Designed in Neo-Classical style, the Capitol Theatre was built in 1929 by British architectural firm Keys and Dowdeswell, who also designed the Fullerton Building and Singapore General Hospital.
During WWII, it was occupied by the Japanese, who renamed it as Kyo-Ei Gekijo and replaced English films with Japanese ones.
For decades, the theatre was the premier picture house in Singapore, screening countless blockbusters and variety shows.
Capitol Building was built in 1933, four years after Capitol Theatre was completed, expanding on the foundation of the theatre. The building, with its huge billboard and curved corner facade, was the iconic structure at the junction of Stamford Road and North Bridge Road.
Capitol was known as Shaw Building before 1989, as Shaw Organisation bought over the building in 1946. Their showbiz lasted a long 40 years, and finally ended in 1987 when Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) took over the building in 1987. The last movie screened, though, was in 1998.
Both Capitol Theatre and Capitol Building were given conservation status in July 2007.
Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has tried to convert the colonial buildings into an arts and design center in 2000 but without success. It was not until 2010 that a S$250-million bid was accepted to redevelop the area in a 99-year lease.
Expected to be completed in 2014, the developers will revive the glories of Capitol Theatre, Capitol Building and Stamford House, and turn the place into a mixture of hotel, entertainment, retail, dining and residential purposes. The cost is estimated to be around S$750 million.
Published: 20 June 2011
The side doors to the interior are opened while reno is going on.
Ask for permission, and add onto your shots
Thanks for the alert! will attempt to go again
question:
Did the Capital have a milk bar about 1960, as I remember it being somewhere in Singapore, which was very popular with westerners.
Yes it was one of the many Magnolia bar owned by Cold Storage. Other locations that I can recall was the location opposite Cold Storage at Orchard Rd, at the Arcade
nice
Thanks for that about the Capitol milk bar, it sounds about right. if you click on the link below you should be able to see photos of Singapore in the 1960s that I took.
I’m trying to get info on what was behind the National showroom building, next door to Capitol theater. This site was next to the Capitol car park & behind the National showroom. I think it was some club for the ANZAC forces? Have you any memories on this?
Sorry I was not involved in the war, so dont have any particular memories of that site. I stayed at the south Seas hotel in Singapore in 1960, which I see now is still standing but as the Rochor 81 hotel on the Rochor Canal and Bencoolen St.
I’ve never heard of the South Seas hote. lThere used to be a hotel named the White House hotel at the junction of Rochor Canal & Benoolen St. It occupied the corner of that stretch. The gov’t appropriated parts of the hotel when they widened Rochore Rd. This might have been part of the hotel you stayed in
The White House Hotel may have been on the opposite corner to the South Seas hotel, but I do not recall it. Do you know if the Merlion ststue is still standing next to the bridge over the Singapore river, it was quite a prominent feature?
Which one are you referring to
There is “officially” a few Merlions.
They moved the original to a new site after they completed the Marina Bay reclamation. The new location is front of Hotel Fullerton. You may remember that the Fullerton building was the general post office but it is now a hotel
Can read about why the Merlion was moved here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlion