How Singapore’s black-and-white houses became a luxury property

Jerome Lim, a local history and heritage enthusiast and blogger, describes these houses as “distinct looking properties with features that perhaps were borrowed”. A naval architect by education and experience, Lim’s love of colonial structures was piqued by the surroundings in Sembawang Naval Base, where the architectural styles of the homes evolved with Singapore as a nation—from a prosperous sea route that caught the attention of the British and developed into a prominent civil administration colony and base for its armed forces, to now, a modern maritime force. 

But the most distinctive and possibly the foundation of them all was the black-and-white style, says Davison. “Although these later, “military-style” black-and-whites are not black-and-white houses in the strictest sense of the term, they clearly owe a significant debt to the classic black-and-white bungalows that were designed by the Public Works Department (PWD) on either side of the First World War, and in this respect, they can be seen as a final flowering of the black-and-white tradition.

The colours of these structures live up to their name, while the style is a homage to the half-timbered Tudor-style country houses that were popular among the Victorians, says Davison. “It is quintessentially British. I lived in England for a number of years. I never really realised there were so many black-and-white buildings in England,” he adds. This observation culminated in Black and White: The Singapore House 1898 - 1941, which Davison authored in 2006.

“The typical black-and-white house in Singapore, dating from the first decade of the last century, was characterised by an extensive use of timber as a structural component, filled in with rendered lath work or half-brick panels in the manner of the half-timbered medieval houses of Herefordshire and Kent, which are similarly named,” adds Davison. A creosote staining gave the wood its black colour, which, along with the contrasting white paint on the rendered surfaces, gave the homes their name.

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These “late-Victorian or Edwardian” imports had to be reinterpreted for Eastern settings, especially that of tropical rainforests—which are hot, humid, wet and fertile grounds conducive to insect infestations.

Linked to the 19th-century revival of the Tudor style of architecture, the British-built structures in Singapore, from the 1860s through to the end of the century, kept to the main inspiration, with a few adaptations. They were pseudo or quasi mock-Tudor buildings—“the English style being tropicalised, and brought out here”, as Davison puts it.

Chief among these adaptations were the bungalow styles from British India—thatch-roofed, open-eaved cottages with wrap-around verandas at ground level screened by roll-up rattan blinds, and a large one on the second floor atop a portico that helped shelter passengers alighting from horse-drawn carriages. The word “bungalow”, which is a term used for black-and-white houses in Singapore—as well as for the later arts and crafts-style Good Class Bungalows—is derived from Hindi, and stands for a house in the Bengali style from Bengal, India.

With its high ceilings, the Indian bungalow style served well in tropical settings as it optimised ventilation—“sustainable, climate-responsive design elements that make them airy and cool even in today’s post-air-conditioning era”, adds Fang Low, founder and chief executive officer of Figment, a local real estate company that is dedicated to preserving and refreshing the architectural heritage of Singapore.

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The colour scheme of white walls in terms of the finished coating helped keep the homes cool, among other benefits, says Lim. “Whitewash was available very cheaply as a material in Singapore—it didn’t need to be procured from elsewhere. Timber is also widely available and we also have easy access to excellent tropical hardwoods such as chengal and teak from the region, which are hard-wearing and highly resistant to insects and infestation.”

The coal-tar epoxy used to coat and seal the load-bearing elements of the home, such as its beams and columns, made it impervious to water and infestation, adds Lim, while lending to the colour—and the name.

One aspect of black-and-white houses not seen in the UK is the raised living room, inspired by the Malay kampong houses of the time, which were built on stilts—another climate adaptation.

In the early 1900s, there was a move away from the predominance of timber—the upper stories of the earliest iterations were completely crafted in wood for better absorbency of solar radiation—to mortar-based constructions.

“The timber, if used, was placed on foundations and even piers to protect the wood on the upper part from the moisture in the ground on the lower parts,” explains Lim. “These were called “jacksons” named after Sir John Jackson and Co, who was the main contractor for the naval base.” These examples of first-generation, naval-based housing can still be seen in Sembawang today.

These remnants of Singapore’s past are today scattered all around the island, including at Goodwood Hill, Dempsey Hill, Rochester Park, Mount Pleasant, Sembawang Park, Mount Faber, Gillman Barracks and Changi Road.

However, Beach Road is where the British first built their homes, says Lim. Owners of nutmeg and pepper plantations, and fruit orchards began the move inwards away from the “harsh” tropical elements of the coastline. Among them was Thomas Oxley, a surgeon—the roads where his plantation and residence, the Pavilion, were situated take his name today. The most recent iteration of the Pavilion, a two-storey bungalow on 5 Oxley Rise, was put up for sale in 2022 for SG$300 million.

The conversion of Singapore into a penal colony for convicts from the subcontinent also introduced brick- and plaster-making technology—namely Madras chunam (the Tamil word for a lime plaster that was used in Madras, India)—into the architectural vernacular. The durability that the materials afforded to the structures became representative of affluence.

The colonial era in Singapore was marked by the works of prominent names such as H.A. Stallwood and Frank Dorrington Watt—“they produced a set of black-and-whites that was modular in design that can be seen along Malcolm Road, Malcolm Park, Adam Park and Temenggong Road, some of which were adapted by the navy and admiralty as homes for their junior staff”, says Lim. These architects were civil servants and worked for the Public Works Department—Stallwood started as a draughtsman with the government organisation.

Even Swan & Maclaren, considered the country’s most eminent and first professional architectural firm, started as a civil engineering company. It wasn’t until the turn of the century, when architect Regent Alfred John Bidwell joined the firm, that its fortunes turned.

The only other firm that challenged Swan & Maclaren’s dominance at that time was Keys and Dowdeswell–Major Percy Hubert Keys from the firm was the designer behind the colonial homes at Watten Estate, adds Cheoh, “and then there are the Pender Road houses, which were designed by Swan & Maclaren”.

Another notable name was Wong Foo Nam, the local architect behind Fairfield Methodist Church (originally the Metropole Cinema or Jing Hwa Cinema) at Maxwell Road. It was awarded a distinction in conservation at the 2022 URA Architectural Heritage Awards, along with one of his later works, Inverturret at 7 Gallop Road, which was built in 1906.

Another stellar example of Swan & Maclaren’s addition to Singapore’s architectural landscape is the Raffles Hotel Singapore, along with other style experimentations including arts and crafts, art deco, and modernism.

As Davison puts it, these colonial homes were really a product of the place. “The architects who designed these houses were more than willing to incorporate lessons learned from India as well as local architectural traditions in their response to the demands of designing sensible houses for a tropical climate,”
he explains.

That explains their enduring popularity among tenants—mostly British expatriates—who want a vicarious tour of the lifestyle of the time, with a healthy respect for its place in the modern landscape. This is despite the fact that the refurbishment of these homes—which are oftentimes in various states of disrepair—come with strict guidelines to preserve their architectural heritage.

That adherence to emotional and cultural value as opposed to merely functional, says Low, is the very definition of a luxury property.

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