Public Pools That Has Been Taken Away

With Singapore’s tropical climate and balmy waters, an affinity for swimming as a recreational activity would be expected. 

It wasn’t however until the arrival of the first public swimming pool, a century into modern Singapore’s founding, that the pursuit’s appeal among the masses really took off. 

Recreational swimming had very much been the domain of the colonial elite, and the handful of well-off non-Europeans through much of modern Singapore’s first century. 

Several seaside villas featured private ‘bathing pagar’ - swimming enclosures that extended out from the shore. 

Clubs were also organised to promote the activity, the first of which was the very exclusive Singapore Swimming Club set up by a group of affluent Europeans in 1894 at Tanjong Rhu. Its members, limited to those from the European expatriate community, plunged into the sea from a disused jetty at Tanjong Rhu before the club built a ‘pagar’ in the 1900's.

Singapore Swimming Club
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1906

Singapore Swimming Club 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1909

Singapore Swimming Club 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1930

The wealthy non-Europeans also established clubs of their own such as the Chinese Swimming Club in 1905 at Amber Road. 

Chinese Swimming Club

Chinese Swimming Club 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1950

The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) also opened one pool in a disused salt water tank on Fort Canning Hill in 1919. While this pool may have introduced the sport to a selection of school children, it was out of reach to much of the urban population. 

YMCA Swimming Pools 

On 19 December 1931, Singapore’s first public 'bathing pagar' was opened at Katong Park.

With neither the luxury of time nor the means to travel, the working-class population contended themselves to the occasional dip in the less sanitary waters closer to their places of abode. 

Katong Park Bathing Pagar 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1950

It would not be until the opening of the first public swimming pool, at Mount Emily (Upper Wilkie Road) on 10 January 1931, that swimming’s reach extended to the masses. 

In late 1880, two service reservoirs, each with a holding capacity of one million gallons, were constructed on Mount Emily to supply the city with fresh water. One of these reservoirs was converted into a public swimming pool in 1931 when a 3-million-gallon storage reservoir at Fort Canning was opened in 1929. The other tank was used to store water for flushing drains and general cleansing of the town.

Converting Mount Emily’s former service reservoir into a swimming pool meant reducing its depth from the original 15 feet to a maximum of 8 feet, and grading its floor. Earth was filled in to the required depth and concrete was then poured over it to form the floor. A vertical wall, built around the sloping sides of the tank, was perforated so that the weight of the water could also be supported by the original walls. The swimming pool consisted of a deep section for good swimmers and a shallow portion for beginners.

In 1930's, the pool water was purified using chlorination, and water samples from the pool were tested weekly. 

About three years after World War II, before re-opening the pool for public use, the Singapore Municipal Commission installed a filtration system to keep the water clear and continued using chlorination to keep it clean for swimmers. 

Mount Emily’s opening came on the back of a boom in the establishment of public sporting facilities, which started in 1920's. The growing municipality, whose population had exceeded 600 000, was in need of such spaces. There was a growing awareness of the benefits “wholesome sport” to the health and well-being of the working-classes and this provided the Municipal Commissioners with the impetus to make the provision of playing spaces a priority. 

Set in an elevated exclusive neighbourhood that provided some of the best views of the town, Mount Emily Swimming Complex’s location may have seemed odd. A ready-made excavation - in the form of a decommissioned service reservoir’s tank - must have the deciding factor. One of the reservoir’s two tanks was turned into the pool, which given deep main section and a shallow children’s sub-section. 

Mount Emily Swimming Complex was also the first public pool to use fresh water instead of sea water. At its peak in the mid 1930's, it saw some 8 000 visitors a month.  

It was with the children that the pool proved to be a hit. This was due in part to periods during which school children were provided with free entry. This brought about many positive outcomes. It not only provided a much-needed outlet for the expansion of youthful energy, it also kept children from mischief. There would however be the nuisance that would be caused by overcrowding - due to the pool’s popularity - combined with the over-exuberance of many of the schoolboys. 

Secret society members were also known to frequent the pool, often harassing swimmers. The pool would prove especially popular after the war. Its reopening, in December 1949 following an 18 month closure during a polio epidemic, drew such an unruly crowd that the police had to be called in.

