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Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)
Conserved Building

128E Cairnhill Road

Applicable Guidelines

Residential Historic District Guidelines

Conservation Area

Cairnhill Conservation Area

Historic address: 128F Cairnhill Road

About

This pre-war two-storey Transitional terrace house is one of a row of nine units in a streetblock that sits handsomely on a hill off Orchard Road, along Cairnhill Road. It was built in the early 1900s for Seow Poh Leng (1883–1942), a Peranakan philanthropist and founder of Ho Hong Bank, which merged with the Oversea-Chinese Bank and Chinese Commercial Bank in 1932 to form the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation.

The History

Cairnhill Road was an estate road leading to the hilltop nutmeg plantation of Charles Carnie (1810–1873), a Scotsman whose house was called Cairn Hill. There is no consensus on how the name came about. One explanation suggests that Carnie named his estate after a cairn — a common element in Scottish place names meaning a heap of stones, especially on a hill. Another explanation holds that the name is simply a corruption of "Carnie's Hill".

The Building

The terrace houses are designed with simple but elegant plaster mouldings, a balcony, and a forecourt fronting the main road. The main access to each house is via a set of stairs off Cairnhill Road. Each unit comprises two portions: a two-storey main building with a pitched clay-tiled roof and timber floors, and a rear service block constructed in reinforced concrete with a rear court.

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.

Explore Street View

The building can be found at this street.

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