The former Supreme Court building was built between 1937 to 1939. Located on St. Andrew’s Road, it served as Singapore’s highest court upon completion of its construction until 2005. This building is modelled on the Old Bailey in London and has a copper-green dome resembling that of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. It is built in the Neoclassical style with intricate Corinthian columns and a sculpture of the Allegory of Justice within its tympanum, both of which are the work of Italian sculptor Cavaliere Rudolfo Nolli. Also on the building’s façade is a frieze carved with scenes of early Singapore, designed by George T. Squires. The main hall and cornices of the former Supreme Court have a gypsum plaster finish, the work of Chinese craftsmen who had learnt European plastering techniques in Shanghai and applied them in Singapore after fleeing here as a result of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). This photograph of the building was taken in the 1940s just before the Japanese occupied Singapore.The former Supreme Court and the former City Hall beside it are now the National Gallery Singapore, opened in 2015.
