158 338
ARTS&LEISURE
158
June14
Mountbatten breezes
According to Geraldene, wealthy
locals always aspired to owning a
house at Katong or Pasir Panjang,
somewhere to catch the cool sea
breezes – they couldn’t understand
the British desire to live in the interior.
Along Mountbatten Road, she
points out a few of the palatial homes
that still remain. All these houses
would have been right on the beach,
before the huge land reclamation that
took place in the 1970s.
This road lost more than its sea
views. Sadly, it often happened that
when grandma died, the younger
generation heirs capitalised on
their inheritances by knocking them
down for redevelopment. Some of
these old houses are still glorious,
though, especially those that have
had government preservation orders
imposed on them. Others have been
extended to the rear, and many serve
as kindergartens – that’s the big
business nowadays, as Geraldene
sagely notes.
Number 754
and its neighbour,
759, are two rather famous houses,
featuring exquisite tiling and lovely
balconies. Geraldene says they
were owned by the same man, who
accommodated his two wives in them.
The one at 759 is now a hotel, but its
original grass lawn is rather bleakly
covered with tarmac.
She points out a house that sports
her favourite
“pepper-pot” turrets
,
a popular architectural feature of
the time. “Asian people don’t swim
much,” she adds, “but they love the
sea breeze, and the pepper-pots were
the perfect spot to catch it from. Look
at the traditional front steps, too – the
curved balustrades stretch out to
welcome visitors to the house.”
These properties don’t come
cheap. Number 789 belonged to an
old Arab family, says Geraldene, and
was reported to have sold for many,
many millions a number of years ago.
From Mountbatten, it’s a left into
Tanjong Katong Road, left again into
Bournemouth, then into Wilkinson
and our first destination.