Singapore Arts, Culture, Heritage: Old Ford (Motor) Factory

So today, we took a cab down to the Old (Motor) Ford Factory located at Upper Bukit Timah Road. When I first saw the building, it got me thinking, "Old Ford Factory? Old?" To me, it certainly didn't look 'old' at all. (Refer to image below!)

With curiosity, we proceeded into the building hoping to find out more about the history of the Old Ford Factory (OFF). This factory is the site of the historic surrender of the British to the Japanese on 15 February 1942, at the end of the Battle of Singaporean World War II. The original factory building was very deep but much of it has been removed leaving the front facade and a building of moderate depth. Careful restoration work has been undertaken for the building to ensure that its facade is restored as close as possible to the building's original facade when it was first completed in 1941. Guess how much did this restoration cost? S$10.3 million! We were so amazed by the figure. It's no wonder it's now NAS'(National Archives of Singapore) second repository for its growing archives of various media.

Further into the building, we found out that The Ford Motor Factory began its illustrious history in October 1941, as the first ever Ford vehicle assembly plant in Southeast Asia. Situated in a location close to the Malayan railway line, it allowed for transportation of goods to and from the docks at Tanjong Pagar. Its close proximity to Bukit Timah Road, the main road linking Singapore to Malaya, and ultimately to the rest of the mainland Southeast Asia, also provided an alternate transport route. We also gathered that The Ford Motor Factory had been most notably served as the venue for the formal surrender of Malaya by the British General Officer Commanding Malaya, Lt.-Gen. Arthur Ernest Percival, to the Japanese Commander of the 25th Army, General Yamashita Tomoyuki. The surrender document was signed at 6:10pm and all hostilities on the island ceased at 8:30pm.

Other than this, the Syonan Garden can be found at the backyard of the building. This quiet garden that exudes quaint, old-fashioned charm, is a unique feature of the exhibition. Here, we found an assortment of "food crops" such as tapioca, sweet potato, yam, banana, rice etc, that were widely grown during the Occupation. There is also a Syonan Race which is actually a WWII Snakes & Ladders boardgame that is sprawled across the long driveway, with the magnificent facade of the Old Ford Factory building as its backdrop. However at the end of the day, the weather drained all our energy that we were all too tired to take part in the activity. Such pity!