Sea View Hotel

[2] Amenities included a shooting gallery adjacent to the hotel and tennis courts, as well as two bathing pagars that were the "largest along the coast" at their completion.

However, it also stated that the hotel was "always cool", an "ideal spot on a moonlit night" and featured "good" service and food.

[7] The hotel also had a sea swimming pool surrounded by reinforced barriers to prevent sharks from entering.

The guide wrote that the hotel was "delightful", recommending it to "all except those whose time in Singapore is limited and who wish to be closer to the shops and offices.

[10] According to a November article in The Singapore Free Press wrote that the hotel offered a "unique" location and "excellent" food.

"[5] The seaside colonial bungalow in which the Sea View Hotel was housed was owned by businessman and philanthropist Sir Manasseh Meyer.

[1] The Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertiser praised de Souza for converting the "dreary, barn-like building" into a "first-class hotel."

[3] A month later, The Straits Times reported that de Souza had been organising various events at the hotel that have "had for their object the entertaining of visitors" since its opening.

These included a "Canoe regatta", a "Venetian night" and an event on 14 July celebrating French Independence Day.

An article in the Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle wrote that, with the extension, the hotel was "likely to be an increasingly popular Sunday to Monday resort."

[21] In January 1926, Peate was transferred to the Raffles Hotel, after which he was replaced by Frank Deason, previously the secretary to the Singapore Cricket Club.

[22] In February 1927, it was announced that the hotel would undergo significant renovations, which were to be completed in around eight months, adding "very considerably to the amenities of this popular seaside rendezvous.

The whole sea frontage, which then included the dining and dancing hall and lounge, was to be converted into guest rooms with verandahs, while the kitchens at the rear were to be moved behind the bathing pagar, with the space being repurposed as stores.

A new building, designed by Swan & Maclaren Architects, was also to be erected in between the sea and bathing pagar and the lawn and open-air cinema.

[23] In 1931, the executors of the estate of Manasseh Meyer, who had died in the previous year, took over the hotel on the bankruptcy of the Sarkies Brothers.

[31] It was then occupied by the Recovery of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees, which used the hotel as a forces transit camp.

It was "especially popular with clients who had recently recovered from illness and were seeking the tranquillity of an idyllic seaside resort surrounded by coconut trees to rest and recuperate."

[8] The "spacious and airy" ballroom hosted "many popular dances and balls, many of them held to raise money for charity.

The Singapore Workers' Union, which represented the strikers, initially demanded the minimum basic wage at the hotel be increased to $106.

The union later accepted the offer of an increase of the minimum basic wage to $92, with the employees returning to work on 26 September.

The hotel's management was told by the union to settle the claims by 8 November or face "further industrial action".

The employees left at 2 p.m., leaving just the assistant manager, a secretary and Lim, who advised over 30 guests to find alternative accommodations, to operate the hotel.

By then, there were still 21 guests staying at the hotel, with Lim claiming to have done "most of the work, including cooking" as the employees went on strike.

However, Wee claimed that hotel management did not individually inform the workers of the termination and that they had only sent a letter to the union.

In August, the 359,600 sqft property had been put up for sale, a few years before it lost its seafront as a result of the East Coast Reclamation Project.