This picture shows a close-up view of the civic district area along North Boat Quay on the north bank of the Singapore River. Prominent colonial landmarks shown include: the Coleman Bridge (left foreground) that was built in 1886 to link Hill Street on the north bank with New Bridge Road on the south bank; the Elgin Bridge (right foreground) that was constructed in 1929 to connect North and South Bridge Roads; the Old Supreme Court Building with its distinctive dome (right foreground), built in 1939 at the site of the Grand Hotel de l'Europe (centre); and the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall (right centre), originally known as the Town Hall and the Victoria Memorial Hall when the two structures were completed in 1861 and 1905 respectively. Docked along the banks of the Singapore River are the ‘twakow’ lighter vessels.The picture also shows the new multi-storey structures built as part of the government urban renewal plans for the city centre. Prominent new buildings added to the civic district skyline included: the Colombo Court shopping and office complex (behind Old Supreme Court Building) developed and completed by the Housing and Development Board in 1971; the 31-storey High Street Centre (centre) residential, office and shopping complex, which was completed in 1974; the 22-storey Peninsula Hotel (left centre), erected in 1974 by private developers as part of the Peninsula hotel and shopping complex; and the 32-storey Peninsula Plaza (next to Peninsula Hotel), an office and shopping complex opened in late 1979. The structure straddling the bay in the distance is the Benjamin Sheares Bridge (right background), which was completed in 1981 as part of the East Coast Parkway Express.
