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| Vimy House along Woking Road. |
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| Wessex Village Square |
Although the island Republic of Singapore
has been submitted to a systematic territorial revolution since the
1960s, some of its urban heritage has been preserved. This is the case
with Wessex Estate, a quiet residential neighbourhood located in the low
hills extending on the western flank of the central urban area. Made up
of less than a dozen bungalows and 26 small blocks of flats, Wessex
Estate is of no particular architectural interest, but it does represent
a heritage through the names borne by the blocks of flats.
Clearly
printed on the façades of the 26 blocks of flats, these names all refer
to military feats of British history. The study locates and briefly
describes these events, several of which took place on European fronts,
as far back as the early 18th century (such as Ramilies, Blenheim),
others throughout the British Empire, starting from the middle of the
same century (such as Plassey, Quebec, Khartoum, Pegu).
Built just prior
to or just following WWII, it seems that the flats housed
non-commissioned British officers during the Malayan Emergency
(1948–1960). Their names refer to battles or theatres of war in all of
which a given British regiment, the 67th or South Hampshire Regiment,
might have been involved. Whatever the case, it remains somewhat
remarkable that so many reminders of the colonial past, even a good
number with "no natural connection" to Singapore, have remained
prominent in this city-state otherwise apparently prone to sever
"colonial apron strings".
