Tanjong Katong Fort

Still continue my venture into the unknown last Mon as part of my vacation plan. This time is East Coast -- no big deal actually, but I'm exploring Area A and B, those ulu part of East Coast without much human activities. In fact, that very end of Area A (probably also the very end of East Coast) really resemble the jungle of Sumatra (See below. Some where near the END is a tower like structure).

Stumble upon a signboard towards the END, pointing to Katong Park. It suddenly dawned on me that there's a forgotten fort down there being excavated some years ago (later I realised it's excavated in 2005 after going thro my newspaper clippings). There's an underpass linking East Coast to Katong Park, and then the next thing I know I found myself in that park. It's hardly a park really, looks more like a little playground for kids at one corner and a place to walk your dog at another corner, plus some ah pek loitering around at the benches. Is this the place I'm looking for? Looks like an ordinary little park (or some patches of grass) at the middle of some private residence. Then I notice a stone structure fenced off at one corner -- it looks like some longkang. But NO! It's a part of that forgotten British fort! (Seriously, no one would have notice that thing at all, espaecially there's water inside, a result of the rain earlier. It looks really like a longkang that needs to be fenced off). A signboard nearby clearly indicate this is the remain of Tanjong Katong Fort, built by the British in 1879 and abandoned in 1901. Excavation is conducted in 2004 and 2005. The stone structure uncovered here for public viewing is the south-east bastion of the fort. It says there's glass sherds embedded in the escarps to prevent intruder, but don't see any here. Only the pathetic sight of a fort.

Digging through my old newspaper clippings and here's the answer: the fort is excavated in 2005, but because no one has any plan on what to do with the site and so they decide to bury the rest of the structure again -- just like what the Bri do to the fort when they decide that this white elephant no longer has any uses (Initially they decide to use this as a defence against their potential Russian and French enemy, but later realise the threat is no longer there, and the fort is understaffed and too ulu -- they had bring in water and other neccessities from the city by boat. Finding it irritating, the Bri just dump it). Only the remains of the bastion is kept in place, the only reminder of that excavation (which probably is forgotten by itself). 3 years had passed, and it seems still no one have any idea what to do with that place...

PS: Enter this website for a detail account of the fort and its excavation

http://www.seaarchaeology.com/