Standing alone in the wildness of Punggol, the Matilda House has been around for more than a hundred years. It was built in 1902 by Irish lawyer Joseph William Cashin (1844-1907) for his wife. The wealthy Cashin family regarded the Matilda House, also known as Istana Menanti (“Waiting Palace” in Malay) or the Punggol Kampong House, as a weekend resort.
According to the third generation of the Cashin family, Howard Edmund Cashin (1920-2009), the house was built by his father Alexander William Cashin (1876-1947) instead of his grandfather.
During the fifties, the Cashin family started to regularly live in the Matilda house until 1970s. They had properties in other parts of Singapore as well, including The Pier at Lim Chu Kang (also a weekend resort), “Butterfly House” at Amber Road, some shophouses at Victoria Street and a coconut estate at Geylang.
Although the bungalow is in ruins today, it still possesses certain features of its glorious past, such as the red roofs, white walls and two large staircases. The single-storey building, with six bedrooms, occupies 417 square feet.
There is also a dilapidated stable beside the main building. The nearby orchard, once filled with many types of fruit trees, no longer exists.
A tennis court, supposed to be just outside the house, cannot be found anymore.
Today, the building is now surrounded by barbed fences and installed with a CCTV. No one is allowed to enter the perimeter for exploration.
With its unique tropical architectural design, the Matilda House has been a favourite haunt for photographers since the Cashin family moved out many decades ago.
In the early 70s, the Singapore government acquired the nearby land.
In 2000, the house was put onto the conservation list by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
Today, the Punggol LRT loops around the house, and several new blocks of flats are being built nearby. Very soon, the once isolated and quiet Punggol will be buzzed with life again.
In December 2010, developer Sim Lian Group made a bid of $363 million to acquire the surrounding land off Punggol Field and Punggol Walk. If their bid is successful, the plot of land will be used to develop high rise condominiums, and the century-old Matilda House will be converted into a clubhouse.
Most probably in more than a year from now, the lonely and sad-looking Matilda House of many years will have an entirely new look.
Published: 09 December 2010
Updated: 17 March 2012
If there were CCTVs how did you get in? I would love to know so that I can too.
hi, the house is currently surrounded by fences.. as long as one doesn’t attempt to climb over the fences, it’s not considered as transpassing..
taking pics from the outside is alright…
anyway if you wanna explore the house, need to make it fast… they are already building new blocks of flats around the house and i believe the house itself will be developed by end of this year
I visited the Mathilda House in the early 80′s when my uncle still owned it. It’s so sad to see how abandoned it looks. Hopefully some person has a good heart to restore this once so beautiful house!
wow…
can you share pics, if any, of the interior of the house?
Who’s asking this please?
Hi Amanda, May I ask how you are connected? I’m Carmen’s granddaugther so a Grand Niece of Uncle Howard’s. It would be great to connect with family.
Hello
Sorry, just saw your question, don’t know what went wrong. I’m the great granddaughter of Alexander Cashin. I believe he and your great grandfather were brothers. Should ask my mother to know exact relationship. If you would like to come in contact, we’re visiting S’pore this August. Just let me know! I know my mum has a familytree, I can ask her to bring it with her. I meet your Uncle, Aunt and their mother in 84. Your Aunt her name is Dagmar if I still remember this correctly. I was only 12 when I last visit S’pore. If you still would like to get in touch, let me know!
Hi Amanda, I was exploring my family tree when I saw that you are related to Alexander William Cashin and his father Joseph William Cashin. I am related to Joseph his brother, Nelson William Cashin. To find out more about our family tree I would like to come in contact with you by email (leroycashin@gmail.com). Hopefully you read this.
Hi people, I have done an article of another house that used to belong to your Cashin family. It is called The Pier, located at Lim Chu Kang.
That’s is the wonder of internet and blogs. That’s another reunion i saw through the power of networks. I’m glad I’m in this line.
Hi Amanda,
I will be a neighbour of the Matilda house next year. Would you be able to share the pictures?
This will be very appreciated. Thank you.
I have very fond memories of spending weekends at Matilda House with Charles and Mary Cashin. I have many pictures of us playing in the early 60′s with our parents relaxing in the grounds. Howard Cashin would make his famous “ponggol stew” on the Barbeque every time we went. I still have a carving given to my parents by Howard Cashin. We would walk out in to the sea, trying to avoid treading on the sticklebacks which were lethal if you trod on one. Mr Cashin would take us out to the rubber plantation to watch the sap run down the tree trunks. Happy days. I do hope that the wonderful old house is preserved to its former glory! Nicola Allen (nee Fenn).
hi Nicola, those are very valuable memories of yours…
but sadly, the house will not be the same anymore (if it is turned into a clubhouse).. but at least it will not be demolished
Hi Nicola,
It will be awesome if there is a way you can post the pictures online from when you were playing as children! Thanks a million!
