Changi Chapel and Museum

Start with the matchbox. There is a Morse code set hidden inside it.

This is the museum to take a visitor who wants Singapore beyond the skyline, or a relative who grew up on stories of the Occupation, because it lets the prisoners tell it themselves. Allow at least an hour, and leave time to sit in the chapel afterwards. The compromises are practical: it is a long way east, it is closed on Mondays unless it is a public holiday, and some rooms are hard going on purpose. Book tickets on the National Heritage Board site and plan the bus from Upper Changi.

Why it is worth the trip

Changi was not one prison but a sprawl of camps covering about 25 square kilometres, holding soldiers, volunteers and civilians, and little of it survives beyond a few barracks and the gate and wall of the old gaol. The museum fills that gap with the voices and belongings of the people held there, gathered from internees' families during a three-year redevelopment that reopened it in May 2021, about a kilometre from where the first replica chapel stood in 1988.

The eight zones run from Changi Fortress and the fall of Singapore through daily life, creativity, liberation and legacy. Of the 114 artefacts, 37 were donated or lent by the public, and the small ones are the ones that stay with you. Look for the Kodak Baby Brownie camera Sergeant John Ritchie Johnston hid from his captors, the Morse code device concealed in a matchbox, and Arthur Westrop's 400-page diary, written as letters to his wife. Mary Angela Bateman's watercolours are here too, as is a section of the Changi Wall.

The hard rooms

A re-created Changi Gaol cell, fitted with an original door, shows how little space prisoners had, with recordings of internees' conversations playing. Then come replicas of the Changi Murals, five biblical scenes Bombardier Stanley Warren painted in a room at Roberts Barracks used as a chapel, with crushed chalk and brushes made with human hair. An interactive screen fills in his story. With younger children, decide in advance how long you will stay in these two rooms; with teenagers, these are the rooms to talk about on the bus home.

The chapel

Outside is a replica of St George's Church, one of several places of worship prisoners built at Changi. The original was dismantled after the war and shipped to Australia, and Sergeant Harry Stogden made a cross from a spent artillery shell. It is the quiet end to the visit, and the reason not to rush for the bus.

Getting there

It is at 1000 Upper Changi Road North. Take the MRT to Upper Changi and then bus 2, or bus 2 or 29 direct to the Changi Chapel Museum stop. Go on a weekday morning if you can, and pair it with Changi Village for lunch rather than trying to fit it around something in town.

Good to know The museum is at 1000 Upper Changi Road North; take bus 2 or 29 to the Changi Chapel Museum stop, or the MRT to Upper Changi (DT34) then bus 2. Open 9.30am–5.30pm Tuesday to Sunday (last admission 5pm), closed Mondays except public holidays; book tickets on the National Heritage Board site.

Changi Chapel and Museum | 1000 Upper Changi Road North, Singapore 507707 | Nearest MRT: Upper Changi (then bus 2)