Fun for Free Singapore – Police Heritage Centre

“Singapore is SO boring!”

“There’s nothing to do for kids here!”

“Singapore is SO expensive!”

I’m sure these are common gripes you have either made or heard about Singapore. The truth is, there are plenty of wonderfully entertaining places scattered all over the island. And many which are FREE! In conjunction with National Day, my dear friend the Gingerbread Mum started a blog train on FUN FOR FREE SG (Singapore, lah) places, so today is my turn to bring you a fun for free place. Read on, and then head over to the FUN FOR FREE page to see MORE exciting fun (and free, if you didn’t already get the concept) places – all 31 of them!

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Source: Singapore Police Force

As part of Children’s Season 2014, we booked a tour of the Singapore Police Force’s Police Heritage Centre, which is tucked away in a little corner of the Police Headquarters at Irrawady Road, Novena.

The Police Heritage Centre is open to members of the public but you need to make a booking and can’t just walk in like other museums. You have to bring identification of everyone above 7 years old (because younger than that they don’t have student pass right?) and exchange them for visitor passes. And there are lots of police regulars on their way to police business. That didn’t seem to scare the boys into behaving themselves (darn).

“How can I help you ma’am?”

We arrived and started with trying on some uniforms. Only Mittens was sporting to do so, and the younger two were only interested in showing me their butt. Oh the joys of motherhood. Because this tour was designed for kids, the guide was quite good at engaging the (older) kids and making it more interactive. It’s not easy to make history come alive and be more relevant for children, so it was definitely better having a guide than if we had gone through the centre ourselves.

Luckily I haven’t been stopped by one of these guys on the road! (Well if he wants to commend me for being a courteous driver, I won’t mind!)

Mittens quite enjoyed himself learning about the history and various aspects of the police uniform, batons, guns and all. They display historic as well as modern day equipment.

Source: SPF Facebook

There is plenty of interesting history, including a display on the racial riots, which Mittens said he had learnt about in school (which surprised and impressed me). They showed many things police that have changed over the years – the uniforms, the various police landmarks , such as the now Red Dot Museum (my mum said they used to have to take their driving license test from there!), and the building with the colourful windows that is now used by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA). They also showed the various police vehicles including the “ang chia” (literally, red car), which was used for the riots.

Rioters. Literally, right??

The centre is pretty new-ish that incorporates installations with technology, making it more relevant to modern day policing. It is very interesting, but not so fun for the younger ones, so I think the minimum age to really appreciate the centre would be 5 or 6 years old.

 

A few of our museums (NMS, Peranakan, etc) are incorporating technology into their installations, and although this is a little creepy, it illustrated the old kampung “neighbourhood police post”. See that long banana leaf thing? It was used to beat out fires if necessary!

This is a traffic light. As in the man manually controls it! Behind him on those white screens are some videos of I think it was the Japanese occupation and WWII. I ushered the kids quickly past it, as it was a little graphic. Photo source: Singapore Police Force.

The centre is semi-stroller friendly there is one small area that you can only access by stairs but I think it wouldn’t be a problem to leave the pram by the side and visit the area. It’d be shocking if someone stole your stroller at the police headquarters right?? There is no parking on the premises, and you can park at Ren Ci but we parked at the Novena Mount Elizabeth Hospital. Or, it’s a short walk from the Novena MRT station.

You can find more photos from SPF themselves on Google+ here.

 

Police Heritage Centre
Police Headquarters
New Phoenix Park
28 Irrawaddy Road
Singapore 329560
T: 64782123
Website

Opening hours:
Tuesdays to Fridays 10am to 530pm
Saturdays 10am to 1pm
Mondays, Sundays and Public Holidays CLOSED.

“Admission is free but visits are by appointment only. Group visits of 30 persons or less are encouraged for an optimal experience. A complete tour of the centre takes about one and a half hours.”

 

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Tomorrow, Mummy PC will be bringing you back to the nature, into our very own forested area to experience the real beauty of a nature trail, which she thinks it suits family with young children. PC is an ordinary mother of two girls, blogs and digi-scrapbooks at scrapmumloft. While juggling a job outside, she manages a 90sqm dwelling and its occupants exhaustedly. Often fight with time and produce what-she-thinks-best outcome, that includes huffing and puffing to catch a bus or a train after work to reach the girls’ student care/childcare and receives their grins. She is one blessed mum!

Check out her blog at scrapmumloft.

 

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And here are the 30 other fun for free places on the blog train!

1 Aug: Tiong Bahru Park by Gingerbreadmum
2 Aug: Queenstown Heritage Trail by Princess Dana Diaries
3 Aug: Jurong Regional Library by Finally Mama
4 Aug: Singapore Maritime Gallery by Peipei Haohao
5 Aug: Singapore Philatelic Museum by Kids R Simple
6 Aug: Sculptures of Singapore by Gingerbreadmum
7 Aug: Fire Station by The Js Arena
8 Aug: Esplanade + Merlion by Prayerfull Mum
9 Aug: Bukit Batok Nature Park by Meeningfully
10 Aug: Lower Pierce Reservoir Park by The Kam Family
11 Aug: I12 Katong – water playground by Universal Scribbles
12 Aug: IMM by Mad Psych Mum
13 Aug: Tampines 1 Water Playground by Amazingly Still
14 Aug: Sengkang Riverside Park by Itchy Finger Snap
15 Aug: East Coast Park by Toddly Mummy
16 Aug: Sembawang Shopping Centre Playground by Joey Craftworkz
17 Aug: Animal resort by Raising Faith
18 Aug: Botanic Gardens by Mum’s The Word
19 Aug: Police Heritage Centre by Mummy Ed (THAT’S ME!!!!)
20 Aug: Venus Loop, MacRitchie by Scrap Mum Loft
21 Aug: Road Safety Park by Miracule
22 Aug: Marina Barrage by J Babies
23 Aug: Gardens By The Bay, Children’s Garden by Finally Mama
24 Aug: Changi Airport T3 by Mother Kao
25 Aug: Pockets of Nature by Mum in the Making
26 Aug: Changi Airport T1 by Growing with the Tans
27 Aug: Pasir Ris Park by Ingspirations
28 Aug: Gardens by the Bay Supertree Grove by My Lil Bookworm
29 Aug: Vivocity Play Area by Amazingly Still
30 Aug: Punggol Promenade + Punggol Waterway by Chubby Anecdotes
31 Aug: Westgate Wonderland by Xavvylicious