Raffles Hotel The hotel first opened on 1 December 1887 in an old bungalow. Its subsequent expansion was guided by Tigran Sarkies, of the Sarkies Brothers, and culminated in the opening of the main building— designed by R.A.J. Bidwell of Swan & Maclaren— in November 1899. This building’s three- storey edifice included classical architectural features and modern innovations such as electric lighting supplied by the hotel’s own generator.
After completion of the main building, the hotel let rooms to long- term ‘residents’ such as the Russian, French, Belgian and American consuls, as well as to royalty, businesspeople and international travellers. During the 1920s, film stars such as Charlie Chaplin, and writers such as Noel Coward and W. Somerset Maugham, frequented the hotel. During this era, Raffles Hotel also came to be associated with the Singapore Sling— a cocktail invented by a barman at the hotel’s Long Bar.
In 1931, the firm of Sarkies Brothers was declared bankrupt, and the hotel’s future was in doubt. After two years of negotiations, a new company, Raffles Hotel Limited, was incorporated for the specific purpose of acquiring the hotel. By then, Raffles Hotel was already being referred to as ‘the historic hotel of Singapore’.
During the Japanese Occupation, the Japanese renamed the hotel Syonan Ryokan (Light of the South Hotel), and shifted its entrance to the east side of the main building. After the war, the hotel was refurbished, with modern interiors and air- conditioning. Singapore’s elite enjoyed ‘Race Dinners’ and New Year’s Eve parties at the hotel. Film stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Mike Todd, Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth all stayed at the hotel during this period, as did political leaders such as Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi. When W. Somerset Maugham paid his final visit to the hotel in 1960, he described it as ‘standing for all the fables of the exotic East’.
Over later years, the hotel’s business declined as Orchard Road developed into the main district for shopping and hospitality. But a renewed emphasis on heritage sparked a revival of Raffles Hotel’s fortunes in the 1980s. It was gazetted as a national monument in 1987. In March 1989, Raffles Hotel closed temporarily for restoration. Architectural redevelopment was undertaken based on the hotel’s 1915 blueprint. On 16 September 1991, a larger and reinvigorated Raffles Hotel was reopened.