The facade of the Majestic building on Eu Tong Sen Street, Chinatown, is decorated with the tiled scenes from Cantonese opera and the colourful mosaics of flying dragons.
It has a most colourful history. A former Cantonese opera house built in 1928 by Eu Tong Sen, a tin mining and rubber magnate, for his wife who was a Cantonese opera fan. It operated as a venue for Cantonese opera till 1938. Renamed the Queen's Theatre by The Shaw Brothers, it then screened Cantonese blockbuster movies. During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, it was used to screen Japanese propaganda films. After the war, it was renamed Majestic Theatre. In 1956, it was bought over from the Eu family by the late Dato Loke Wan Tho of Cathay Organisation. The theatre screened Chinese films until 1998 when it was closed. In 2003, it shed its past function and became a three-storey shopping mall and was renamed "The Majestic".
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Majestic is correct. Very nice photo.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend
Guy
Regina In Pictures
I enjoyed Singapore when I visited but I do't think I saw that building.
ReplyDeleteVery imposing building. Have a nice day and thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteNice to see a relic of the old Singapore. It may be clean and green now, but although parts were squalid before, it was a more colourful and exciting city before.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could see what the inside looked like before it became a mall. Must have been impressive.
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