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Great Southern Hotel

The Great Southern Hotel (a.k.a. Southern Hotel), also known as Nam Tin Hotel, was a boutique hotel which started its services in 1936. Occupying the Nam Tin building, at the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Cross Street, it was the first Chinese hotel in Singapore with a lift. The building which housed the hotel was also the tallest building in Chinatown then.

History
The Great Southern Hotel situated at 70 Eu Tong Sen Street, opposite the People's Park Centre in Chinatown, occupied a building that was built in 1936 and owned by Lum Chang Holdings. The building was called Nam Tin in Cantonese, meaning "Southern Sky". Lum Chang Holdings leased out the building to several tenants who operated shops and other businesses, including the Great Southern Hotel. The hotel became very popular and was so associated with the building that people commonly referred to the whole Nam Tin building as the Great Southern Hotel. Unlike the upmarket hotels then like Raffles, Goodwood Park and Adelphi which accommodated English-speaking visitors, the Great Southern Hotel was operated by the Cantonese and catered more to Chinese travellers, including celebrities from Hong Kong and China.

In 1993, Lum Chang Holdings sold the building for S$25 million to Yu Kwok Chun, head of a Hongkong-based multinational business empire who has made a household name with his flagship store, Yue Hwa Chinese Products Emporium Limited. As the building has been gazetted by the URA for conservation, Yu was asked to preserve the facade of the building though no restrictions were placed on its interiors. As a result, the Nam Tin building retained its roof-top garden and its quaint balconies that face Eu Tong Sen Street. When it was sold, existing tenants of the building vacated their businesses but were paid a compensation sum. The Great Southern Hotel made its final exit from the building in February 1994. After renovation work that went on from 1994 to 1995, the Nam Tin building was converted into a departmental store, the Yue Hwa Chinese Products.

Description
Built and designed by architects Swan & Maclaren, this building was meant to provide a functional or rational accommodation. As such, ordinary designs like strong horizontal lines with angular arches and simple cornices were applied to the building, complete with an ordinary looking external facade. The standout features of the hotel were its metal windows, with metal railings and grills, considered as fashionable in the 1930s and very Chinese. The Great Southern Hotel building with its six storeys was the highest building in the whole of Chinatown. It was the first Chinese hotel in Singapore equipped with a lift.

Offices in the building were located on the first floor, hotel rooms on the second and third floor and a tea house with a cabaret on the roof terrace. A restaurant used to occupy the fourth floor but it was later turned into the owner's office. The whole of the fifth floor was occupied by a well-known glamorous cabaret, the Southern Cabaret. Shops and a few entertainment outlets, including an old-style Hainanese kopitiam, were situated on the ground floor. Considered the Raffles of Chinatown, customers found it fashionable to roam the building's shops, outlets and cabarets. Operas used to be staged there as an occasional attraction. Dance hostesses in colourful cheongsams with thigh high slits used to greet guests. These girls were called "taxi dancers", because like taxis, they could be hired for dances. Increasing competition in the hospitality industry and changing times however forced the hotel to close down. At the time of its closure, it was operating only 40 rooms that were equipped with a double-bed and a ceiling fan, at as little as S$40 a night.

After it was bought over by Yu Kwok Chun, the interiors of the building were revamped to accommodate an open layout suitable for a departmental store. Floor space was increased from 3,700 sq. m. to 4,600 sq m. A new wall was constructed on the second storey to create an atrium. A four storey high waterfall was built at the back of the building. A three storey extension was also constructed at the rear. New escalators and lifts were added to serve all six floors of the building. In total, 50,000 sq ft of retail space was created for the use by the store. Yue Hwa Chinese Products invested nearly S$100 million in setting up the store including the purchase. For its conservation and restoration work, the building won the 1997 URA Heritage Award.



Author
Naidu Ratnala Thulaja



References
Edwards, N., & Keys, P. (1988). Singapore: A guide to buildings, streets, places (p. 403 ). Singapore: Times Books International.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 EDW)

Samuel, D. (1991). Singapore's heritage: Through places of historical interest (p.82). Singapore: Elixir Consultancy Service. 
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 SAM)

Koh, B. P. (2000, July 14). Chinatown's history lives on. The Straits Times, p. 42.

Lam, J. (1996, October 10). HK-based Yue Hwa opens $100m department store. The Business Times, p. 3.

Oon, D. (1997, July 10). Well-preserved winners. The Business Times, p. 4.

Sit, Y. F. (1994, April 16). New life for old Chinatown hotel as retail store. The Straits Times, Life!, p. 10.

Three inns that were forerunners of five-star hotel establishments. (1994, April 22). The Straits Times, Life!, p. 5.

$25m spent to restore, extend building. (1997, July 10). The Straits Times, p. 37.

The information in this article is valid as at 2004 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Architecture and Landscape>>Building Types>>Commercial Buildings
Events>>Historical Periods>>Founding of Modern Singapore (1819-1941)
Hotels--Singapore
Historic buildings--Singapore
Singapore--History--1867-1942
Arts>>Architecture>>Public and commercial buildings
Business, finance and industry>>Industry>>Services>>Tourism and hospitality

Librarian Recommendations
>> Eu Tong Sen Street
>> Chinatown


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