Old Map of Singapore, 1911

Singapore on the Eve of Modern Transformation

This map presents Singapore at a revealing point in its history. Its engraved title reads Map of the Island of Singapore and its Dependencies 1911. Although dated 1911, surviving catalogue records indicate that this War Office edition was published in London in February 1912 as Geographical Section, General Staff sheet GSGS 2609.

By then, Singapore had been governed as part of the British Straits Settlements for more than eighty years. The settlement established by the British East India Company in 1819 had grown into one of Asia’s most important trading ports. Yet the map shows an island very different from the intensely built-up Singapore of today.

Singapore Town and its harbour occupy a relatively small area of the southern coast. Beyond them, the island opens into broad rural districts crossed by roads, rivers and tracks. Large names identify Sembawang, Seletar, Mandai, Kranji, Jurong, Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Timah, Toa Payoh, Paya Lebar, Bedok and Pasir Panjang. These are now familiar parts of modern Singapore, but in 1911 they were separated by plantations, woodland, swamps and scattered settlements.

Roads, Tracks and the Singapore Railway

The map’s reference panel distinguishes metalled roads from unmetalled routes, cart tracks and footpaths. It therefore provides an unusually clear picture of movement around Singapore before the construction of its modern road network.

One of its most significant features is the railway running northwards from Singapore Town through Bukit Timah and Kranji to Woodlands. The Singapore–Kranji Railway had opened in stages during 1903. Passengers could travel from Tank Road to Woodlands, where they left the train and crossed the strait to Johor by ferry.

An extension towards the wharves at Pasir Panjang was completed during the same decade. The developing railway made it easier to carry passengers, agricultural produce and other goods between Singapore’s interior and its busy port. It also encouraged residential and commercial growth along its route.

The map predates the Johor–Singapore Causeway. Travellers reaching Woodlands could not yet continue across the strait by train; the permanent rail and road connection with the Malay Peninsula would not open until the 1920s. The railway terminus, ferry connection and still largely undeveloped shoreline opposite Johor belong to a brief period in Singapore’s transport history.

Plantations, Estates and Rural Districts

Singapore Town dominates the southern coast, spreading inland from the Singapore River and the harbour. Its compact concentration of streets and buildings contrasts dramatically with the lightly developed western, northern and eastern parts of the island.

Named estates, villages and agricultural districts appear along the principal roads and waterways. Gambier and pepper cultivation had shaped much of rural Singapore during the nineteenth century, while rubber was becoming increasingly important around the time this map was prepared.

Bukit Timah, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong, Mandai and Sembawang had not yet been absorbed into a continuous urban landscape. Rivers and navigable creeks remained important routes through districts where roads were limited or unfinished.

The island’s developing public infrastructure is also recorded. Reservoirs, government stations, police stations, hospitals and schools are identified in the map’s key. These features reveal that the map was intended as a practical record of a rapidly changing colonial port and the extensive rural territory surrounding it.

A Coastline Since Transformed

The 1911 coastline is one of the map’s most rewarding features. Later land reclamation would substantially alter the harbour frontage and the shores around Pasir Panjang, Jurong and eastern Singapore.

To the south, the map names Blakang Mati Island, today’s Sentosa, together with Pulau Brani, St John’s Island and numerous smaller islands and reefs. Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong are shown prominently in the northeast. Across the Old Strait, or Selat Tebrau, part of the Johor coastline frames Singapore’s northern shore.

These islands explain the phrase “and its Dependencies” in the original title. The map was intended to record not only the main island of Singapore but also the smaller islands and surrounding waters administered with it.

An Island Recorded in Remarkable Detail

The Geographical Section, General Staff produced maps for practical government and military purposes. Roads, waterways, settlements, boundaries and communications therefore received close attention. The finished work is both an attractive old map and a valuable administrative record of Singapore before its twentieth-century transformation.

Originally drawn at a scale of one inch to one mile—1:63,360—the map contains an impressive amount of information. Singapore Town appears as a tightly drawn concentration of streets and buildings, contrasting with the more open rural districts crossed by roads, railway lines and rivers. Although the smallest lettering is not intended to be read individually at reproduction size, the map retains a remarkably vivid impression of the island’s settlement and transport network in 1911.

More than a century later, familiar names remain scattered throughout a landscape that has otherwise changed beyond recognition. The map preserves Singapore at the moment when an established trading port was beginning to develop into the modern city-state known today.

Map Details

Original title: Map of the Island of Singapore and its Dependencies 1911

Cartographic authority: Geographical Section, General Staff

Publisher: War Office

Place of publication: London

Map series: GSGS 2609

Map date: 1911

War Office issue: February 1912

Scale: One inch to one mile — 1:63,360

Region shown: Singapore Island, its surrounding islands and part of the Johor coastline

Notable places: Singapore Town, Bukit Timah, Kranji, Woodlands, Mandai, Sembawang, Seletar, Jurong, Choa Chu Kang, Toa Payoh, Paya Lebar, Bedok and Pasir Panjang

Surrounding islands: Pulau Ubin, Pulau Tekong, Blakang Mati—now Sentosa—Pulau Brani and St John’s Island

Features shown: Roads, railway lines, cart tracks, footpaths, district boundaries, rivers, reservoirs, government stations, estates, villages and coastal features