Great Southern Hotel
| Yue Hwa Building | |
|---|---|
| 裕华大厦 | |
 |
|
| General information | |
| Status | Occupied |
| Type | Commercial |
| Location | Eu Tong Sen Street, Outram, Singapore |
| Coordinates | 1°17′05.6″N 103°50′36.4″E / 1.284889°N 103.843444°ECoordinates: 1°17′05.6″N 103°50′36.4″E / 1.284889°N 103.843444°E |
| Owner | Yue Hwa Chinese Products Pte Ltd |
| Management | Yue Hwa Chinese Products Pte Ltd |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 6 |
Yue Hwa Building (Chinese: 裕华大厦; pinyin: Yùhuá dàshà) is a historic building located at the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Upper Cross Street in Chinatown, Singapore. Built by Swan and Maclaren in 1936, it was then the tallest building in Chinatown and was known as Nam Tin Building (南天大厦), owned by Lum Chang Holdings. The building housed the six-storey Great Southern Hotel (the first Chinese hotel with a lift), along with a few shops and cabarets that were popular among Chinese travellers. In 1993, Lum Chang Holdings sold the building to Hong Kong businessman Yu Kwok Chun, who converted it to the first Yue Hwa Chinese Products department store in Singapore in 1994. The renovation process, which conserved the exterior while adding features such as an atrium and waterfall to the interior, won the building the Architectural Heritage Award by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in 1997.
Also known as Nam Tin Hotel, the Great Southern Hotel in Singapore's Chinatown was built by Swan and Maclaren in 1936. Started as a boutique hotel, it was the tallest building in Chinatown when it was completed. It was also the first Chinese hotel in Singapore with a lift. Its height also gave it an unfortunate reputation as the focal point of many suicide attempts in its early days, until the tall Singapore Improvement Trust flats at Upper Pickering Street were built.
Owned by Lum Chang Holdings, the building housing Great Southern Hotel was called "Nam Tin" in Cantonese, meaning "southern sky". This choice of name is curious because the Chinese's discovery of the sky around the southern celestial was relatively recent, when Xu Guangqi interpreted European star charts. It is thus possible that this building in Singapore, a colonial port, has a name in homage of this turn of events.
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