Raffles' Landing Site

In front of you stands Stamford Raffles, in white stone with his arms folded, gazing at the river. According to the plaque, this is where he first landed, on 28 January 1819.

1A port on an island

Raffles, an East India Company official, was looking for a port on the Strait of Malacca to rival the Dutch. During that visit of a few days, he and Major William Farquhar signed a first treaty with the Temenggong Abdul Rahman and Sultan Hussein. So the British trading post was born. Raffles spent little time on the island; it was Farquhar who ran it in the early years.

But the island was neither empty nor without a past. In the 14th century there was a port city here, Temasek, whose remains have been excavated on Fort Canning Hill, a few hundred metres away.

2Was it really here?

That the landing happened at this precise spot is a tradition: some argue, for instance, that Raffles first came ashore elsewhere on the coast.

The statue you see is a 1972 copy in a white synthetic material. The bronze original was unveiled in 1887 and stands in front of the Victoria Theatre, a short walk away. In 2019, for the bicentennial, the statue was painted to blend into the skyscrapers behind it, and figures of other, forgotten founders were placed beside it.

3What to look for

• The plaque on the pedestal, with the date 1819.
• Boat Quay, opposite, once lined with the port's warehouses.
• The bumboats that still ply the river.