Singapore has a reputation for being ultra modern with cutting edge architecture and skyscrapers dominating the cityscape. Whilst this reputation is much deserved, there is also another side to Singapore and it is easy to find examples of earlier architectural splendour. Not least amongst these is the former Majestic Theatre on Eu Tong Sen Street in the Chinatown district.
Once Chinatown's most significant building, the Majestic still has an imposing presence on this busy street. The exterior is an interesting mix of Chinese and art deco features. Brightly coloured ceramic tiles frame the central element of the facade which is decorated with mosaic representations of figures from Chinese operas, Chinese characters, dragons and flowers. The metalwork on the glazing is also interesting and is similar in design to traditional Chinese screens.
The theatre was commissioned and paid for by Eu Tong Sen, a philanthropist and owner of rubber plantations and tin mines. Originally designed as an opera house, the theatre was a gift for one of his wives, a Cantonese opera singer. Not only did he pay for the theatre, he also formed an opera troupe for her and bought the rest of the street, naming it after himself. Sen engaged Swan and McLaren, the architects responsible for the Raffles Hotel to design his theatre. Work on the 1,194 seat theatre was completed in 1928 when the building opened under the name Tien Yien Moh Toi, or the Tin Yin Dance Stage. Cantonese operas were performed there until 1938 when the building was converted to a cinema and renamed the Queen's. This lasted until 1942 when the Japanese occupiers seized the building, renamed it the Tia Hwa Opera House and used it to screen propaganda films.
In 1945, the Majestic Film Company took over the building, gave it its name and commenced screening blockbuster Cantonese films and although ownership was to change again in later years, it continued to operate as a cinema until closure in 1998. Today the Majestic is used as a retail market but the grandeur of the facade makes it easy to imagine how it must have been for opera fans arriving at the theatre in the 1930's.