This night-time view of the civic district shows the prominent colonial landmarks found in the area, notably: the Victoria Memorial Hall with its distinctive clock tower (centre foreground); the Old Supreme Court Building with its classical-style dome (left centre); City Hall (centre), completed in 1929 as the Municipal Building before it was renamed in 1951 when Singapore was proclaimed a city by a Royal Charter; and the Padang (right centre), the open field at the centre of the civic district used for social, sporting and civic activities. Visible in the background are the multi-storey structures built as part of the urban renewal plan for the city centre. Prominent new buildings built as part of the renewal plan included: the Colombo Court shopping and office complex (behind Old Supreme Court Building) developed and completed by HDB in 1971; and the 22-storey Peninsula Hotel (behind Colombo Court), erected in 1974 by private developers as part of the Peninsula hotel and shopping complex.
