Thursday 20 November 2014

Old gables II

"Dragon" gables of the old Thong Chai Building, Eu Tong Seng  Street. Picture taken September 2014.
HOW can I miss blogging about these famous gables of the old Thong Chai Buiilding of Chinatown? Instead of straight slopes, these gables have wavy slopes. (Besides spiral staircases, one of my other fond subjects is gables.)

The Thong Chai gables belong to three main halls, built in the Southern Chinese architecture style. Constructed in 1892, the curvy gables were not characteristic of the style (so I read from the write-up in Wikipedia). But I like to think that they depict the serpentine body of the dragon (like the dragon kiln?). Just my guess and not based on any in-depth study of architecture and culture :)

The building's former address was 3, Wayang Street which had disappeared from present day Singapore Street Directory.

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