P.S. I will be moving in to a block next to the Matilda house next year
is the house still there?
yep
There’s a fence around it now? Which means no one can get a good shot of the house sans-fence anymore.
Hantu!!!
Rubbish.
Nice one
I will be the one converting this bungalow into the new club house for the developer. The wooden flooring and the ceiling, almost 60% of the wood can still be reuse. No worry, I will make sure it will go back to its glory thru my magic hands. Regards.
it is rumored that a number of contractors estamated 4 died when they are going to destroy the house cus’ the sprits dont want it to be destroyed
Wow, kudos for making the efforts to restore the grand dame to her former glory. It is a piece of Singapore’s history that should be preserved for posterity, no matter how insignificant it appears. If the clubhouse will be opened to public, I will be the first one to visit!
Wow so many people like related to Matilda House! .__.
wait n see weather it can be renuvated or not………………….come on people it’s hunted.
Hi,
I once saw a beutiful phot of Maltilda House in a coffee-table book, “Singapore frm the Air”. It was then situasted in a large green field surrounded by coconut tree all along its perimeter, and what a sight it presented!
i remember Matilda House quite well. in the 1960s and 1970s, the Spore Army conducted lots of military exercises in Lim chu kang and Choa chu kang. we used to pass by Matilda House and were impressed by the size of the estate. but we kept our distance from the house as the numerous German Shepherds on guard duty never stopped barking and flashing their teeth.
i hope the building will be restored nicely………to be appreciated and enjoyed by a younger generation.
Matilda House is in Punggol not in LCK or CCK,
Why were there lots of Rumours saying that this house has mystery spirits in it… therefore it cannot be demolished…? so what is the mystery part of the Matilda house and the ‘mystery spirit’…..
I struggled over Villa Matilda trying to persuade “The Authorities” not to pull it down, not to neglect it so it fell over, and to leave an acre of their awful Grid Pattern Town Plan and there plant our agricultural and economic trees, the Gambier, Rubber, Coconut, Oil Palm, then add some garden and kitchen things like Curry Trees. Fruit trees too and bananas. Add a few chickens and ducks, pigs and two buffaloes and a cow to be milked to show our children where their food comes from. But on last view the pile-drivers were as close as could be to the front porch. “They” have no taste. No consideration for history..
If indeed there was ever a “mystery spirit” it was probably Gordon’s Gin.
Of a Sunday the long Cashin motor launch (a former Motor Torpedo Boat) would set off from their landing stage and two elderly Aunts would sit on the poop in their wicker chairs and sip their Gin.
More likely the “Spirit” was an invention just to keep strangers away and also maybe an excuse for knocking it down.
I have a very great view of Mathilda house from my living room. People who look out from my living room’s window have been asking why is there a rundown development in the middle of a construction site.
I do not know that this is the Mathilda house (the famous punggol haunted house) even after i moved in for few months
How nice to see another piece of the family. We’ve visited SIN last August and been to the Butterfly House another property of the family. A shame that they had to bring it down for a large part. Only the front has been used for building the new building. Don’t think in Europe they would destroy such beautiful houses.
Hi Amanda, the Matilda house will be restored over the next few years and I will be a proud neighbour of her in a year’s time (they are currently building my block right next to the Matilda house). I am fascinated how this blog entry has brought the cashin family together and I am also wondering if you have pictures from the times you were playing as children there. Well, the pictures will be the most amazing thing I can ever show my kids of the place they will be growing up in:)
is there any way if i would like to visit the house?? in other words…to go inside the house n have a clear look?? it must have a great memories of the “matilda House”
Matilda House is bought over by a real estate developer and will be part of a condominium” a treasure trove” . We visited the showflat next to the house, and when i opened an exit door i came face to face with the house. It was quite frightening though, cos i’d mistaken a pillar for a face when i took a photo.
Ok i am truly afraid of the house. We live in the east of punggol since 2002, and whenever we take the LRT we can spot the house. And everyone then knows about the Matilda house is haunted. My classmate went there with some friends and suddenly their shoes just broke into half. And someone dropped a badge onto the soil and it cannot be found anymore.
Shoes broke into half?? Similar incident happened to me too. it was my slipper and the rubber sole came off… was a few metres away from the house. Probably wear and tear.
that was 5years back.
Hi Amanda, Katie and Leroy, By chance I was looking up Matilda House because I’m writing a book about my mother who was virtually brought up with Joe, Howard and Dagmar after her mother died. Their mother (whom my mother called “Mummy Cashin” and I called “Granny Cashin”) was extremely kind to her. As I always knew her as “Granny”, I can’t remember her first name……Sarah? Mary? if any of you could let me know, I’d be most grateful. I used to go to Punggol nearly every weekend with my parents and we would go out on Joe’s boat round the islands. Wonderful memories! And yes, the house was really very beautiful as was the whole estate.
