National Heritage Board discovers original Family Home of Lee Kuan Yew and clan

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

The National Heritage Board was alerted to the discovery of the remnants of the New Lunatic Asylum by co-founder of the Asian Paranormal Investigators Charles Goh.

SINGAPORE: One of the perimeter walls of a 127-year-old obsolete 19th century lunatic asylum has been discovered in the compound of the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), at the side of a hill near Macalister Road.

The National Heritage Board (NHB) said on Monday (Nov 17) that it was alerted to the discovery of the New Lunatic Asylum by Charles Goh - co-founder of the Asian Paranormal Investigators - in September.

Said Mr Goh: "I superimposed old maps against new maps and I looked at the profile of the land change, the geography of it. And I found that this forested area has not changed since the old times, therefore I decided to just take a walk and see what things you can find.

"I stumbled upon this crumbling 3-metre-high old wall. So when I studied more maps from the National Archives, I realised that it is actually part of the old Lunatic Asylum."

He said that upon closer observation, the mix of old and new bricks implied that the building could have “changed ownership or changed land use”, although the wall has been retained to serve as a boundary. He added that the old bricks were the same as those seen lining the wall of the old pre-war houses in Chinatown and Little India.

The New Lunatic Asylum was built in 1887 and had 300 beds for 250 male patients and 50 female patients. The female wing was where Singapore's first medical school was founded in 1905.

Singapore's third psychiatric hospital was constructed on cottage principles comprising a series of detached buildings, and offered both accommodation as well as work facilities. It was operational from 1887 to 1928.

NHB's group director of policy, Alvin Tan, said: "The perimeter wall of the New Lunatic Asylum is of heritage interest to NHB because it is possibly the oldest asylum structure that is still standing in Singapore today, and it also serves as a tangible marker of the New Lunatic Asylum."

Only about 75 metres of the wall still stands today, as many parts of it have decayed due to the age of the bricks. Falling trees and branches have also further destroyed the remnants of the wall.

Ng Beng Yeong, who wrote a book on the history of mental health services in Singapore, said the asylum was known for its holistic treatment, which included exercises and open spaces.

Dr Ng, who is the head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Singapore General Hospital, noted: "They were also very humane in their approach to psychiatric patients. Prior to that, people tended to use a lot of straightjackets, where they would really restrain the whole body for these patients who are aggressive and violent. But as for this place, they only used locked gloves - very minimal kind of physical restraints.”

NHB leveraged on Google Glass technology to document the remaining wall of the New Lunatic Asylum

Meanwhile, the public is advised to stay clear of the area, as it is next to a construction site. The area is also infested with mosquitoes and there may even be snakes.

NHB said it will be working closely with SGH to assess the condition of the remaining perimeter wall and jointly explore potential preservation and commemorative efforts to showcase the heritage of the site.

"We will be definitely open to organising tours for members of the public, but we will wait for the construction works adjacent to it to be completed first, and then we will see how we will organise such tours," added Mr Tan.


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