Masjid Hajjah Fatimah

A golden dome, a minaret modelled on a church steeple, and a lean of about six degrees that nobody planned.

Masjid Hajjah Fatimah is worth a ten-minute detour on the way into Kampong Glam for anyone interested in architecture or in a founder's story, and it is free. It is a working mosque, so the conditions matter: time your visit outside prayer times, avoid Friday midday prayers altogether, dress with shoulders and knees covered and be ready to remove your shoes. Start across the road, where the lean is easiest to see.

The building mixes its sources openly. There is a golden onion dome and Gothic lancet windows, and a minaret modelled, says the National Heritage Board's Roots site, on the Neoclassical spire of the first St Andrew's Church. Then you notice it is not quite straight.

The minaret tilts by about six degrees, blamed on moisture and shifting handmade bricks, which has earned it the nickname "Leaning Tower of Singapore". From across the road you'll see it; from the side you can't stop seeing it.

The founder's story is the better reason to stop. Hajjah Fatimah binte Sulaiman was a wealthy businesswoman from Melaka who married a Bugis prince-merchant from Celebes, now Sulawesi, and ran the trading business herself after he died. Roots records that her house on this very site was burgled twice, and set alight the second time, while she was away. She took her escape as a sign, built a mosque in thanksgiving from 1845, and rebuilt her home nearby. She was inducted into the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame in 2014.

It was one of the earliest mosques in Singapore to be named after a woman, and it once stood by the sea, which is how Beach Road got its name. The main prayer hall was rebuilt around 1930 by the local firm Chung & Wong with Malay craftsmen, and the mosque became the seventh building gazetted as a National Monument in 1973. Behind the mihrab, a mausoleum holds Hajjah Fatimah, her daughter Raja Siti and her son-in-law Syed Ahmed Alsagoff.

How to do it well: walk from Nicoll Highway or Bugis MRT, look at the lean from across Beach Road, then walk round the side and carry on into Kampong Glam. For a group visit, contact the mosque through MUIS's directory first.

It is a short stop that changes what you thought a Singapore mosque could look like, and who could build one.

Good to know Masjid Hajjah Fatimah is at 4001 Beach Road (199584), a short walk from Nicoll Highway or Bugis MRT. Entry is free. Contact the mosque (via MUIS's directory) for visiting hours and group visits, and avoid Friday midday prayers.

Masjid Hajjah Fatimah | 4001 Beach Road, Singapore 199584 | Nearest MRT: Nicoll Highway, Bugis