For a while I was wondering where this garden was.
It was taken in Jun/Jul 1940 – while dad was on a school excursion to Singapore with the Yuk Middle School graduation class -育才初级中学. Dad was 16years old then.
Written on the back of the photograph in Chinese was -星洲阿拉伯花园 - Arabian Garden, Singapore. A google on – Arabian Garden Singapore - did not throw up a meaningful link.
In the July issue of Biblioasia (Vol 7 Issue 2) published by NLB – there was a familiar looking photograph of the garden in the article on Serangoon, and it dawn on me that this garden was the Alkaff Lake Garden – located close to McPherson Road.
From the photographs - the scale of the garden looked grand, with the big lake and the small hill in the background. It must had been one of the must see – tourist spot in pre-war Singapore. Located – in the northern outskirt of the city – it brought to mind another privately developed garden in the vicinity that was lost in history. The garden build by Hoo Ah Kay located at Bendeemer Road.
The arch bridge provided an oriental landscape – and for a while I thought it was a early rendition of the Japanese garden on the Island.
References:
1. Alkaff Lake Garden
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_604_2005-01-24.html
2. Bibioasia - NLB
http://www.nl.sg/NLWEB.portal?_cn_nodePath=NL/Publications/BiblioAsia&_nfpb=true&_cn_bookLevel=1&_cn_bookTitle1=Publications&_pageLabel=NL_CMSPage1&_cn_pageTitle=Biblio+Asia
3. Graduation class of 1940 – Yuk Choy Junior High, IPOH
http://kinkonkid.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html#1612674893254254403
4. Yuk Choy school
http://www.smjkyukchoyipoh.org/XiaoShi.html
19sep/mon - 4:35pm -
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