Grand Auditorium

This is a photo of the current Zhulin Building which
houses the Grand Auditorium.

In 1965, there was a groundbreaking ceremony officiated by Mr Goh Tjioe Kok, who was the then just-appointed Chairman of the School Management Committee. The Grand Auditorium was made of pure marble and was officially declared open by the then Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew on 21st July 1968. When opened, our Grand Auditorium was the largest auditorium in the Southeast Asia region.

Have you ever wonder why our Grand Auditorium does not have air-conditioning in it?

This is because in olden times, the weather in Singapore is not as hot as it is now. The weather in Singapore used to be at 26°C to 27.5°C. With that weather, we did not need air conditioning nor fans. In 1999, the school went through a major face lift and was completed in 2000 and it was only then were fans introduced to the Grand Auditorium.

Also, the building is so old that people are worried the building might collapse if air-conditions were installed and there may be something special in the Grand Auditorium which cannot be removed or demolished. They were also not supposed to renovate the Grand Auditorium without permission as it was one of the icons in Singapore. Because of its rich history and culture, our Grand Auditorium is fairly well known in Singapore.

In 1998, the third phase of redevelopment for the school started. The redevelopment ended in 2000 and the Grand Auditorium was refurnished with new seats and parquet flooring, increasing the seating capacity to close to 2000.