A Nostalgic Journey To My 1990s Childhood

This is Singapore Sports Council’s Swimming Pool Entry Ticket.

These two tickets take me back to a nostalgic era in the early 1990s.

This is when I often accompanied my father who was on duty in Yan Kit Swimming Complex, Yishun Swimming Complex, and Woodlands Swimming Complex. Besides spending time swimming in the pool, I also liked to sit at the main entrance of the swimming complex and collect these tickets from guests who wanted to enter the pool. Usually, I would collect hundreds of tickets. I used those tickets as materials for writing and drawing.

Tickets like these are no longer used.

Whenever I look at the pictures of these tickets, I remember my childhood. The beautiful atmosphere at the swimming pool back then, where I spent most of my childhood.

I also cannot forget the friends who brightened my days, like Vincent, the son of the canteen operator at Yishun Swimming Complex. Vincent might have forgotten me, but the memories of our childhood together in Yishun never fade from my memory. 

Reviving A Gem

A single-storey “C”- shaped Art Deco building is all that remains of Yan Kit Swimming Complex - once the nation’s largest and most up-to-date swimming venue. 

Closed in 2001, it is best remembered for its unique architectural form and coloured mosaic tiles. 

Sitting in the shadow of the Pinnacle@Duxton, the now-defunct Yan Kit Swimming Complex is undergoing redevelopment into a community sports facility. 

The original single-storey C-shaped building remains at the entrance of the site. 

Constructed at the cost of $513,000, the complex opened in 1952 - making it the nation’s second public swimming pool complex, as well as the largest and most up-to-date then. 

Close to 15 000 square meters of land were dedicated to the complex - furnished with three contiguous pools, amenities such as a clubhouse, shower rooms, refreshment kiosks and children’s paddling pool. 

The complex was opened to the public in 1953 - with an entrance fee of 10 cents for swimmers under 18 years old and 15 cents for adults. 

In its heyday, the immensely popular pools were standing room only, and a two-hour time limit was imposed on the swimmers.

The Art Deco architecture style of the building is represented through the building’s flat concrete roof, curved walls which are interspersed with round windows and perforated blocks, and the slim circular columns with conical capitals that hold up a protracted veranda. 

Other unique architectural details augmented its charm. A mural of sea creatures added a decorative touch to the plain outer walls of the changing room facility. Additionally, the pools had subtly curved sides, which traced the contours of a former railway track, as well as pale-yellow tiles within, and mosaic tiles - in cream, maroon, and pale green - without. 

The complex eventually closed its doors in 2001, due to a decline in attendance, coupled with an increase in maintenance costs. 

As subsequent efforts to privatize it in 2005 proved unsuccessful, the pools were ultimately backfilled and grassed over in 2011. 

As of early 2020, the site is undergoing redevelopment works and now filled to become a garden space.