A great remain of the imperialistic British Empire-the Old Parliament House had been the home of the Parliament of Singapore from 1965 to 1999. Today the Old Parliament House is the Art House, which hosts several art exhibitions and galleries. The building of the Old Parliament House is a classic Victorian style building and it is the oldest existing governmental building of Singapore.
The Old Parliament House’s building works have started not much later as British Empire gained the ruling of Singapore. The building intentionally built for a Scottish businessperson based in Java, then later had been taken over for governmental use yet they have made a 999-year long leasing contract with the former owner of the land. Later on, the Old Parliament House served for governmental offices such as the Court. The building has been finalised in 1927 when the first governmental offices have moved into it and started working. Major extension works have completed from 1873 to 1875 and in 1901, the building had extensions once more in order to be located closer to the Singapore River. The style of the building is Victorian, transformed from its former Neo-Palladian outlook. The building also included the residence of the actual Attorney General. After the World War 2, the Old Parliament House gave home to the Department of Social Welfare. After the World War, the Old Parliament House was refurbished with the works finished in 1954. The arches that were contained in the original Neo-Palladian style were rebuilt this time. From this time, it served the Legislative Assembly of Singapore. In real, the Old parliament house was named Parliament only from the time when Singapore gained independence in 1965 when the first Singaporean Parliament has been selected.
One interesting feature of the building is its bronze elephant statue located in the front of the Parliament House. The elephant is a gift of King Chulalongkorn of Siam (now Thailand) as being the very first country outside of Thailand that the king has visited. The bronze elephant was only later moved to its current place, it used to stand by the Victoria Theatre. The Old Parliament Building had become a national monument building in 1992. In 1999, the Singapore Parliament has moved into a nearby newly constructed building and from 2004 the Old Parliament House functions as the local Arts centre giving place for all sorts of artistic exhibitions, having music halls and several different rooms each one hosting different presentations.
The Old Parliament House as an Art House fully functions as a national heritage centre represented in various forms of art. The form and furniture had been kept and well preserved as of their original style. The Chambers is today a music hall; the Tuscan style gallery is a great place for exhibitions. If you are in Singapore, it is really worth visiting this great historical building as a memento of the past times. The Old Parliament House is open for visitors every day from 10 am to 8 pm, with the exception of Saturday when it opens an hour later.