MacDonald House 3.3

The MacDonald House is a historic building and monument in Singapore, and is located at Orchard Road in the Museum Planning Area, within the Central Area. Initially built for a bank, it continues to function as a banking hall today, although it is more well known to be the site of a bombing attack in 1965 at the height of Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.HistoryThe MacDonald House, located a short distance from the Istana, is the last remaining office building in facing brick in the central area. The building was built in 1949, and designed by Reginal Eyre of the architectural firm Palmer and Turner. One of the first high-rise buildings in Orchard Road, the MacDonald House housed mainly British, American and Australian companies. It also house EMI's recording studios, used by local bands during the 'pop yeh-yeh' period. Before the building was vacated in the early 2000s, the building housed HSBC on the first few floors of the building.In an incident known as the MacDonald House bombing, two Indonesian saboteurs placed a bomb on the mezzanine floor on 10 March 1965, killing three and wounding 33. This was one of a number of terrorist attacks in Singapore during the Indonesian Confrontation in support of President Sukarno's opposition to the merger of Singapore, Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form the Federation of Malaysia. At the time of the bombing, the building had also housed the Australian High Commission and the Japanese Consulate.