Located just off the southern coast of Singapore, Sentosa island was an important base used by the British for the defence of the port of Singapore from 1874, which was the year when work began on the building of a series of forts on the island. The most notable of these forts was Fort Siloso, which has been preserved as a tourist attraction. Then known as Pulau Blakang Mati, a military garrison was permanently stationed on the island to man the various gun emplacements. Various facilities were built for the troops stationed on the island, including a hospital building. This two-storey colonial structure was later used to house the Singapore Wax Museum when the island was converted into a tourist destination in the 1970s. A main attraction of the pioneering museum was the Surrender Chambers, which depicted a scene from the British surrender to the Japanese in 1942. Today, the renovated building houses the Images of Singapore attraction, a revamped version of the wax exhibits of earlier years.
