Upon his retirement and departure back to England in 1857, his house at Tyersall was put on sale by Boustead & Co. in March 1857 and would later be bought over by Wan Abu Bakar in 1860.

Wong had already built many of Johor's heritage buildings prior to his work assignment in Singapore and was a close friend to Sultanah Fatimah who shared the same common surname and dialect.

Howarth Erskine[4] carried out most of the ironwork,[5][6] with some portions of the work done by H.C. Hogan, and the upholstering of furniture and equipments was provided by John Little & Co. Sultana Fatimah did not live to see the completion of the palace as she had died on 25 February 1891.

The installation of electricity was hailed by the Free Press as indicative of an improvement of "domestic civilization, and a marked step in the industrial progress of the Colony."

On 10 December 1892 at the palace, the Sultan received the First Class of the First Grade of the Order of the Double Dragon by the Guangxu Emperor, as conveyed by the consul general in Singapore of his care, sympathy and kindness for permitting the Chinese to settle in Johor.

The Archduke and Prince Franz Ferdinand and his party was shown various rooms and items of the palace, before proceeding on the Sultan's carriages towards the direction of Tanjong Pagar.

[11][12] On 24 February 1894, the Sultan held a dinner reception with the 14th governor of the Straits Settlements Sir Charles Mitchell, attended by about eighty guests.

[13][14] On 14 January 1895 in the evening, the Sultan's Ball was held at the palace's ballroom, attended by Governor Sir Charles Mitchell and his wife Lady Eliza Weldon, several military and government officials.

[20] Sultan Abu Bakar died of pneumonia in South Kensington, London, on 4 June 1895,[21] it was at the palace that his son Tunku Ibrahim Al-Marhum received the telegram from Dato Sri Amar DiRaja Abdul Rahman Andak on the same day that informed of his father's death.

[23] On 9 December 1896, Spanish Consul to the Straits Settlements Guillermo Leyra and his officers paid a private visit to the Sultan of Johor in his palace.

[29][30][31][32] The last noted reception at the palace was held by Sultana Maimunah on 28 April 1904 in the afternoon attended by Datos, Johor Government officials and a crowd of residents in honour of four Johor princes (Sultan's sons) and other four sons of the Malay high officials, before they were sent off from Tyersall on automobiles at 6.30 pm to the P & O Wharf at Keppel Harbour to board the steamer SS Bengal, which left on the morning of the following day bound for England, where they would attend school there.

[49] The site that was once the location of demolished Istana Tyersall, including its surrounding grounds, had since allowed by the Sultan to be used by the Indian Army to be stationed and converted as a military camp area in 1939.