City Hall Chamber

The room that you are standing in now is the City Hall Chamber. It was designed to be the grandest room in the entire building. The chamber was used as a meeting room by Municipal Commissioners in the colonial period to discuss all aspects of Singapore’s development. Over the years that followed, the Chamber would continue to witness many important events unfold in Singapore’s history. During the second World War, it was in this room that the Japanese officially surrendered to the Allied forces. Look at your screen now, and tap ‘3.1 – Surrender’. You will see a photograph taken on that very day, the 12th of September 1945. By 10am on the day, every vantage point to City Hall and the Padang was filled with hordes of spectators. Inside the building, Lord Mountbatten watched as General Itagaki signed eleven copies of the surrender document. This day marked the end of the Japanese Occupation in Southeast Asia. The next event took place 14 years later, in 1959. It was the day that changed Singapore forever. Singapore’s first Cabinet and Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, were sworn in. The ceremony was simple and private. No press was invited to attend. Even today, the only visual record of it exists in a single painting by local artist Lai Kui Fang. Lai re-created the scene after collecting oral history interviews and research.