26-35

Upper Wilkie Road Mount Emily Mount Emily water tanks

10 Jan 1931 – 15 Dec 1981 The first public swimming pool, Mount Emily Swimming Complex was In the late 1880s, two service reservoirs, each with
(intermittently also the first public pool to use fresh water instead of seawater. At its peak a holding capacity of one million gallons, were
in the mid 1930s, it saw some 8,000 visitors a month. After World War II, constructed on Mount Emily to supply the city with
closed in the 1940s) the pool underwent major repair works before it was fully reopened to fresh water. One of these reservoirs was converted
the public. It was finally closed in 1981 and demolished in 1982. into Singapore’s first public swimming pool – the
Mount Emily – when a 30,000,000-gallon storage
An old photograph by G.R. Lambert & Co. showing the two reservoirs on Mount Emily in the 1880s. reservoir at Fort Canning was opened in 1929.
(Image: Lee Kip Lin Collections and National Library Board, Singapore 2016) The other tank was used to store water for town
cleansing and drain flushing.
26   GREAT LENGTHS
Converting the former reservoir into a pool
meant reducing its depth from the original fifteen
feet to a maximum of eight 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 round 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 the 1930s, 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 Commissioners installed
a filtration system to keep the water clear and
continued using chlorination to keep it clean.

O U R P i oneers   2 7

I have fond memories of the Mount Emily pool. Between 1966 and 1969, Swimming classes at the Mount Emily Swimming Complex
I was a national swimmer and represented both the country and the in the mid 1970s. (Images: Ng Yong Chiang)
Ministry of Home Affairs, where I first worked. For the former, our team
trained six evenings a week at a private pool. I also trained at Mount O U R P i oneers   2 9
Emily with the police swim team during the day, three times a week. At
the 1967 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games (SEAP) in Bangkok, my team
took home two silver medals, one in the 4x200-metre freestyle relay, and
the other in the 4x100-metre freestyle relay. Those were the years when
Singapore’s first golden girl, Patricia Chan, was winning gold medals in
every swimming event she entered in the SEAP Games, so it was great to
be a part of the history-making.
— CHAN KEE CHENG, 73, former national swimmer

When Singapore gained independence, one of the most pressing
matters was to build a substantial military force for self-defence. The
National Service (NS) Amendment Act passed on 14 March 1967 made
it compulsory for male citizens to register for NS. Together with the late
pool superintendant Lee Hon Ming and a few other instructors, I helped to
train about 600 recruits from the Singapore Police Force in lifesaving skills.
The course consisted of 12 sessions and was held three mornings each
week, before the pool was opened for public use at 9am. It culminated
in a qualifying test for the Bronze Medallion award from the Royal Life
Saving Society UK. In addition to lifesaving training, Mount Emily was
also the place where many potential national swimmers were trained for
international competitions under the famous national swimming coach
Kee Soon Bee.
— ONG POH SOON, 73, retired pool manager

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Yan Kit Road Yan Kit It may sound strange, but many of my swimming experiences – whether
29 Dec 1952 – Mar 2001 at privately-operated pools, like Chinese Swimming Club and the Pulau
Named after Canton-born dentist Mr Look Yan Kit, the Yan Kit Bukom swimming pool, or at public pools like Yan Kit – were bad. In 1965,
Swimming Complex was originally a water tank built on an old as Primary One students at Kallang Primary School, we went to Yan Kit for
railway site off Cantonment Road. Popular in the 1950s and 1960s, the swimming lessons. On my first visit, I was so excited that I jumped straight
complex was closed in 2001 and the pools levelled over. The site is being into the pool after changing into my swimsuit. It was the deep end! When
redeveloped as a community sports facility, which will include a multi- I realised my feet could not touch the bottom, I panicked and started to
purpose playing court, a children’s playground and fitness zones. sink. Luckily, a man pulled me up and moved me to the side. I was too
frightened by the near-drowning to even inform my teacher, Mr Aw.
The opening of the pool was — LEE CHOON GEOK, 59, former national badminton player
filmed in colour. It was also here
that floodlights were introduced to My coach had us do laps at the ‘adult’ pool, and I hated the (very) deep end.
see if night-time swimming would There was no floor, just a bottomless inky pit where my little girl’s mind
prove popular – and it did. played tricks on me (remember Jaws?). The walls of the deep end were also
cold and slimy to the touch. I always swam as fast as I could to get over the
30   GREAT LENGTHS ordeal. But the diving boards were always lovely to my mind, arching over
the lip of the pool like giant, immobile cranes.
— JOYCE CHNG, 41, teacher and writer

The Yan Kit complex was about half-an-hour’s walk from our home, and my
mother had my brothers and me in tow one afternoon. My eyes grew big
at the sight of the large rectangular tank filled with so much water! I was
nervous, unsure, gingerly tapping my feet near the edges. A lifeguard came
over and talked with my mother. We realised we had to leave as none of us
had any swimwear, but my mother said that we would shower first since
she’d already paid to enter! On our next visit, the pool was opened only
for boys. As consolation, my mother bought me an iced lolly from a bent
old lady outside. The woman had a little game for me first, and I won two
lollies. They melted fast but Mom and I had a sweet ending that day.
— JENNI HO-HUAN, 50, pastor-writer

O U R P i oneers   3 1

Panoramic view of the The Yan Kit Swimming Complex, tucked away in a leafy fold free-standing sculptures in reinforced concrete, looking for
main pool. The three in the foothills of Tanjong Pagar, was the nicest, and most all the world like the rib-cage of a whale. When it opened in
unusual, swimming pool I have ever swum in. It started life the early 1950s, the Yan Kit pool was so popular that crowd
springboards (inset) were in the pre-war era as a water filtration tank for the Municipal controls had to be imposed, with a two-hour limit for each
placed at 1, 3 and 5 metres. water supply, but was reconstituted, postwar, as a public swimmer, and even then it was standing-room only. I used
swimming pool. Architecturally, it was a superb piece of to go there for a lunch-time swim in the 1990s, when it
(Images: Julian Davison) tropical Art Deco, all curved walls and portholes, flat roofs was an all-but-forgotten oasis of calm and tranquillity, just
and ship’s railings, situated halfway between an ocean liner a stone’s throw from the city. The pool attendants had the
and a machine-gun emplacement. In England it would have cushiest job ever, which is perhaps why they were also the
been called The Lido. At one end there was a pavilion with friendliest of people, who used to amuse themselves by
a charming ‘marine mural’, featuring jellyfish and octopuses, raising goldfish and water lilies in the footbaths.
while at the other end there were Deco-style diving boards,
— DR JULIAN DAVISON, architectural historian

32   GREAT LENGTHS O U R P i oneers   3 3

2 Rutland Road Farrer Park
t. 6299 0777
The Farrer Park Swimming Complex was part of the Farrer Park
22 Feb 1957 – 1 Jun 2003 Athletic Centre, which is significant for its association with high-profile
(privatised 2004) regional sporting events in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Southeast
Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games and Pesta Sukan. Closed in 2003, the
complex is now managed privately by the APS Swim School, founded in
1996 by former Olympian Ang Peng Siong.

The main pool at
Farrer Park Aquatic
Centre, where the Aquatic
Performance Swim Club
(APSC) trains regularly.

34   GREAT LENGTHS O U R P i oneers   3 5