Restoration Secrets, The Introduction
Just what was she hiding? This was the question foremost in the minds of everyone involved as restoration work began in 1989. Mysteries and secrets were, after all, expected. Unlike so many historic hotels, which were erected as one of the great pile of stones, Raffles enlarged gradually over a quarter century. Since then, the foundations had been left undisturbed. There was a great deal of anticipation.
As the layers of time were carefully peeled away, previous interiors made their brief appearances in the form of scraps of flowered and patterned wallpaper and an amazing array of colors from beautiful sky blue and rich, buttery yellow to more proletarian hues of grey, beige, and army green. Off in a shady corner of the hotel, concealed for 50 years under many layers of paint, were found the Japanese kanji showing the name of the hotel during the Japanese Occupation.
There were other interesting and unusual finds. Hundreds of pieces of China, many bearing the old Sarkies crest, were found in what had obviously once been a kitchen dump. Scattered throughout the site were nineteenth-century European liquor bottles and Asian pottery shards that predated the hotel’s opening.
When the Main Building)s original Carrara marble floor was removed, the foundations of Beach House, the bungalow in which Raffles had opened in 1887, were clearly discernible and some of its large terra-cotta floor tiles still intact.
Time had not been especially kind to Raffles’ decorative plasterwork, do essential to the character of the buildings. Much of it had been stripped away or covered during previous renovations. In some places the original features were blurred by thick cement that could not be scrapped off. Replacement was achieved only by careful documentation of surviving pieces, inspired guesswork and an army of patient talented craftsmen.
Perhaps the best example of restoration detective work related to the cast-iron portico that graces the hotel’s front entrance. The original version was in existence for only seven years. Built as an extension of the front verandah known as Cad’s Alley, it was dismantled to make way for the ballroom. So with the benchmark year for restoration set at 1915, the portico needed to be recreated as authentically as possible.
Detective or linked a tiny piece of the original metre-high cast-iron balustrade, which was found in an obscure corner of the roof, to the original building plans of the verandah in the Singapore National Archives. The balustrade must have been recycled when the structure was dismantled. It was sent off to Alabama, USA where the entire portico was reconstructed with the builders strictly following the original design.
