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Rex Cinema, Singapore

Nestled adjacent to Ellison building along Mackenzie Road, surrounded by major road, Bukit Timah Road and secondary roads Mackenzie and Selegie Road, lies Singapore’s one and only stand-alone cinema, the Rex Theater, or what we called it today, Rex Cinema.

Rex Cinema, a simplified Art Decor style building has numerous reincarnations in terms of space and functions in relation to the ever changing surrounding landscape of Singapore. It started out as a cinema, a concert venue, then an ice skating rink, into a church, a disco and back to being a cinema again. This paper will discuss and elaborate about the historic and current programmatic community transformation around the district, on how the people and space play a part to Rex Cinema. It is one of a socio-historical significance and it is no doubt crucial to conserve one of the last few stand-alone theater space in Singapore. This theater space could be used to build on Singapore’s National Identity.

The battle of Singapore took place on 8th – 15th February 1942 and Singapore fell to her knees on 15 February 1942. The plot of land where the present Rex Cinema is sitting today was Singapore Boxing Stadium constructed in 1924 until 1946. It introduced boxing matches made up of worldwide boxers. Until World War II (1942-1945), it still remained as a significant element of Singapore’s Boxing Scene. Back then, the population around Rex Cinema area were congregated with Indians, Europeans and Jews in conjunction with Ellison Building. The two-storey Ellison building is alongside the present Rex Cinema. It was a landmark in Serangoon area. In 1920s, a number of prominent Europeans patronised the Colonial Bar. While in 1940s, the Indians were intrigued by the two earliest vegetarian restaurants, Krishna Vilas and Ananda Bhavan.

Rex Cinema first opened its doors in 1946 by the Malayan Theatre Ltd. It filmed a spectrum of multi-genre, multi-racial films for over three decades. This was due to the congregation of Indians, Europeans and Jews in the area. Therefore, the cinema was catering films to the people from different social backgrounds, race and religion. One has to know why there was a cultural shift in terms of different ethnicity. This was due to the evolving landscapes and township around Rex Cinema. From Europeans before and after the Japanese occupation and to a majority of Indian communities in the 20th century, till today.

During the 18th century, Serangoon Road was the earliest road to be laid across Singapore island. The road was laid by Indian convicts whom were brought in by the British for their labour. Serangoon district were manifested with abundance of economic opportunities, such as, brick factory, cattle rearing, road rolling by bullocks, which drew numerous Indian settlers in the area.