Victoria Theatre & Victoria Concert Hall

A Gilbert and Sullivan opening night, a war crimes trial, the birth of a political party. Tonight, most likely, an orchestra.

Go to Victoria Concert Hall for an evening with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, whose home it is, and come early enough to walk the Civic District first. The theatre next door is a hire venue, so what is on there depends entirely on who has booked it; check the listings rather than assume. Neither room is big. Both were made smaller on purpose in the last renovation, which is good news if you came for the music and bad news if you wanted spectacle.

Why it’s worth it

Singapore likes to knock things down and start again, which makes this pair of halls on Empress Place a survivor. The theatre half began as the Town Hall, completed in 1862; the concert hall arrived in 1905 as the Victoria Memorial Hall, built after Queen Victoria’s death; and a 54-metre clock tower stitched the two together in 1906, late, because the clock from the Straits Trading Company arrived behind schedule. Leftover memorial money paid to dress the old Town Hall in a matching façade, and the renamed Victoria Theatre opened on 11 February 1909 with The Pirates of Penzance.

History kept dropping in. The building was a hospital early in the Second World War, held the trials of Japanese war criminals afterwards and hosted ballot counting from 1948. The People’s Action Party held its inaugural meeting here in November 1954, the national song was first performed here in 1958, and Television Singapura launched from the building in 1963. A young Kenneth Williams made his stage debut here in 1946.

The rooms today

The complex was gazetted as a national monument in 1992, closed in June 2010 for a renovation led by W Architects and reopened on 15 July 2014 with the SSO. Behind the kept façade, most of the theatre’s interior was rebuilt, while the concert hall held on to its significant features. The theatre now seats 614 and the concert hall 673: an intrusive balcony came out and a smaller, higher one went in so the seats below would not lose out on sound. That is the reason to choose the concert hall. Orchestral and chamber music is its bread and butter, and the room was rebuilt around hearing it.

How to do it well

For the concert hall, start with the SSO’s own season. For everything else, Arts House Group, which runs the complex, gathers listings on its What’s On page and events calendar. The official site also mentions heritage tours and has a page on the clock tower, so ask about those if you want more than the auditorium.

Out front, the bronze Raffles moved here from the Padang for the 1919 centenary keeps watch, give or take a wartime relocation. Raffles Place and City Hall MRT are both a short walk. Come early, walk along the river, and let the clock tell you when to head in. It has kept time here for 120 years; it can manage your curtain call.

Good to know 9 Empress Place, a short walk from Raffles Place and City Hall MRT. Check the Arts House Group What’s On page or the SSO’s season for current programmes, and ask the venue about heritage tours before you go.

Victoria Theatre & Victoria Concert Hall | 9 Empress Place, Singapore 179556 | Nearest MRT: Raffles Place, City Hall