Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church
Address
235 Telok Ayer Street, Singapore 068656
Opening Hours
Daily
Contact
Website
Nearest MRT
Telok Ayer MRT Station
Introduction
Telok Ayer Church ranks as the oldest among Methodist Chinese speaking churches. Deep in the heart of the old Chinese settlement, the church was the base from which the Methodist pioneer missionary, Dr. Benjamin West, reached out to the migrated Chinese. Amazingly, after so many years, the church building has kept to the original design with little alteration to the exterior look. The basic design is western: a rectangular main body sitting on arch colonnades. But the architecture added an open pavilion on the roof at the front of the building. The roof of the pavilion is carved in the traditional Chinese manner. By this addition, the basically Roman styled building is given a Chineseness that will speak to the migrant Chinese and be identified with them.
Because of the history and uniqueness of the Church building, on 23 March 1989, the government announced that Telok Ayer Church would be preserved as a National Monument. In the following year, in response to the Government's preservation as National Monument, the Church embarked on a major extension and renovation work to restore the Church building to its original grandeur. Started in October 1993, the preservation and conservation project ended in August 1995 at a total cost of $3M.
