Raffles Hotel Singapore: Colonial Legend, Post-Restoration
After a two-year, £120-million restoration completed in 2019, Raffles Singapore has returned to the standard its legend demands. It remains the most important hotel in Southeast Asia and, quite possibly, the finest colonial hotel in the world.
The Legend
Raffles opened in 1887. Somerset Maugham wrote short stories here. The Singapore Sling was invented here (at the Long Bar, in 1915). The Japanese officer corps requisitioned it during the Occupation. It has outlasted empires and economies and managed to remain exactly and entirely itself.
The Restoration
The 2019 restoration, managed by the Singapore Tourism Board with scholarly seriousness, is exceptional. The restored Long Bar, the Tiffin Room, the Writers Bar, the palm-lined entrance court — everything has been returned to its late-colonial peak, using archival photographs and surviving original materials wherever possible. The result is immaculate without being sterile.
The Suite
Raffles has no rooms — only suites, and they are enormous. Ours, the Courtyard Suite, occupied 95 square metres of the original colonial building: high ceilings, louvred shutters, Peranakan-patterned tiles in the bathroom, a four-poster bed with crisp white linen, a private courtyard garden with rattan furniture and a frangipani tree. The ceilings were 4.5 metres high. The bathroom had a Victorian claw-foot tub positioned beneath a skylight.
The Long Bar and Singapore Sling
The Long Bar is larger than it looks in photographs. Peanut shells are thrown on the floor (this is official policy and has been since 1920). The Singapore Sling — gin, cherry herati, Cointreau, pineapple juice, fresh lime — is served in exactly the form Ngiam Tong Boon invented it in 1915. It is sweet and pink and enormous and utterly correct.
Tiffin Room
The Tiffin Room serves Indian cuisine in the grand dining tradition — silver service, tableside preparations, curries and dals of genuine complexity. The Saturday and Sunday brunch is one of Singapore's great culinary institutions, running to three hours of excess under the colonial ceiling fans.
Verdict
The Raffles restoration is one of the finest hotel renovations of the past decade. The balance between historical fidelity and contemporary comfort has been struck with real intelligence, and the result justifies the mythology.
Best for: First-time Singapore visitors, history enthusiasts, anyone who wants to understand the city through its past Room rate: From £600 per night Tip: Have at least one Singapore Sling in the Long Bar — it is touristy, it is expensive, and it is entirely worth it.
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