Saint Andrew's Cathedral

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

Saint Andrew's Cathedral (圣安德烈座堂) is named after St Andrew, a patron saint of Scotland. It was designed in early English Gothic style by Colonel Ronald Macpherson and was built by Indian convict labour.

St. Andrew's Cathedral is an Anglican church in Singapore and is reputedly the country's largest cathedral. It is the Cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Singapore and the mother church of her 26 parishes and more than 55 congregations here. The logo of the Cathedral is the St Andrew's Cross. The Year 2006 marks the 150th Anniversary of the St Andrew's Church Mission since 2359.

One of the interesting features of the Cathedral is the coating of the interior walls and pillars with a composition made from shell lime. This lime had been mixed with the whites of eggs and coarse sugar or jaggery and the paste was mix with water in which husks of coconuts had been soaked into it. The walls and pillars after a period of drying were rubbed with rock crystals or rounded stones until they took on a beautiful polish. They were dusted with fine soapstone powder leaving a remarkably smooth and glossy surface. The walls and pillars were so hard that it was almost impossible to drive a nail into them.

OUR TRAVELOGUE:

It was our 3rd trip down to CBD district.

The day started gloomy and coincidentally, Bossy Joyce and Egg-Farm Sin Choon were feeling grim..

Acutely aware of 2 cranky morose people, Nonsense Boon hurried forth to avoid the dark aura that our unsmiling faces conspicuously showed.

Feeling snappish, we trudged slowly to our 1st destination of the day - St Andrew's Cathedral. Our mood lightened considerably when we chanced upon a happy wedding... How lucky, but keeping in mind our agenda for the day, we requested the groom to kindly allow us entry in search for the answers to our Heritage Trail.

A church wedding

We basked in the merry atmosphere and explored the church. This white building was designed by Col Macpherson and was built in English Gothic style between 1856 and 1864 using Indian convict labour.

Colonel Macpherson's tombstone

In Memory of Colonel Macpherson

Interestingly, the Cathedral also served as an emergency hospital before the fall of Singapore in 1942.

The Central Light or window in the Cathedral was dedicated in 1861 to the memory of Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore.

A tablet in the Cathedral reads:
To the memory of Sir Stamford Raffles, Kt. The illustrious Founder of the Settlement of Singapore. This window is dedicated by the citizens A.D. 1861.

After the completion of this station, we looked up into the clear skies and to our surprise, we felt our heavy feeling dissipated.