Civic District, in the

Downtown Core The Downtown Core is the historical and downtown centre of the city-state of Singapore and the main commercial area in Singapore excluding reclaimed lands with many integrated resorts such as the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most expensive buildi ...

of the Central Area,

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 of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

's central business district.

History

On 28 January 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles landed at this site for his first visit, which lasted ten days. During this period, with the help of Major

William Farquhar William Farquhar ( ; 26 February 1774 – 11 May 1839) was a Scottish colonial administrator employed by the East India Company, who served as the sixth Resident of Malacca between 1813 and 1818, and the first Resident of Singapore between ...

, he concluded the first treaty with the local rulers

Temenggong Abdul Rahman Dato Temenggong Daeng Abdul Rahman bin Tun Daeng Abdul Hamid (1755 – 8 December 1825) was the Temenggong of Johor during the Bendahara dynasty. He was best known of being instrumental in the Treaty of Singapore with the British East India Com ...

and Sultan Hussein Shah. The site is denoted by a statue of

and is located on the north

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

of the

Singapore River The Singapore River is a river that flows parallel to Alexandra Road and feeds into the Marina Reservoir in the southern part of Singapore. The immediate upper watershed of the Singapore River is known as the Singapore River Planning Area, althou ...

. The present polymarble statue was unveiled in 1972 which was made from

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

cast Cast may refer to: Music * Cast (band), an English alternative rock band * Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band * The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis * ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William ...

s from the original 1887 figure that currently stands opposite Victoria Concert Halls. In 2019, as part of events commemorating the bicentennial of the Founding of modern Singapore, numerous alterations have been made to and around the statue of Raffles such as using

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

to make the statue 'disappear' into the backdrop of the buildings in

Raffles Place Raffles Place is the centre of the Financial District of Singapore and is located south of the mouth of the Singapore River. It was first planned and developed in the 1820s as Commercial Square to serve as the hub of the commercial zone of Sing ...

on the south bank, and erecting statues of Raffles's contemporaries such as

Munshi Abdullah Abdullah bin Abdul al Kadir (1796–1854) ( ar, عبد الله بن عبد القادر ') also known as Munshi Abdullah, was a Malayan writer of mixed ancestry. He was a famous Malacca-born munshi of Singapore and died in Jeddah, a part of t ...

Tan Tock Seng Tan Tock Seng (; 1798 – 24 February 1850) was a Malacca-born merchant and philanthropist from Singapore. Early life and business Tan Tock Seng was born in Malacca in 1798 to a Chinese Fujianese immigrant father and local Peranakan mother ...

, and

Naraina Pillai Narayana Pillai was a social entrepreneur and businessman, who spent most of his life in Singapore during the colonial period. Of Tamil origins, he greatly contributed to the Tamil community in Singapore. Prior to 1819, Pillai (also spelled Nar ...

along with that of the founder of the

Kingdom of Singapura The Kingdom of Singapura ( Malay: ''Kerajaan Singapura'') was an Indianised Malay Hindu-Buddhist kingdom thought to have been established during the early history of Singapore upon its main island Pulau Ujong, then also known as Temasek, fr ...

Sang Nila Utama Sang Nila Utama was a Srivijayan prince from Palembang and is the founder of the Kingdom of Singapura in 1299. His official title adopted upon his coronation was Sri Tri Buana (), which can be translated as "Lord of Three Worlds"; the "Three Worl ...

Plaque inscription

The Plaque at the landing site reads "On this historic site, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles first landed in Singapore on 28th January 1819, and with genius and perception changed the destiny of Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern metropolis."

Dispute

There is a dispute as to where was the exact location that Raffles first landed in Singapore. While the north bank of the

is generally believed to be the location, there is another source that claims otherwise. Based on the Cho Clan Archives, Raffles ordered his ship's carpenter, Chow Ah Chi, to lead the way in posting the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

flag on mainland Singapore and he supposedly landed at the mouth of the

Rochor River The Rochor River ( zh, s=梧槽河; ms, Sungei Rochor) is a canalised river in Kallang of the Central Region in Singapore. The river is about 0.8 km in length. The Rochor River is a continuation of the Rochor Canal, and begins beneath ...

Kallang Kallang is a planning area and residential town located in the Central Region of Singapore. Development of the town is centered around the Kallang River, the longest river in Singapore. Kallang Planning Area is bounded by Toa Payoh in the ...

. Raffles, following the route taken by Chow, also arrived at the Kallang Basin in what is today's Kallang Riverside Park.

Notes

References

* Norman Edwards, Peter Keys (1996), ''Singapore – A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places'', Times Books International, * National Heritage Board (2006), ''Discover Singapore – Heritage Trails'', {{Major Tourist Attractions in Singapore History of Singapore Landmarks in Singapore Downtown Core (Singapore) Monuments and memorials in Singapore

History

Plaque inscription

Dispute

See also

Notes

References