At the southern tip of mainland Singapore is a deep harbour first noticed by Sir William Farquhar in 1819. Later referred to simply as New Harbour, major development of the area started in the 1850s when the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) established operations there. In 1900, the strategically important harbour was renamed Keppel Harbour in honour of Admiral Henry Keppel, a British naval officer with strong ties to Singapore. The Port of Singapore Authority’s Keppel Terminal began operations next to the harbour in 1991 and has since become one of the world’s busiest container terminals.In the early 1970s, a saucer-shaped revolving restaurant was constructed atop the Prima Floor Mills Building (centre) situated along Keppel Road. The restaurant, eventually known as Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant, only opened in the late 1970s due to construction delays. It was then one of only three such revolving restaurants in Singapore, the others being found at Mandarin Hotel and Change Alley Aerial Plaza respectively. By completing one revolution every hour, the 250-seater restaurant offered diners panoramic views of Keppel Harbour and the distant city skyline.
