Visit Katong Park Singapore: Once-Old Town, Battle Ground, Children’s Playground, Museum Round and More To Be Found

above: click on images to get larger view of Katong Park

Visit Katong Park Singapore: Once-Old Town, Battle Ground, Children’s Playground, Museum Round and More To Be Found

Visiting Katong Park, situated at the junction of Myer Road and Fort Road, resembles a trip to an open-air museum. As one of the oldest public parks in Singapore from the time of its opening in the 1930s, this part of Singapore is redolent with memories of the country’s past. After a visit here, I suspect that it may be a matter of time before it may be renamed as Katong Park Open Air Museum.

The writing and historical records provided by the National Heritage Board and the National Parks Board showed the various uses that Katong Park had performed. From coconut plantations, seaside resort, military fortification, World War II factory, live firing target for bombs, leisure center, housing estate and now a heritage park cum museum. It is indeed amazing to see so much happen in one small patch of land.

above: click on image to see larger view of Katong Park's 'exhibits'

Physically, Katong Park possesses characteristics of a museum as well as a park. The museum bits come in the form of a gallery-like setting, photographic displays, information boards and a fenced-up installation of a 3-dimensional hole-in-the-ground artwork. On the other hand, family-friendly features like a playground and a dog run compound, to entertain children and pets respectively, add up to what one would expect to find in a public park. Another park amenity, a fitness corner, comes in handy to provide physical therapy for enthusiastic visitors’ stiff limbs that have stood too long to admire these museum-like exhibits.


There are many photographic art pieces on exhibition at Katong Park. The backers of this “open-air museum” succeeded in providing a useful synopsis of the history with a sense of its culture through the write-ups and explanations. I rate them to be tastefully done in a manner that does not put visitors into an afternoon siesta mood.

Half hidden at a corner of Katong Park is an intriguing archaeological remains of a fort that I like very much. It resembles an installation art piece surrounded by a protective fence. This site contains the southeast bastion of Fort Tanjong Katong (1879 to 1091) that was built during days before the tides were pushed back to East Coast Beach Park through land reclamation.


Visitors who share fictional character Indiana Jones’ archaeological inclinations get to swoon over this hole in a park. Sketches of this fort, one of Singapore’s rare archaeological digs, are pinned to the information stand near the fence. The details provided should offer many hours of discussion for such like-minded individuals.

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