The former Maritime House building at Cantonment Road is currently undergoing demolition. After the demolition, a new Maritime House will be developed by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA). It is expected to be ready by late 2024.

Maritime House, completed in 1984, was used as a residential hotel for local and foreign seafarers transiting through Singapore. There were several such exclusive hotels in Singapore, one of the more well-known ones was Anson Road’s Connell House that lasted between 1925 and 1971. The former Union Building at Collyer Quay, built in 1924, was also called Maritime House.

At 15 storey tall, Maritime House consisted of offices (1st to 4th floor) and service apartments (5th to 12th floor). In September 1984, the National Maritime Board (NMB) shifted their office to Maritime House, where its original office at South Quay was taken over by the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) for port expansion. NMB conducted harbour craft operations and manning courses and examinations for helmsmen, steersmen and engine drivers working at the ports. NMB would become part of MPA in 1996.

The building’s other past prominent tenants included Henry Noon & Company, a shipping conferences secretariat and representative for Straits Australia Conference, Straits New Zealand Conference and East Asia Rate Agreement, and Maritime Medical, a clinic that provided vaccination, evacuation and other medical services for the maritime industry. Singapore Maritime Foundation and Singapore Mariner’s Club were also housed at Maritime House.

Perhaps its most well-known tenant was Mariners’ Corner, a steakhouse that was one of Maritime House’s earliest and long-lasting tenants. Opened in December 1984, the restaurant was helmed by managers Raymond Say, Steven Say and Bermuda Say, who was also the chef. They were scions of the Say family that started Jack’s Place back in the sixties. Before the establishment of Mariners’ Corner, all three had worked for the family business at various Jack’s Place outlets. This explained the similarity of the many Hainanese Western food dishes between the two restaurants.

The early Hainanese immigrants arrived at Singapore from China and many of them worked as cooks and domestic helpers in British households and clubs. Some served at the British Army Officer’s Mess and private clubs such as Tanglin Club and the Sailing Club. Over the years, a number of Hainanese picked up excellent cooking skills, combining Western cuisine with Hainanese style and flavours.

To differentiate from Jack’s Place, Mariners’ Corner improvised with new dish ideas, such as the sambal steak served on a hotplate, which proved to be popular. They also offered a small selection of local delights such as laksa, mee siam and nasi lemak. The food were served by waitresses dressed in SIA-styled uniforms, another innovative move by the air-conditioned restaurant in the eighties.

Newspapers and magazines often recommended its signature sambal steak, Dutch garlic steak and Fisherman’s Catch, made up of fish, prawns, squids and scallops, to the food lovers. The restaurant also came up with special festival dishes for Christmas and Valentine’s Days.

In the eighties, NMB regularly organised New Year dinner and dance events, held at Mariners’ Corner, for the seamen.

For more than 30 years, the Mariners’ Corner had retained its old school charm of predominately wooden interior decor and traditional checkered table clothes. The steakhouse’s menu of seafood and Hainanese-Western dishes also stayed largely the same. Seafarers from the club and executives from nearby offices in Tanjong Pagar had always been the main supporters of its business.

Maritime House’s tenants, including Mariners’ Corner, were inevitably affected when the news of the building’s redevelopment plan was announced in April 2021. In late 2021, Mariners’ Corner shifted to Sunset Way after more than three decades at Cantonment Road. Many of its former patrons still miss its former restaurant. The old place may be gone but the fond memories remain.

Published: 14 July 2023