This picture was most likely taken from the top of the Fullerton Building and shows the old civic quarters of the city centre on the north bank of the Singapore River. Prominent landmarks shown include: Empress Place Building (left foreground), erected in 1865 and initially referred to as Government Offices before it gained its new moniker after the public square in front of it was named after Queen Victoria in 1907; Dalhousie Obelisk (centre foreground), originally erected in 1850 near Dalhousie Pier at a site along the Singapore River where Lord James Andrew, the Marquis of Dalhousie and Governor-General of India (1848-1856), landed when he visited Singapore; Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall (centre), originally known as the Town Hall and the Victoria Memorial Hall when the two structures were completed in 1861 and 1905 respectively; the classical-style Old Supreme Court Building (centre background), built in 1939 at the site of the Grand Hotel de l'Europe; and City Hall (right background), completed in 1929 as the Municipal Building before it was renamed in 1951 when Singapore was proclaimed a city by a Royal Charter.
