Raffles Hotel

In front of you is the most legendary hotel in Southeast Asia. Writers, actors and adventurers have stayed here, but what people remember most is a cocktail and a tiger.

1The Sarkies brothers

Raffles was opened on 1 December 1887 by four Armenian brothers, the Sarkies, in an old beach house with just ten rooms. That explains the name of the street: Beach Road ran along the sea at the time. The main building you see was completed in 1899, designed by Regent Alfred John Bidwell of the firm Swan & Maclaren. It was one of the first hotels in the region with electric lighting.

2A pink cocktail

In the Long Bar, the bartender Ngiam Tong Boon created the Singapore Sling, a pink gin cocktail, in the early 20th century. Today it is served by the thousand, and in the bar it's customary to drop your peanut shells on the floor.

In 1902 a tiger was shot beneath the hotel's billiard room. It was an animal that had escaped from a nearby show, not "the last wild tiger in Singapore", as is sometimes claimed.

3War and rebirth

The Sarkies went bankrupt in 1931. During the Japanese occupation, the hotel was renamed Syonan Ryokan. It was declared a national monument in 1987 and, after two major restorations, the latest from 2017 to 2019, it has regained the look of its golden age.

4What to look for

• The entrance portico and its white verandas.
• The turbaned doorman, a classic image of the hotel.
• The inner courtyards with palm trees, visible from the public arcades.