Great World | 1930s - 1978

25th December 2013.

Christmas Day.

It is Christmas Day today, so I thought something festive or a fun place would suit the mood for today and the coming days before New Year. This piece is a scene that I imagined might look like in the former Great World, one of three major amusement parks in Singapore along with Gay World and Happy World. Instead of featuring on the three iconic structures of Great World, my attention was drawn to the fairgrounds where you have rides such as the spinning planes, merry-go-round and trains around the amusement park which is the essence of Great World. I also spotted a familiar household brand in one of the photos on PICAS, Khong Guan Biscuits which was located near the merry go round.

It took a while to figure out where does some of the shops lie, looking through some old photographs and watching Singapore (1960) by Shakti Samanta, a Bollywood film which filming venues include the former Great World. The fairgrounds changed quite a bit from time to time, in the film the merry go round was unsheltered but in some photographs, there is a square pavilion sheltering the merry go round.

Source : Picas