182 Neil Road

Former St. Matthew's Church

About

The former St. Matthew's Church and Kindergarten buildings, located side-by-side at Neil Road, provide an interesting juxtaposition of architectural styles that enhances visual interest along the street. The two buildings, together with the adjacent former Fairfield Methodist Girls' School, remain as important local identity markers in the area.

The History

Neil Road was once part of a nutmeg plantation that covered Duxton Hill until the 1850s. It was then a simple track called Silat Road leading to Keppel Harbour, so named because the harbour was known as "silat" or "straits" in Malay. In 1858, the Municipal Government of the Colony renamed the road "Neil Road" in honour of Brigadier-General James George Smith Neil, who was killed during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Neil Road stretches from the Historic District of Kreta Ayer and Bukit Pasoh and traverses into the Blair Plain Historic Residential District.
In the later half of the 19th century, after the nutmeg plantation was fragmented into smaller lots and sold, more people moved into the area, which took on a more urbanised character. Shophouses and residential terraces sprang up along Neil Road. As the Telok Ayer area grew more overcrowded, the wealthy moved westward to more salubrious surroundings in the Neil Road/Raeburn Park area. There was also the development of substantial working-class residential communities relating to the Port, Railway, Police/Military Cantonment, and the Hospital. This naturally led to the development of supporting facilities for the neighbourhood, such as schools and other community-driven institutions.
In the 1890s, the original St. Matthew's Church was established at Neil Road to serve the British seamen who arrived at the port as well as prison warders of Outram Prison who were living nearby. However, by the 1920s, the Church had fallen into disuse and was vacant. In 1929, the Anglican Diocese of Singapore turned the building over to its Cantonese congregation so that the members could worship at their own premises. Previously, the Cantonese congregation had to share the use of St. Peter's Church at Stamford Road with the Indian, Malay, Hokkien, and Foochow congregations of the Anglican Diocese.
The onset of World War II halted the activities of St. Matthew's Church for a time. Soon after the war ended, the Church embarked on plans to improve and expand its facilities. In the early 1950s, with the intention of catering to young children living in nearby Chinatown, the Church built a kindergarten next to the main church building and named it St. Matthew's Kindergarten. This was followed by the rebuilding of the main church building in the Modern style. The Church was formally opened and dedicated by the Bishop of Singapore in 1963. In 2006, the Church moved to new premises at Tiong Bahru.

The Building

The former St. Matthew's Church (1963) is a Modern-style two-storey structure with a prayer hall above and a function area below. It has a diamond-shaped plan, an unusual layout seen elsewhere in Singapore only at St. Bernadette's Church (c. 1961). The most striking feature is the innovative folded concrete roof, shaped like a ship's prow and drawing the eye upward toward the heavens — a daring feat of civil engineering at the time of its construction.
Natural light filters into the interior of the prayer hall from large expanses of glass panels at the upper walls, as well as from vertical glass slots at the sides. The wall facing Neil Road was initially designed as a "breathing" wall made of pre-cast concrete blocks, but has since been converted into a solid wall due to increasing traffic noise from the road. The bell-tower is an elegant tall concrete frame to the west of the main chapel, and the entry to the church features a wall with dark blue glass mosaics. The building demonstrates a deft hand with the use of materials and structural design, from the bold geometric design of the concrete structure to the fair-faced brickwork at the north façade.
The former St. Matthew's Kindergarten (early 1950s) is a modest single-storey Art Deco-influenced building with a pitched roof covered with terracotta Marseilles tiles. It has simple but well-proportioned elements such as splayed buttresses, perforated concrete vents, and lattice-glazed timber-louvred windows. A key feature is the gable end wall, which presents a distinctive and inviting face to Everton Road where it intersects with Neil Road. The entrance is emphasised by a concrete canopy resting on carefully detailed ornamental corbels.

The Legacy

With conservation, the two buildings will continue to enhance the historical character of the area, where more than 130 shophouses near the junction of Neil Road/Kampong Bahru Road and the former Fairfield Methodist Girls' School are already conserved. The buildings also enhance the sense of the architectural, historical, and social development of the area. The buildings were gazetted for conservation on 6 June 2014.

Guidelines and Procedures

All proposed works will need to comply with the Conservation Guidelines and the Specific Restoration Guidelines (SRG). Conservation Permission is required before all additions & alteration works and operations of new use can begin.

Residential Fronts are characterised by timber casement windows flanking a double-leafed timber door. All buildings with residential front which is existing and/or identified in the 'Specific Restoration Guidelines', regardless of land use zoning, shall be retained and restored.

• Any proposed additions and alterations to this conserved building are subject to evaluation. Please submit your proposal for URA's review.

• Apply for Specific Restoration Guidelines (SRG)

• Submission Process for Works

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The building can be found at this street.