Fullerton Hotel, Singapore

At the mouth of the Singapore River, where the financial district rubs shoulders with the arts scene, the Fullerton Hotel Singapore rises like a very confident reminder that history never really left town. Today it’s a luxury hotel, but it began life as the Fullerton Building—a grand colonial heavyweight named after Robert Fullerton, the first Governor of the Straits Settlements. Back in the day, it housed the General Post Office, the Singapore Club, and several other institutions that signalled British authority with every column and cornice.

When opened on 27 June 1928, it was the largest structure in Singapore, and engineers made full use of the tropical breeze. Four internal air-wells acted as natural coolers long before anyone dreamed of central air-conditioning. And just to make things even more interesting, there was a lighthouse once perched on its roof. Known as the Fullerton Light, it replaced the ageing Fort Canning Light, which had become increasingly useless as the skyline climbed and blocked its beam.

In the late 1990s, the building underwent a major restoration and swapped its bureaucratic past for a more glamorous future. Between 1998 and 2000, the Fullerton was remade into a 400-room heritage hotel, with careful attention paid to keeping its personality intact. The old General Post Office gallery stayed, the monumental entrance portico stayed, and even the original Shanghai plaster panels stayed. As for the lighthouse, it found a second life as the Lighthouse Restaurant—because in modern Singapore, even navigational aids get stylish retirements...

In December 2015, the Fullerton Hotel joined Singapore’s list of National Monuments as number 71, securing its place not just as a beautiful landmark, but as a storyteller in stone—one that has watched the city rise, reinvent, and shine right around it.