Barbara Bourke – Sarah Cashin was my great-aunt. The information I have is that she was married to Alexander. She left Singapore during WW 2 to live in London – not sure when she returned – that’s what I have been told anyway. I think Joe, Howard and Dagmar are some sort of cousins – maybe 2nd cousins once removed – would be interested in contacting them. I believe Howard may have passed away a few years ago…Currently I live in CA. Originally from the east coast.
Hi there,
I’m currently writing a book here in the UK about the British prisoner-of-war drama TV series Tenko which was part-filmed in Singapore in 1981, 1984 and 1985. Matilda House was the primary location, other than Raffles, for the final Tenko special entitled Reunion, filmed there iin mid September 1985 and first broadcast in the UK on 26 December 1985 (and available on DVD). In the special, which is set in 1950, one of the former prisoners lives at the house with her husband. It is attacked by Communist bandits when her her fellow former prisoners come to visit. You can see the house (inside and out) and gardens as they were, very extensively in this programme so its quite a shock to see it in such a state of disrepair. You can watch it on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v87vIN3t5_I Matilda House features from 1 hour and 1 minute into to the programme.
The house was later used for another TV drama called Tanamera in 1989 for another bandit attack sequence. Singaporean actor Lim Kay Tong appeared in both Tenko Reunion and Tanamera.
I have several photographs of the Tenko filming at Matilda House which I’d be happy to share. Can I have permission to use one your photos in my book?
The book is due out in October and is entitled Remembering Tenko and has several chapters on the locations used. It will be available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk as well as on Kindle.
Sure, you can take the photos
Hi Libreaction,
I am a research writer from MediaCorp TV Singapore. I am looking for some information and old photos of Maltida House for one of the tv programme. I am wondering whether I can get some old photos from you?
My email is : tsoikinhing@mediacorp.com.sg
Regards
Clare Tsoi
I have quite a few photos of the filming there if you’d like to see them and perhaps post one on this page. In return I’d like permission to reproduce one of your photos in my book.
The book is entitled Remembering Tenko and is published by Classic TV Press (http://www.classictvpress.co.uk/) in October and has several chapters on the filming at various locations aroung Singapore, many of which are now gone (It will be available to buy direct from Classic TV Press or from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and on Kindle_.
By the way, the house was used again in TV for another bandit attack in thedrama Tanamera in 1989, so I think it hasn’t been empty for as long as you imagine.
Apologies for the double comments. I thought I’d lost all the text.
Hello there. Sorry for my slow reply. I am not sure where you read that I have photographs of the Cashins’ house…..perhaps in a post to girls who had written that they were related to Joe and Howard Cashin. I DO have a couple of photographs….but I have thousands of photographs at my age and I haven’t a clue where they are. In any case, the subject would, I’m sure, have been reproduced a dozen times: I remember I have a photograph taken up towards the house from the sea, showing the walk and the steps down to the sea and the flower beds on each side of the path…..of cannas, as I remember. There were also bougainvillea flowering. It was a bit of a clash, as I remember…..red/orange/yellow cannas and fuchsia pink bougainvillea…..but it still looked wonderful.
If you would care to write to me personally, I may be able to help with a few more details …… my mother lived with the Cashins for a few years and I always called Joe and Howard’s mother ‘Granny’ because she took that place in my life….she was a wonderful woman.
I wish you well with the book.
Barbara Bourke.
Hi Barbara,
I am the research writer from MediaCorp TV Singapore and I am looking for old photos of the Maltida House in our programme called United Neighbours Society. I am wondering whether I can get some of the old photos of the house from you?
My email is : tsoikinhing@mediacorp.com.sg
I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you very much.
Clare Tsoi
You could see a terrific view of the Matilda House from the new blocks of flats built in Punggol as the house is engulfed with construction sites. You can even see the house is you ask permission at the guard house at the construction site of the condominium A Treasure Trove.
So interesting reading all the comments about Singapore! My brother is married to a direct family member of the Cashin Clan
thks for the post, all these makes very interesting reading about Singapore in the early days.
Hi all,
Maltilda house is going to be developed into a condo clubhouse. =(
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/matilda-house-gets-new-life-condominium-clubhouse-20121018
Matilda House during its glory days (Photos from The Straits Times)
WoW! The above photo is mesmerizing! It shows how the house used to look like in massive grounds with plantations and trees even! Amazing! I wonder where the sea is though?! nice work, thanks!
Wow. What a place! Sad sad to see it goes.
That is exactly as I remember the place. I will try and get some pictures that my sister has. They will be mostly pictures of us with Charles and Mary Cashin in the grounds but we may have some other pictures.
Punggol so cool..
is this house still have it
Hi, im doing a school project. Can anyone who have any personal account, memories or old picture of the matilda house email me @ myphoneaccessorize@gmail.com? A million thanks