Old Hill Street Police Station 3.46

The Old Hill Street Police Station is a historic building in Singapore, and is located at Hill Street in the Museum Planning Area, within the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.HistoryBetween 1845 and 1856, the Assembly Rooms – a space for public functions and a building that housed a theatre and a school – occupied the current site of the Old Hill Street Police Station.The Old Hill Street Police Station building is the site of Singapore's first jail. Following a meeting of soldiers in the Alexandra Barracks in 1915, the Singapore Police Force was reorganised. As a result of the reorganisation, from 1915 to 1935, the Singapore Police Force built several police stations to deal with increasing Chinese secret society activities. To provide vehicular access behind the building, the steep slopes of Fort Canning had to be cut back and shored up.In 1934, the Hill Street Police Station and Barracks was opened by Director of Public Works and Adviser for Malay States, G. Sturrock, who was also a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA). In addition to the standard facilities for a police station, there were living quarters for policemen and their families.During the Japanese Occupation, Hill Street Police Station was used by the Kempeitai as a holding area for prisoners and some say, as torture chambers. After the war, it reverted to being a police station. The Arms and Explosives Branch of the Police Department operated there from 1949 to 1981.