Remember last week’s expedition to Yishun? Here’s part two of my journey around Yishun and Sembawang in search of little snippets of heritage. In this episode we visited the Old Admiralty House along 345 Old Nelson Road, an actual shipyard, and the Lower Seletar Reservoir.

It was a long hike up and the weather can be quite harsh. So bring umbrellas!

This is the Old Admiralty House, built in 1939 by the British Royalty’s Navy Works Department of the British Royal Navy, formerly called Canberra House, which was where the Commodore Superintendent of the Royal Navy Dockyard lived in.

This house was then renamed Nelson House after the World War II, possibly after the British Battleship H.M.S. Nelson, which arrived in Singapore during the surrender of the Japanese forces in 1945.

In 1958, the house was again renamed as Admiralty House, and served as residence for the Commander of the Far East Fleet until the British Forces withdrew from Singapore in 1971.

Then it became known as ANZUK, after the combined forces of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom which was formed to defend the Asia Pacific region, as part of the Five Power Defence Arrangement, because from ANZUK’s operations from 1971-1974, the house was occupied by the ANZUK military forces.

In 1974, the Sembawang Shipyard took over the house and it was turned into a recreational club. The house has been under the management of Admiral Hill Country Club ever since 2010.

The swimming pool at the house was built by Japanese prisoners-of-war.

There was nothing in there when we visited as there was construction going on, but there was this boat:

So I moved on to a shipyard right in Sembawang which I had never heard of before. It was quite a big place with an office building in the front and the shipyard at the back with guards and parking lots and trees. I’m not even sure if I was allowed there, but I went in anyway.

There wasn’t much except for some workers at the shipyard, a ship or two, cranes, forklifts, big containers, etc. Typical shipyard stuff.

I might be wrong but I think this is the worker’s quarters.

This used to be part of an extensive naval base known as the Singapore Naval Base built by the British in the 1920s. It was established as a shipyard on 19 June 1968, when the British began to withdraw their troops. The base was handed over to the Singapore Government for a token sum of only $1!

The Sembawang Shipyard was then used to handle commercial ship repair. In the 1970s, the shipyard shifted its focus to the training of locals to take over duties once managed by expatriate staff, as well as improving the shipyard facilities so it could handle bigger ships.

It’s still well known today as one of the most premier shipyards in the region with specialisation in niche services like upgrading and conversion of passenger ships and repairing of naval ships.

Skipping Chong Pang City, the Sembawang Hot Springs (it sounded really interesting but it is so far away), and various different religious places, as well as Yishun Park (didn’t really want to go on a hike since it was getting late), I decided to proceed to Lower Seletar Reservoir.

You’ll pass by this vintage welcome sign along the way.

So this reservoir was once the Seletar river, and a dam was built in 1983, which was known as ‘Sungei Seletar Reservoir’, and then renamed in 1992 as ‘Lower Seletar Reservoir’.

We’re all too familiar with Singapore’s water woes, and reservoirs are being developed to help ease our water-related problems.

Besides being a water source, reservoirs like this (and the newer Marina Barrage) double up as beautiful places for recreation and community building, where people can enjoy water sports such as kayaking and dragon-boating.

This marks the end of my Yishun-Sembawang trail. Further on in the trail are more places of worship, some military places as well as the Upper Seletar Reservoir which I think you should read about or visit because it is really a scenic place.

Feel free to pick up a copy of these heritage trail brochures from either the lobby of the MICA building (near Clarke Quay) or at the various community centres around the area. Even if you don’t go on the physical trail, it is an interesting and informative read.

I’m visiting Balestier next week, so stay tuned for more of my expeditions around Singapore!