This is a northward view of the General Post Office building on the right with the protruding portico, sitting immediately beside the Exchange building at the extreme right of the photograph. By the time this photograph was taken, Fort Fullerton had been demolished because of its proximity to the commercial town where merchant godowns were located. There were concerns that in the event of an attack that the godowns and their contents would be compromised. In 1876, the government leased the site of the fort to the Chamber of Commerce and the Singapore Exchange for 99 years for the construction of a building for both organisations and the Singapore Club. The Singapore Club was built by the Superintendent of Public Works, William Daniel Bayliss, and opened on 29 September 1879. The club, which was established in 1862, admitted only the top echelon of Singapore’s mercantile community and government officials. The General Post Office moved to this area in 1873 from its original site near the Town Hall, and both the Post Office and the Singapore Club made way for the Fullerton Building (now the Fullerton Hotel) in 1928.
