The Colonial Port as Contact Zone: Chinese Merchants and the Development of Godowns along Singapore River, 1827–1905

Ian Y H Tan

doi:10.5334/ah.417

Abstract

This paper examines the development of the settlement of Singapore along Singapore River in the 19th century, from a colonial trading outpost to a global entrepot, by tracing the evolution of the godown. Found only in Asian ports, the godown is more than a utilitarian structure in which commodities were stored, processed, and traded. While architectural historians have paid scant attention to this building type, the godown contributed to Singapore’s economic success. The godown’s association with Chinese merchants and the commercial activities key to the colony’s ascendancy, such as processing raw produce and canning fruit, were contained within this combination of industrial and commercial space. By analysing drawings of godowns from the late 19th century, this research shows that the area along Singapore River was a mercantile contact zone and thus challenges two prevailing assumptions in architectural historiography. First, the development of the colonial port was not the work of just the colonial administrators but rather a joint enterprise of local merchants, European agency houses, and colonial administrators. And second, the common perception of the godown has long been that it is a form of imported Western architecture, but it is actually a building type specific to the region that integrated the skills, materials, and building traditions associated with migrant communities.

Highlights

In June 1819, Stamford Raffles, an officer with the English East India Company (EIC), made the second of three visits to the trading colony he had founded in February that year
Adaptations entailed standardised construction — framing of rectilinear timber or cast-iron, with infill panelled walls and pitched truss roofs for easy dismantling and reconfiguring elsewhere to accommodate new industrial processes. This type of construction was especially prevalent during the early days of the pineapple canning trade, as observed in Tan Tye’s godown, constructed in 1886 at Clarke Quay, an industrial area on the upper reaches of Singapore River
The mixed-use commercial district was arbitrarily partitioned into three zones, each designated under one of three definitive categories. This inevitably contributed to the area’s Janus-like quality in the mid-1970s, as the post-independence government phased out the entrepôt trade and cottage industries that the colonial government had depended on for more than 150 years, and instead promoted industrial-scale manufacturing and container shipping as engines of the country’s future economy (Dobb 2003: 107–11)

Summary

RESEARCH ARTICLE

The Colonial Port as Contact Zone: Chinese Merchants and the Development of Godowns along Singapore River, 1827–1905. This paper examines the development of the settlement of Singapore along Singapore River in the 19th century, from a colonial trading outpost to a global entrepôt, by tracing the evolution of the godown. Found only in Asian ports, the godown is more than a utilitarian structure in which commodities were stored, processed, and traded. By analysing drawings of godowns from the late 19th century, this research shows that the area along Singapore River was a mercantile contact zone and challenges two prevailing assumptions in architectural historiography. The common perception of the godown has long been that it is a form of imported Western architecture, but it is a building type specific to the region that integrated the skills, materials, and building traditions associated with migrant communities

Introduction

Findings

Conclusion