Getting Started on the Scent
I was in the construction industry. A period of time occurred also when the economic situation in Singapore wasn’t that good, and then SARS hit Singapore . I found myself with quite abit of free time in my hands, and started reading up on stories from the Internet and other sources. I read and remembered the Hillview Mansion.
By the time I turned off the computer that night, I was determined to devote the rest of my free time to solving this mystery….. the Mystery of the Hillvew Mansion.
The gates of Hillview Mansion, taken in April 2004. Notice the addition of Spikes and the No Trespassing Sign.
Urban legends that surrounds the Hillview Mansion
1. It is owned by a British Military officer
During WW2 the hillview Mansion was previously owned by a British Military officer who was believed to be of a high rank. Thus being able to have a clear view of Bukit Timah area was crucial.. After the war, the British couple returned back to UK….It was also believed that they have the title deed and the URA couldn’t do anything to demolish or whatever…(or maybe it is located too near MINDEF)…
Decades later… someone bought the House and began the renovation works…As u can see……the renovation was done only half-way..( i doubt even half! )…I think something must have happened……But i didn’t know what that could be……
2. The mentally-ill mother stabbed her 3 kids to death
There was a family of 5 living in the House. One day, the father was sent to work overseas, leaving his 3 boys and his wife in the House. Once, the 3 kids were playing hide and seek in the House.
One was the seeker; the other two were to hide. One boy hid behind the cupboard, the other below the bed.
The mother had a bit of a mental illness. She killed the two boys who were supposed to hide. The weapon was a knife. Having stained with blood, she went to the bathroom to clean herself. The poor seeker, having hearing sounds from the bathroom, went into the bathroom. He saw the horrible sight of his mother cleaning the blood-stained knife but before he could run away, he was killed and his body fell into the bath-tub.
3. The mistress of the house accidentally fell off from the balcony and died
It is believed the Mansion was owned by the Cycle & Carriage Chairman. Rumours have it that he bought it for his mistress. The house was still under-going renovations at that time when he 1st bought it. The mistress went up to the roof-top balcony to oversee the renovation works. However tragedy struck and she accidentally fell off from the balcony and died. The renovations stopped after that and the house was abandoned till now.
Following The Scent
Scent 1 – The British Military Officer from WW2
We were told that “the hillview Mansion was previously owned by a British Military officer who was believed to be of a high rank. Thus being able to have a clear view of Bukit Timah area was crucial”.
From history books and internet archives, we knew that Hillview Estate was used by the military during WW2 for a time. But it wasn’t the British that used Hillview Estate, it was the Australian. From various internet sources, I knew that Hillview Estate became for a while to be the Australian HQ, led by General Gordon Bennet, Commanding Officer of the Australian Forces, for meeting up with his various brigade commanders.
Could it be that Hillview House could have been occupied by the Australian during that time? A further check dispel this thought. The HQ in Hillview was located near the Bukit Timah Road Police Station. I asked a most reliable source: My father, a taxi driver since his youth. He told me that the old Bukit Police Station was located at the place where now Beauty World Plaza stands. It was too far away to have been the HQ.
Scent 2 – The Chairman from Cycle and Carriage
Was it possible?
I spent a day in the National Library in Stamford Road . I found an interesting write-up of the past history of Cycle & carriage, from its early day when the Chua family, Chua Cheng Tuan and Chua Cheng Bok started out a business as the Federal stores in High Street, way back in 1899 till 1974, when the book was written.
The book, Wheels of Progress: 75 years of Cycle & Carriage, written by Jennings , Eric in 1975, reveals that in 1963 C&C approved a project to build a car assembly plant in Hillview Avenue , following keen interest by Daimler-Benz London. The plant was operational by July 1965 and produced its 1 st car on Nov that same year.
The plant was known as the Supreme Star Engineering Plant, and it manufactured buses and coaches bodies besides Benzs.
But then in late 1970s, the car assembly business became uncompetitive, and having shut it down, C&C was left with a sizeable land at Hillview Avenue .
In 1990, the company launched, on the site of its former car assembly plant in Singapore , its first residential property development, known as Hillview Villas. (C&C Annual Report, 1990)
From its annual reports from 1990 through 1998, I knew that C&C had dominated the Hillview property market and currently many of the condos in Hillview Estate were developed by C&C. They were:-
(A) Hillview Villas, (B) Meralodge, (C) Montosa, and (D) Merawoods.
Hillview Area in 1990, showing locations of C&C Properties.
So was it possible that during its hey day, having all these land, that the C&C Chairman had purchased for his own use, right at the top of the hill, so that he could oversee his ‘empire’? Based on the C&C Annual Report 1990, the Chairman of C&C then was Mr Thomas Chua Boon Lee. Was he the owner of Hillview House ?