The Fullerton Waterboat House, originally known as the Water House, was formerly a historic water supply house used to supply fresh water to incoming ships in Singapore. The former Water House was gazetted for conservation in 2002 and has since reopened as a restaurant.
History
as a Straits Settlements trading port in 1819. In 1820, Captain William Lawrence Flint, the brother-in-law to Sir Stamford Raffles, was appointed as the first Master Attendant with an office at the mouth of the Singapore River to control shipping. In 1852, the harbour was moved to Keppel and the office had since been demolished. In 1919, a three-storey Water House was completed on the former site of the Master Attendant's office, the building was an Art Deco building designed by Swan & Maclaren. The Water House also included a basement which was visible from the sea. It was built to supply fresh water to incoming ships in Singapore. The Water House was later taken over in 1960 by the Port of Singapore Authority. It continued to supply fresh water to incoming vessels until 1990.
Restoration
The Waterboat House was gazetted on 21 March 2002 for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and opened for tender, which was won by Sino Group. After which the renovation of the former Water House building would start soon afterwards. Following the renovation in 2003, the Waterboat House, presently known as The Fullerton Waterboat House, was later used as a restaurant. A souvenir shop was opened on its newly installed glass annexe of the building's basement of the building. Later on September 2003, The French restaurantLe Saint Julien by Chef Sir Julien Bompard was opened on the ground floor. In 2005, the Waterboat House was awarded the Architectural Heritage Award by the Urban Redevelopment Authority for the restoration works done by MINKTan Architects, which included recovery of the original grey Shanghai Plaster finish and the addition of a new glass annexe. In January 2010, the European restaurant simply named the Boathouse with the extension of a rooftop bar Prelude were opened on the third floor and rooftop of the building respectively. On 25 January 2013, the Le Saint Julien Restaurant was closed and since moved to a new premise known as Scotts 27 from September 2013 onwards. The American coffee company Starbucks soon took over the space of the former French restaurant on the ground floor of the building and opened its 100th Singapore store on 14 February 2014, which hired six clients from the Autism Resource Centre. In 2015, the Boathouse restaurant and the Prelude rooftop bar were taken over by the new management team and re-branded as 1919 Waterboat House of the building's same namesake and its built year and the rooftop bar so named as The Rooftop respectively, had officially re-opened on 19 November 2015. On 2 February 2020, the Starbucks restaurant was closed due to its end of lease, and clarified that the closure was unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic.