Mount Emily Swimming Complex was finally closed on 15 December 1981 and demolished in 1982. 

Mount Emily Swimming Pools

Mount Emily Swimming Pools 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1930

Mount Emily Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1930 

Mount Emily Swimming Complex

Mount Emily Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1960

The public would have to wait until 29 December 1952 for its second pool, which was at Yan Kit Road. 

Yan Kit Swimming Complex was especially popular, having been set up in a highly populated area, requiring a two hour limit had to be imposed on pool users soon after it opened. 

Named after Canton-born dentist Dr Look Yan Kit, the pools was originally a water tank built on an old railway site off Cantonment Road.

In April 2001, Singapore Sports Council or SSC (now ActiveSG) decided to close Yan Kit Swimming Complex and return it to the state because attendance had dwindled to an average of 120 daily and it was becoming too expensive to maintain. The foundation of the pools had also deteriorated, making spot repairs ineffective. SSC estimated that it would cost S$400 000 to maintain and operate the complex annually and S$4 million to upgrade the entire complex.

In a move to give new life to old sports facilities, the SSC announced in 2005 that the complex was opened for possible development by private developers; but it never materialised.

Eventually, in 2011, the site was levelled and grassed in preparation for hand over to the Singapore Land Authority (SLA).

Yan Kit Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1952

Yan Kit Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1952

Yan Kit Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1952

Yan Kit Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1952

Yan Kit Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1952

Yan Kit Swimming Complex

Former site of Yan Kit Swimming Complex

The third public swimming pool in Singapore was Farrer Park Swimming Complex at Rutland Road. 

Opened on 22 February 1957, it was part of the Farrer Park Athletic Centre, which is significant for its association with high-profile regional sporting events in the 60's and 70's, including the Southeast Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games and Pesta Sukan. 

Swimming’s popularity would increase further in the 60’s, when schemes that were introduced to promote swimming. With independence, the promotion of sports became a national priority. Sports, seen as a means to build self-discipline and a healthy and “rugged society”, was to serve as a foundation for a disciplined workforce. The promotion of swimming, a sport that lent itself as a social unifier, was put high on that agenda. This and the success of Singapore swimmers at regional competitions, led to increased in pool usage. Admissions grew to some 987 000 annually by 1969. 

Closed on 1 Jun 2003, the complex is now managed privately by the APS Swim School, founded in 1995 by former Olympian Ang Peng Siong.

Farrer Park Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1960

Farrer Park Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1960

Farrer Park Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1960

APS Swim School 

Located at the former King George V Park (River Valley Road), River Valley Swimming Complex was designed by M E Crocker, the same British architect for Farrer Park Swimming Complex. 

It was the fourth public swimming pool in Singapore; opened on 29 August 1959.

The swimming pool was extremely popular until the 70's, when new estates were built away from the city centre and visitorship dwindled.

The 70's would see swimming pools being built further away. Much of the population was being moved into newly built public housing estates and satellite towns to which amenities to promote healthy and gracious living were added. 

The first sub-urban pools were at Queenstown and Jurong, which came up in 1970. 

The hosting of the SEAP Games in 1973 and the continued success of local swimmers led to a growing belief that the sport was one Singapore could excel in and many more would take it up. By 1975, attendance at public swimming pools topped 3.5 million.

River Valley Swimming Complex was eventually closed on 15 April 2003.

The site, renamed The Foothills Fort Canning Park, is currently home to art spaces and cafes. 

River Valley Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1963

River Valley Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1963

River Valley Swimming Complex 
Image: National Archives Of Singapore, 1963

River Valley Swimming Complex in 1972

Former site of River Valley Swimming Complex 

Former site of River Valley Swimming Complex

Former site of River Valley Swimming Complex

In spite of the proliferation of pools with more clubs and condominiums being built, public pools continue to serve an important social function. 

Singapore has a total of 25 public pools today. These provide the population not only with a place for physical activity and social interaction; the social use of pools has been extended through the use of unique designs as a means to provide the neighbourhoods they are being built in with a statement of identity.